A Singular Creation (ASC) is a free online art community devoted to providing resources and promotion opportunities for all artists and photographers. With ASC, artists can add their own artwork to the site, keep track of new art competitions, and network with artists throughout the globe. ASC has a host of features, which I will talk about below.
I created my own profile there, added some of my artworks, and I will show you how to do the same, along with explaining some of the most useful features.
I recently spoke to ASC founder Joe Barrouk, and asked him a couple questions about A Singular Creation.
How did you come up with the idea for A Singular Creation?
I came up with A Singular Creation in November of 2005. I used to be an active oil painter and many artists I met online at that time had trouble getting their art seen. Also, back then there were many less free options to show your work. Portfolio sites were pretty pricey. I wanted to help artists get their work out there. I was a self-taught web designer, but didn’t really know what I was doing. I built a very graphic heavy site that was very attractive, but not that functional. I put a few ads on Craigslist and a few other sites looking for artists that wanted to show their work on my site for free. Back then, I was very selective, because I built each portfolio and resized all images, etc. It was very time consuming. I got a great response and lots of artists signed up for my e-newsletter. So I started offering a contest and opportunities calendar. It also started to gain traction so I expanded upon it. I then added a forum, then community gallery. Then I started my free monthly showdown competition. I offer a cash prize each month and also gift certificates from Dick Blick. They sponsor the monthly contests. My latest project is quarterly juried competitions. I award $1,000 in cash and $500 in Richeson Art supply gift certificates. They are my sponsor for the juried competitions.
How can artists use ASC to promote their art?
My site has been and still is completely free for artists. A free membership gets them access to our contest and opportunities calendar, forums, ability to enter our monthly showdown competitions, a gallery with unlimited albums and unlimited images, a community profile page and blog. The profile page could act as a website of sorts. It has room for bio, website links, contact info, gallery images, etc. All of the artists forum posts, blog posts and gallery images can be shared on Face Book, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumble Upon, and many other social networking avenues. My site is definitely evolving into a community of artists that share, learn, teach, promote, critique and discuss.
A Singular Creation Forum
The A Singular Creation forum is a great place to receive feedback on artwork and websites, and has plenty of resources on all sorts of art related topics. To join, and take part in discussions, please follow the outline below.
- Visit A Singular Creation and click the blue Join Here button at the right.
Agree to the terms and fill in the information to signup for the ASC forum.
- Now that your account is created, login with the username and password you created. The ASC forum will appear.
- The very first thing you should do here is set up your Forum profile. Click the MY PROFILE link at the top. At the top of this page, find the Edit Profile link, and hit it. Enter information about yourself. The only sections I am really interested in are Website, Location, Occupation, and About Me. Click Submit when finished filling in info. you are comfortable with sharing.
- Click Signature in the left menu. A page appears where you can edit your forum signature. Each forum has its own rules regarding signatures, but generally only one link is allowed. I recommend sharing a favorite artist quote along with a link to your art site. Click Preview to see how it looks, and when you are satisfied with the appearance, click Submit, then Return to User Control Panel.
- Next, click the Avatar link at the left. Find a small avatar or profile picture of yourself, and upload it. Pay attention to the maximum dimensions and file size allowed.
Uploading Artworks to ASC
- Click the Art Gallery button right at the top.
You may want to create at least one gallery before uploading, so click Manage Albums.
- Hit the New Albums button at the right and create a title for your album depending on the artwork you plan to upload. Select the album (highlighted blue) and hit Edit album. Here, you can enter a description for the album contents, or a brief bio of yourself.
Now, it is time to upload images of your paintings, photographs, sculpture and other artwork. Hit Upload Add My Images at the top. The album you just created should appear there. If it don’t, select it. Upload one file at a time or select multiple.
- Now, to change the title of each image, choose View my Gallery, select the artwork, then clicking Edit File Info. right at the top. Here you can add a title, description, keywords, medium, size, and price to each artwork. Hit Apply Changes right at the bottom when completed. (There is another way to do this by uploading more than one image at a time but I kept receiving errors).
A Singular Creation Showdown
The ASC Showdown is a free art competition held monthly for ASC community members. Compete with other artists and photographers for prizes including cash, ASC pro memberships, gift certificates for Blick art supplies, and promotion of your entry. Click the How to Enter link at the top for instructions for submissions to this free art contest.
As Joe Barrouk already mentioned, ASC also has a new quarterly juried competition, with even better prizes!
Art Contests and Opportunities
Find information on international art competitions, calls for entry, and opportunities for artists. This includes detailed information about each opportunity, how to enter, and the deadline for submissions.
What do you think of A Singular Creation? If you are an ASC member, feel free to share your profile with us below.
Thanks for telling me about the errors. Unfortunately I had spent an hour entering information before I found that note at the end. Is it possible to talk about errors at the beginning of "Uploading Artwork" to prevent others doing this. Thanks Graham
ReplyDeleteI changed that part.. and only included the error free way of doing it... Sorry for the problems.. Thanks!! Graham
ReplyDeleteHey Graham, Thanks for bringing the error to my attention. I believe we have fixed that issue. If you get a chance, log on to the site and give it a try. Let me know the result. all the best,
ReplyDeleteJoe