I've mentioned this in comments but not in a post(maybe I should) but I think we'd need a new frontend just for art. Posting art on Steemit is not very good in it's current state and I think the reasons that artists are posting here is 1. Obviously, because of the money, but 2. since the community is still small it's a lot easier to get to know people and make real connections.
So at a technical level, we'd need to be able to show our work at a very high resolution without having to ask the user to do something like, "right click this and open in a new tab to see high res", or "go to x platform to see full res" You want people to see your work in full detail here without having to think about it or go somewhere else.
Typically this is done by having the default on-click functionality be that the artwork opens in a hover state filling the screen.
The other aspect that makes Steemit itself unfit for a portfolio replacement is we'd need to see multiple images from multiple posts all at once. You'd also need to control which images show up where. On Steemit everything is in chronological order, but I think an artist frontend would need to make it to where you could put posts out of order, as well as show them in interesting layouts.
Those are the big ideas, but each one could be broken down much further.
Are you working on developing an art frontend? I'd be open to working with you on that if you are. I can work on UI/UX as I have experience in these areas.
Regarding the image resolution, are you suggesting something like what the blog application WordPress does to images? One uploads an image and WordPress automatically creates different sizes. The different sizes are displayed based on the site visitor's browser settings. That way, mobile users aren't waiting for an enormous image to download over their slow connection.
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/12/responsive-images-in-wordpress-core/
I'm actually not sure what's going on behind the scenes in the examples I'm referring to. I'm going to post them below as a response to @solar so you'll be able to see.
Glad you joined in again @midlet. Do you have examples of sites that function in some of these ways you describe? I am thinking about building a steem browser that is focused on art. As you say, a portfolio site with the steem blockchain integrated would be a dream, but obviously would be more complicated. UI features are essential, but I also think that some more advanced moderating is needed in order to make a site that viewers and consumers want to visit as well. While I'm all for the democratization of curating, I think a platform like this needs curators with a shared set of values in order to create a cohesive experience.
I'd love to build it with a kind of co-op model, and open source, but of course funding is an issue to figure out. I've started these discussions to see what the priorities are and to get people interested. I'd love to talk to you more about this.
I'd love to keep talking about this on steem as well, but If you or anyone else would like to talk more in a chat situation you can find me on discord here: https://discord.gg/MTu9Fe (this link will expire after a day).
Yes, here are a few examples @solar
http://characterdesignreferences.tumblr.com/
Then there's https://www.artstation.com/ which as of now is probably the largest site where artists are creating portfolios. It's a bit more complex, but you can see some of the ideas in action.
I joined the discord also, I'll look for you there!
Yo, check this tool out
https://steemit.com/utopian-io/@sambillingham/steemconnect-node-js-boilerplate-for-rapid-development-v-0-3-0
Oh wow! Looks really cool. Gonna dive into this a bit deeper when I get some time. Thanks for the heads up @solar!