Revised Site!

Hello,
If you all remember, I posted a site I did a few weeks ago and asked for feedback. Well, I re-did the whole site in Dreamweaver taking some of that feedback and putting it to use. I was hoping y'all would be so kind to give me some feedback on this one. It is through my ISP/FTP, and I would like to know how it all downloads, etc. Supposedly I have plenty of bandwith so that shouldn't be a concern like the last one was.
Thanks!
"kshdesigns"
http://webpages.charter.net/kshdesigns

to be honest, I don't like your website. First of all the name. I am not a native English speaker, but I wouldn't think that it would sound appealing for an English speaker. As for the graphics, I think that since your skills in this field are not very high I would recommend to keep as little images on your webpage as possible.

Get rid of that white space make it a bit smaller and color it a very light gray (#cccccc) I would do that to all the pages. And I would also move that text at the top to one or the other side and make it a bit more fancy, it's just a generic plain font right now. The site needs a bit of work(It's still far better than the first one you submitted) but I think if you keep sharpening your skills and working at training yourself as much as possible You - the same is true for everybody - will get good. I have not even been doing design work for a full year year yet, I don't consider myself a pro but I can definitly tell I am getting better at all aspects of Web and Logo/Print graphic design.... Hope to see some improvement soon!

Well...:-( wasn't exactly what I would have liked to hear, but critique is critique, good or bad. Actually, I'm rather "discouraged"' right now, so I won't say too much except, thank you for your input. I appreciate your encouragment, Unimet, I really do. Obviously, resurepus feels my talent just isn't there. Once again, thank you all for your feedback. I don't suppose I will be back anytime soon, but I do appreciate everything.

I didn't mean to discourage you! I have mentioned that English is not my mother tongue and it's not always I can put things the way I'd like them to be. What I wanted to say is that the site's structure is fine, but the graphics you used seem to be a little out of place. I am sorry it sounded discouraging, but on the contrary I meant to encourage you to keep learning!

It's all good resurepus...:-) I take criticism well and I know and realize it is the only way I will ever learn and become good at what it is I love to do and want to do. I just wasn't quite sure I understood what you were trying to get across about the "english" part, and I'm still not real sure. In any case, I am discouraged some, but that does not mean I will ever give up. I have such a desire to be as good as y'all are, and getting a late start in life with all of this has been rather hard on me. Life did not deal me in years ago like I would have liked it to. I, of all people, know how God works in mysterious ways, tho. I will always continue to educate and better myself, have no fear...I'm on a "mission" here...:-)

Oh! and by the way...Thank you so much for the "Happy Birthday" email. I appreciate your thoughtfulness.
Karen

Looks like a very basic informative site. The design is clean and it functions well (something that is very important)
The site does demonstrate your level of HTML and design. Personally, underlined hyperlinks are a no no for a portfolio in my eyes. This is your place to showoff and attract peole to your business, and that infamous underlined blue text does not do that for me. Take some time and make a few buttons or even have the image become the link.

Thank you, big. I will work on that. I appreciate the advice!
Karen

kshdesigns...
GREAT improvement over previous site! I do agree with resurepus, the name is 'difficult'...maybe you could use your full name???? I think your designs are too busy, the painting effects as backgrounds are not pleasing to the design. Karen, don't be discouraged, study, study STUDY;) Its never too late (I went back @ a later age) I think DC is a great place to learn & share, I have been doing this for 10+yrs. and am always learning something......:)missy

Hi Karen,

Here are my crits on the website and your work:

The Bad News
--------------
Unfortunately, I cannot say that I like the website a lot. The structure is good, but the surrounding details simply aren't appealing.

Your work is also very lacking, and apart from thinking that the designs you create may look neat, I really don't have much else positive to say.

The repetition of works doesn't inspire positive thoughts either.

The Good News
---------------
All of the bad things are a few fundamental rules that you are breaking, and can be easilly listed (and improved upon).

Firstly, you are relying too much on default Photoshop effects. Those are not meant to be used in that way. They are there so that a person (who knows very well how and when to use the slider controls) can use them occasionally. Therefore, basing 80% of your portfolio on works that have been created using basic filters and patterns is not a good idea.

Tip 1: Use Photoshop wisely and carefully (don't make it your pen and paper)!

Secondly, as I mentioned before, you are repeating the same ideas over and over again. When an audience looks at that, they automatically think that this is all you have to offer, and their outlook on your skills goes down dramatically.

Tip 2: Bring more variety to your portfolio by displaying different techniques and varying forms of design.

As well, one of the more important flaws I noticed was the use of color. Asside from the fact that most of the tones you're using are very gloomy, the colors themselves don't really match in any of your works. Avoiding the study of color is the greatest mistake a designer/artist can make.

Tip 3: Get involved in an intense study of color and light.

Tip 4: As an addition, I would also recommend that you begin to time yourself to see how long you spend on an average illustration, and compare that time with professional designers (or anyone who's work you like and are inspired by).

Anyways, I tried to stay away from actually bashing your site as much as I could, though some things were unavoidable. I'm sorry if this offends you, I'm truly just trying to help, and would never insult anyone who clearly has quite a determination.

The most important thing is just to keep practicing, there is always room for improvement! Good luck to you in the future

Keep the navigation consistent. The buttons should not move around and should be the same on each page. You can get rid of the enter page and go directly to the welcome page, getting rid of the word welcome at the top. Most of all, avoid making me scroll to see all your images. I may not scroll, thus you lose the impact of having several pieces shown. Use javascript replaces to show your individual pieces. That way, you do not have to make me scroll each page.

It is a nice, clean design... the only thing that struck me right away was that maybe the grey background is a bit too dark. The graphics kind of blend into it too much.