Carbonmade Review and Tutorial – Free Online Portfolio Websites

carbonmade online portfolio website Carbonmade is a website where artists, illustrators, photographers, and designers can create a free online portfolio. Carbonmade currently has nearly 500,000 portfolios, which include over 7.7 million images!

I have set up a portfolio there, and I will explain how you can do the same, as well as a few of the interesting features for artists.

Tutorial for Setting up a Carbonmade Portfolio

Signup for Carbonmade for free. Click the green Signup button at the right.
Pick the free option on the left. (Signup for Meh) This includes 5 projects and ability to upload 35 images. If you like Carbonmade, there is always the option of upgrading later to receive 50 projects, 500 images, 10 videos, and more.
Fill in your name, email, password, and a name for your free website.
On the next page, the first thing to do is edit the About section. Go here by clicking the About link at the top.

Add a profile photo, and fill in the sections About You, Areas of Expertise, and Skills.

Add contact information at your own discretion, and indicate whether you are available for freelance work or not.
Next, go to the Personalize section. Here, change the fonts or color scheme, or keep it the same. Also, enter a title for your page, and a footer blurb.
Now you are ready to create your first Carbonmade project. Click Projects, then add a project. Create a name for the project, then hit Create this Project.
On the next page, add your paintings or photographs, and a description, project web address, client, and project type. Also choose a layout and visibility.

Also, when uploading images, add captions to them.
Now your Carbonmade portfolio is complete.
You can view my first project here: Graham Matthews Art

Review of Carbonmade

I think the portfolios look great! The images are large and looks quite attractive. The main problem for me is lack of features! There is no space for others to leave comments or rate artworks and projects. There is also no way for viewers to share the artworks with Facebook and other social networks. It would have been very helpful if they had included this. But, for those who want to share their pages themselves, simply install the Addthis plugin on your web browser, and share with the most popular networks.

One thing I like though is the ability to add your artist website url to both the About section, and individual projects. I went one step further and added it to the description of every single portfolio image, as well as in the footer.

Upcoming Feature – The Talent Pool

This feature looks quite promising, especially for those searching to hire for freelance work in design and illustration. It’s basically a matchmaking service for those who create art, design, photography, and more, and those who hire. A search feature (and maybe other features) will be included. A preview of those who will be searched includes fashion designers, website designers, illustrators, concept artists, copywriters, and photographers.