What Should You Upload?

What should you upload?

Every time I go to upload a new work, I see the above sentence on my screen followed immediately by:

“RedBubble exists for you to exhibit your best creative work – please only upload the work that you are proud of.”

But what exactly does that mean? We each have our own interpretation of what our ‘best creative work’ is and what I might be proud of, may not do anything for anyone else.

To help make my decision easier, I like to ask myself a few questions:



1. Would I use this image to apply to a gallery?



I think of this as my portfolio that I will be presenting to a gallery director the next day (or even one that a director might stumble upon without me knowing). Would I put in 3 variations of the same work and then ask them which one they liked? Would I include work that I know is unfinished?

If I answer ‘yes’ to any of those questions, I know that I need to rethink why I should upload it then.

Of course, not everyone’s goal it to put work up in a gallery and that is perfectly OK. It is the principle and the intention behind the above questions that I think are important.

I think also that the idea of ‘finished’ work is key too. If I’m not sure if the work is done but have taken it as far as I can. I will upload it to the site but keep it hidden from public view. I will then post it in the Critique Forum for some additional feedback. Depending on what others say and whether or not I agree with them, I will then either make some revisions, trash it entirely or even come to the conclusion that it is in fact finished and is ready for my public portfolio.

2. Does this represent who I am and what I am trying to say about myself?



Art can be extremely powerful and provide a lot of insight on its creator. Whether it is a painting, a sketch, a tee shirt, a witting piece a photo or even a ‘happy snap’, a bit of the artist come through in every piece.
What does this artwork say about me?

If I can answer that question and am comfortable with the answer, then I will go ahead and upload the work. If I can’t or am not comfortable with what it says, I will rethink my decision.

3. Is this in the top tier of what I can do?

As artists and creators we are constantly growing. Throughout that process our skills change and evolve.

My own work I know has changed quite a bit since I first started a couple of years ago. What was my best two years ago is nothing I would show today. But that is OK! It was the top of what I was able to do at the time and I was pretty darn proud of it. If this site existed at that point of time, I would have proudly displayed it. Now however, my work has evolved to something else and I would think twice about putting it up as it might not fit with my current skills and approach.



However, there will always be a few pieces of mine that not only were they the best of what I could do then, but they are still killer works that I am extremely proud of today and they will always have prominent display on my portfolio. 

Also, sometimes the answer isn’t always clear and new isn’t always better. This is why I always reevaluate my older work using the 10% Challenge method.

4. Would I think other people would want to hang this on their wall?

Sure, I would hang it on my wall. If not, I know for sure that I probably shouldn’t upload it to my public portfolio. But what about a complete stranger? Is this something they would be interested in? That they could connect with?

It is difficult at times to separate oneself from your own work, but every now and then I find I need to step back and pretend I know nothing about my work and try and look at it as if I was seeing it for the first time. Do I like it? Would I buy it? Looking at it with a different set of eyes can be very beneficial.

In Conclusion:
I know my work isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It’s a little different, not always conventional (or sometimes too conventional) and some people just don’t ‘get it’. But I am not out please everyone. That’s not what art is all about and that’s not the point of why I go through this process.

What I do want to make sure is the work that I display is the best of my best, that it accurately portrays my best creative skills, that it can say everything I want to say without me physically being there to explain it and that if I was to never create a single additional piece, that I would still be proud of all the work in my portfolio and what it represents.

Cheers,
Dave

a great deal of thought has gone into this ~ thanks David ~ there’s a lot here for me to take on board

hahaha typical typo that needs improving

Thanks everyone. I think the idea behind this can be applied to all mediums. I appreciate the feedback.

I LOVE THIS…...............................

“My best image is the one I haven’t taken yet.”

Being new on here,Im really pleased to of just read this,it is really helpful,and makes you think first.Thank you David.

This is great information…....thank you ! I’m in process of reducing my portfolio anyway but, if I ask myself whether I’d take a particular image to a gallery, I have a feeling that that folio is going to get VERY much smaller !

Some days, I wouldn’t let any of them even see the light of day but those days, thank goodness, are relatively few :)

Well written David.
Very valuable insight for those who (I’m sure) ponder just what belongs in their portfolios.
Another fact is that my Red Bubble portfolio has assisted me in getting (paid and volunteer) gigs ahead of my competition, so what’s representing me here visually and in script is very important.

Excellent information!

Scott, it’s not about numbers or such. Everyone will find their own groove. It is the philosophy that I think is important and what I try and live by.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

All makes brilliant sense.
Applied the 10% challenge a week or so ago, ended up being more like a 50% challenge, but it felt very good after and the folio looks the better for it. I would recommend this to anyone that has been here longer than a month or has more than 5-6 pages of works. Did some of my own research on this, asking people from outside the RB community to take a look through some portfolios here, and the maximum pages they would generally look through were 4-5, (and usually the last page). I know this of myself as well so now try to keep it down to around that.
Great advice.

i agree with the comment that said this should be written big and bold for all to see!

Extremely informative and helpful – thank you