Hey Krad, do you have any advice for starting a website like yours? I love the idea of starting a website to host my fandom and personal portfolio, and maybe get back a piece of the old internet. How did you put yours together?
hey there! great question, and the good news is there's a lot of ways to go about it.
the bad news is, there's a lot of ways to go about it.
to simplify things, there's kind of ... three "tiers" to the back-end of how to create a website. let's break it down below.
high ease, low customization. (wix, weebly, squarespace, etc. you pay a company + they give you a bunch of themes and pre-made pages for you to drop images in.) can have one of these online in 2-3 hours, but it often "feels" templated and sterile.
medium ease, medium customization. (making a theme from scrach with tumblr's custom code editor, hybrid sites with some pages in pure code, some with wordpress grafted onto some subdomains). this is what i'd classify my site as, as I use wordpress for my logs for brainless updating. while i'm confident coding single/static pages, i just don't have the time or brainwidth right now to make a complex archiving system.
low ease, high customization. (neocities, pure html/css/coding). the downsides to this is oftentimes these sites are not phone-friendly, and there's a steep learning curve. but for the quintessential "old internet" experience, by far the best route to take. there's also something really empowering about learning why things work the way they do.)
some of this can be super intimidating if you're starting from 0 coding knowledge; there's no shame in switching to a templating software. hell i started with weebly and dicking around in tumblr's custom code template for a solid 5 years before making my current site, and that was with a previous 5 years of sketchy html experience) you're not gonna learn everything overnight.
but! as long as you keep a curious and inquisitive mind, you can't go wrong.
one last encouragement: there's kind of a mini renaissance with custom sites right now, especially in neocities circles, so you're kinda in luck in that there's more resources than ever. i love scumsuck's guides, and fancoders (the community) is also all over this too.
good luck!
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do you know any good places to put webcomics? is it best to just make your own website for them? I'm not really into sites like webtoon or whatever...
If you don't want much setup, you can make a Tumblr and use the Simple Webcomic Theme (or any other theme, as long as you set it so the blog shows 1 post per page for long form serialised work, or in a full-size grid for funny comics).
There are still other alternative platforms like Comics Fury, Comics Gator and Drunk Duck, those have been around before Webtoons.
If you are comfortable with HTML, CSS or generally learning/playing around with independent website setup, then you can go to Neocities or Wordpress.
I use Wordpress (the dot org) for my personal website, The World in Deeper Inspection webcomic and the Comics Devices library, but that's a system that's worked with me and my brain for 11 years now.
Neocities allows you total freedom, but you really have to be comfortable with learning since this is old-school website building. There's a webcomic template though.
Squarespace or Wix is fine if you use their blog system.
I don't recommend Carrd for webcomics! I just don't think the infrastructure (one-page site) is flexible enough for yourself or your readership.
My general opinion is that I'll always recommend having your webcomic in a place that you can control, or at the least, easily export to another platform. I've been through so many eras of platforms rising and falling. And exporting all the posts/art you upload on that one dying platform only is an ordeal that you would want to avoid (ask me, who's working on manually transferring stuff from Twitter and Deviantart to my personal website OTL)
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I've made a google doc collection of 150 useful design and art resources! Whether youre just starting commissions or want to make your workflow more streamlined, I recommend checking it out
The full list is below the read more, but I suggest looking at the google doc as well sincce it will be updated more often.
This list was created by @MagicalMeily
I encourage you to share this list with other designers, artists, or even students via this tumblr post, the google doc, or my tweet. Links marked as ‘Free/Paid’ usually means the free version has a lot of features anyway and the paid just has some extra templates or storage space. *Disclaimer - I haven’t used all of these services myself, so please let me know if anything dodgy slipped through the cracks, or if you have any others I should add.
I do not support NFTs or AI Art generators, so hopefully you won’t find any listed. Always double check commercial usage rights
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COMMISSION SETUP
Collection of designers rates - Graphic Design Rates Master Sheet
TOS Example, Free to use (by kawa_kunn) - Twitter / kawa-kun.art
Tiktok walkthrough of a commission TOS form - artofthecatt
Longer Video of commission TOS form - How to Create a Commission Form
Commission Advice (by AerlyaGraphics) - Aerlya Graphics
Merchandise/printing services (by @sunshinehoney6) - Merchandise Resources
COMMISSION TRACKERS/MANAGEMENT
(Free/Paid) Clients can see your progress - Trello
(Free/Paid) Single user or collaborative project tracker - Notion
(Free) General Commission Management - Commiss.io
TEAM DESIGN/COLLABORATION
(Free/Paid) - Zeplin
(Free/Paid) - Notion
(Free/Paid) - Figma
(Free for Individuals) - Box
(Paid) - Sketch
FILE SHARING
(Free) - Google Drive
(Free/Paid) - WeTransfer
(Free/Paid) - Jumpshare
(Free for individuals) - Box
(Free) - Blindsend
MOODBOARDS
Design Inspiration
Image search for inspiration - Muzli Search
Makes and automatically sets out moodboards - Visualist
DESIGN PROGRAMS
2d Animation (Free/Paid) - Cavalry
Graphics, Photo editing, Publishing (One -off payment) - Affinity
Graphics, Audio, Video (Free, Browser) - Artboard Studio
Graphics (Free) - Inkscape
Graphics/Layout (Free/Paid, Browser) - Canva
Graphics, Photo Editing (Free, Browser. Can open Adobe files) - Photopea
Vector making (Free, Browser) - Vectr
Vector making (Free, Browser) - Vector Ink
Wireframing (Free, Browser) - Moqups App
GENERAL HELPFUL TOOLS/PROGRAMS
Bulk file renamer - Bulk Rename Utility
Bulk image resizer - ImageResizer
File Converters - FreeConvert
Image Upscaler - Waifu2x
Floating view of reference images - PureRef
Timezone converter - World Time Buddy
Twitter image crop guide by @dripchirp - Twitter Crop Guide
Learning how to use the pen tool - The Bézier Game
PORTFOLIO HOSTING/WEBSITE MAKERS
Portfolio hosting (Free) - Foriio
Portfolio hosting (Free with Adobe Subscription) - Adobe Portfolio
Portfolio hosting (Paid) - Portfoliobox
Website builder (Free) - Carrd
Website builder (Free) - Google Sites
Website builder (Free) - Weebly
Website builder (Free) - Wix
Website builder (Paid) - Squarespace
Make a blog you can use as a folio - Tumblr
(Posts Selective Folios) - Bestfolios
(Posts Selective Folios) - PFolios
(Posts Selective Folios) - Pafolios
(Posts Selective showreels) - Showreelz
LINK AGGREGATORS
(Free) Linktree
(Free) Lnk.Bio
(Paid/Free) Later
(Free) Solo.to
(Free) Campsite.bio
DESIGN MARKETPLACES
BOOTH
Gumroad
Ko-fi Shop
COLOUR
Various colour palette tools - Adobe Color
Colour palette search and generator - Coolors
Colour palette generator - Color Space
Colour converter, make colour palettes - RGB.to
Displays big brands colour schemes - BrandColors
ACCESSIBILITY
General design accessibility tips - Lemonly Infographics
Font accessibility tips - UXdesign.cc
Accessible colour combination generator 1 - Accessible color palette builder
Accessible colour combination generator 2 - Color Safe
FONTS FOR DOWNLOAD
Google Fonts
Adobe Fonts
Pixel Surplus
Fontesk
Befonts
Behance
Gumroad
Free Japanese Fonts
BOOTH
TYPE TOOLS
Displays inputted text in fonts installed on your computer - Wordmark
Identifies fonts on a web page - Fonts Ninja
Typography Resources - Typewolf
Font Pairing Help - Fontjoy
Examples of fonts in context - Fonts In Use
Font Management - FontBase
MOCKUPS
Mockup World
Mr.Mockup
Unblast
ls.graphics
Anthonyboyd.graphics
Anagram Design
DesignHooks
Mockups-Design
STOCK PHOTOS/TEXTURES
Pexels
Unsplash
Barnimages
LostAndTaken
Freepik
Rawpixel
PATTERNS
Pattern Inspiration - Pattern Collection
Customisable Repeating SVG Patterns - Pattern Monster
Seamless background pattern maker - Patternico
Mesh Gradient Maker - Mesh Gradient
Make and print your own grids - Gridzzly.com
Downloadable Patterns - Subtle Patterns
ILLUSTRATION LIBRARIES
Toools Design
Irasutoya / いらすとや
Open Peeps
Humaaans
Open Doodles
ICON LIBRARIES
Paid/Free - Streamline Icons
Paid/Free - Flaticon
INSPIRATION GATHERING
abdz
Mindsparkle Mag
Behance
Dribbble
Muzli Search
100 Archive
Design Inspiration
BP&O
Pentagram
It's Nice That
DESIGN ADVICE/EXAMPLES/BLOGS/ ARTICLES
(Free) - World Brand Design Society
(Free) - AIGA Eye on Design
(Free) - Creative Boom
(Free) - The Design Team
(Paid) - UnderConsideration
LOGO/BRANDING DESIGN
Company logos categorised by letter/number/symbol etc - Logobook
Logo/Branding Examples - Logoed
PACKAGING DESIGN
Kawacolle
Packaging Design Archive
Packaging Of The World
WEB DESIGN
Siteinspire
Httpster
Lapa Ninja
Best Website Gallery
Dark Mode Design
Awwwards
Dribbble
(Wireframing) Moqups App
PUBLICATION/EDITORIAL DESIGN
Zine Creation Tips Masterpost - How to Organize a Zine 101
Editorial Design Examples 1 - Formagramma
Editorial Design Examples 2 - Pentagram
POSTER DESIGN
Typographic Poster Design Examples - Typographic posters
Poster Design Examples - Poster Poster
CHARACTER DESIGN
Character Design Library, Challenges, etc - Character Design References
Anime Settei/Reference Sheets - Settei Dreams
Historical Costume references - OSF Costume Rentals
V-DESIGNER/V-ARTIST
‘How to Design Your Own Vtuber Logo’ (by the-tragic-heroine) - The-tragic-heroine
Discover V-artists/V-designers - Heartist
V-Artist/V-designers Catalogue (Hiatus) - VTuber Catalog
Vtuber Resource Collection (by VTResources) - VTuber Resources
View badges/emotes will look like on Twitch - Twitch Elements
Resize badges/emotes to actual sizes - Twitch Emote Resizer
Vtuber based commission hub (beta) - VGen
PAYPAL ALTERNATIVES
Square
Stripe
Wise (previously TransferWise)
Kofi
Direct Bank Transfer
OTHER RESOURCE COLLECTIONS
Vtuber Resource Collection (by VTResources) - VTuber Resources
Designer Resources Collection - Design Resources
Merchandise/printing services (by sunshinehoney6) - Merchandise Resources
Typography Resources - Typewolf
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