We should organize a movement which we grow and promote throught the year until november, in which we rally as much people as possible to draw and post monks instead of cute girls. Why november? no particular reason.
At the end of the day: draw what makes you happy. If someone doesn’t like what you create - it’s okay! Spend your energy creating what you love and the right audience will find you over time. The people who genuinely want to support you will stick around. 🙏🏾💕 I’ve honestly reached the point where I just post something on Instagram and leave until the next post. I don’t want to cater to algorithms or stress myself out anymore. Now I just chill with the art homies on Discord and draw my OCs during voice calls. And I’ve been a lot happier since I gradually started using socials less often.
This is truly what is most important. Draw what makes you happy and what you’re most passionate about. It’s the only thing that’ll keep you going when you begin to burnout
If you don't care about ever making a living in art, that's fine. If you do want to be commercially viable, you have to produce what the customers and the algorithms care about.
@@waltlock8805 If that's the mindset you're thinking of: then it doesn't apply to what I said. I'm only talking about people drawing what makes them happy, nothing about commercial work. 🤷🏾♀️
Tried tested and true. Been doing that along with cute girls but y'know still with few followers (probably an art skill issue on my end but y'know still)
I think one of the biggest reasons the Pretty Girl Portraits are hitting so well is because often times the art styles are very similar to that of Disney or popular Disney Fanarts. The art is very simple with simple color palettes that even people who have no greater understanding of art and art theory can enjoy casually. Also I think many people think it is really quirky to see a real person turned into a cute colorful drawing.
It's aesthetically pleasing, that's why it works imo. That's why anime works all over the world, a huge amount of people thinks it's cute and pleasant to look at. An adorable girl in pastel colors is somewhat soothing to the soul, there's not much more to it really. Disney characters have a similar pleasant palette and style to them c:
Becauss it's pretty and people liek pretty girls. Realistic portraits, beautiful landscapes and sunset skies are much harder but when was the last time a landscape artist got popular?
It's sad that fanart has gotten a lot of hate. If you're a Rick Riordan Universe fan (Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase, etc) then you know how important a certain artist's fanart was lol.
@@AwesomeYena @AwesomeYena A few years ago Viria (who was the biggest PJO fanartist a few years ago and has now drawn the new official art) was "canceled" by some fans because they accused her of drawing Annabeth with darker skin than POC characters and they found old Percy X Nico fanart, that they said was NSFW (which it really wasn't) and called her a pedophile. Even though she was a teen herself when she drew it and she aged up the characters. She got extremely harassed and some people even sent her death threats. In the end, she left the fandom. After creating amazing art for it for years, she left because of the harassment. She only recently came back with a drawing of the actors of the TV show, but she said it was a one time thing and she'll never come back to the fandom. But honestly she's not the only one, there are a lot of PJO fanartists who have left or thought about leaving the fandom, because of how "Fans" are treating them. I'm a smaller fanartist in the fandom and there was a time when I was scared to upload anything, because of the toxicity. I still am with certain characters. And that's without having a big following. So I can understand to some point why some bigger artists don't want to draw PJO fanart anymore
This made me feel better about my art. I haven't been growing on Instagram for a while to the point where I stopped caring. I honestly thought that my art wasn't really that great, but the second I posted a reel I started to gain more followers. I do NOT want to prosper making reels. I just want people to see my characters and their stories, not have to constantly do something I don't enjoy to gain some eyes.
Even then it depends on the reel. I Show my drawing process in full via a reel (inking & painting) and you're lucky if anyone faves it but rarely does it ever get you a follow.
I used to care about growing my Insta account. But I realized that I was just... not happy. There's that need to post often, and with my extreme schedule, I just can't draw every day. Maybe I tried making reels, and there was a time when it sort of prospered, but I don't feel good making reels either. It's the fact that people are just there to see the transitions and fast-paced video followed by a popular song. It's just something to cater to a short attention span. It's sort of why I also don't reveal my art account to anyone I know, because the first thing they're always in awe with is the follower count. I started to just post whenever I feel like it, and post for the purpose of analyzing and showing my progress in my hobby. I've been much happier this way tbh. And like Meika said, you're lucky if someone likes it, but that's about it. It's never going to be the happiness of reaching another peak in the mountain you're climbing. So best to stop looking at the other climbers and move on.
im an artist as well, but i dont use instagram. i know my sister uses instagram and mainly uses it just to have a popular social media account purely for the sake of money. however, she refuses to use reels to get there, i dont know how well the instagram algorithm works, but if that's the only way of getting a few followers, then i'd much rather just draw for myself and my friends.
The only ones that truly bother me on Instagram is the art repost pages. They post and say “credit unknown” despite there being a signature and watermark saying the artist name and reverse image search is so ridiculously easy. When you tell them who the artist is they delete your comment and block you. It’s simply lazy.
Course there might be some problems with images. Depending on how they posted and got the image. The image might get blurry and the name ends up being hard to see. (Such how Facebook lowers the quality) Then you have those that crop out the name. (Which is why it might be better to put the name in the pic instead) Also reverse image search isn't 100%. I've tried to look for some images and nothing. It'll work better the more the image is posted on sites (although some artists might not post everywhere and being limited)
Non-superficial networking, just means that at least a handful of people, who are, or will be, in a position to fund you in some way, know that your work is worth funding already, without you having to convince them of that again. Basically, to take an example from a different field, if I collaborate with someone on an open-source software project, and that project happens to be relied on by a company my partner works in, he could easily fast-track an interview for me (in most cases) if I ever needed a job, and vouch for me because he already knows what I can do. No need for any pleasantries, or even kind words. Just avoid being a dick for no reason, and try to work in a such a way, that others can easily see what you are capable of. For more superficial, but still useful, kinds of networking do something that gets the attention of either a recruiter if you're scouting for a 9 to 5, or a client who may commission you for something for freelancing. Then just keep in touch from time to time. Ass-kissing is entirely optionally. Just avoid being needlessly difficult to work with.
Felt very similarly about this until recently. I think the key is: don't kiss up - punch up, and kiss sideways. Which is to say, hold yourself to the highest standard you can, and surround yourself with like-minded peers that encourage you to grow and enjoy your work. In my mind, networking is less about kissing ass and more about mainainting a consistent presence in a community so that when an opportunity arises that you'd be a good fit for, people are then actually able to recommend you because you've established a reliable report/work ethic.
Personally, drawing just a face has been SO hard for me I like to go to Pinterest to find an interesting pose reference, it could be a headstand, sitting on a swing, etc. But I love making full poses, and if instagram doesn’t like that, I don’t mind, cause I do. But your points here are so correct, instagram does favorite certain things better then others,and it’s annoying.
It's okay I recommend a book that teaches you the fundamentals of drawing the body including head. Wish I read it sooner. My drawings are getting a bit better now but not much since I'm not smart enough to utilize what I've learned fully
Years ago I was like 16 years old and I wanted to be an instagram famous artist. So, I started to draw digitally and regulary posted. It was months before I had any follower and I was going crazy looking at younger artists have fame when I only had 3 likes at best. Of course, that was not a healthy aproach, but I was a stressed attention seeker teenager and I started to think that anything I put time to draw should be meant to be posted. Back then I also didn't like to draw fanart, but I started doing it because I wanted people to notice me. When that didn't work I just started drawing other artists fancharacters...I only did that thinking that maybe their followers would notice me or something. One day, I posted something and came back to it every five minutes, as always, to see if it had gotten any likes. I realized I was stressed because of the number of likes. I did not like this. I decided to take a break, this was on early 2021. Later on, I just realized I was not meant for it at all. My goal should never have been "make drawings to post", when I started, I just wanted to "post the drawings I had done". I know, long story. And also bad english, excuse my non native self for that. Just wanted to let anyone that may be going through something similar know that you should focus on your art first. Maybe you are not mentally prepared to post and not care about things like likes and followers.
No....ur situation is literally me........and i post on twitter just to saving my art cuz my memory almost full. And my mentality get much better but get stuck with my inner self for creating art(this kinda hard to explain it's complicated cuz.....im to focus for making a good or just one piece of art that can makes me satisfied and happy...........) Cuz if i satisfied with the drswing result = im happy with the process.
That's literally my situation i post my art then delete it if i don't get any likes and be stressed about it all day Like I haven't drawn in a week and after that
Lmao true that was how i was when i started to post my artworks. But it was more like "what if people think im lame cuz i domt have much likes nor follows?" That's when i turned pixiv and never looked back. It's all art related and you don't get drowned nor forgotten even if you get inactive. Follows arent visible in pixiv and likes aren't really a big deal in there either. You can see how many people you've reached in plain sight too. I think it's the healthiest app in all that i've used because i don't get so stressed out with the above mentioned. I post what i only like, and people sometimes like them, dont like them, but overall someone will always see them by the end of the day. What matters is that i grabbed someone's attention with the stuff i like even if it's only a split second.
Thank you so much for sharing your story, I am a graphic/web designer and I love to draw a lot, but I am kinda busy and people online who are geeing likes and followers. I used to think that I want to become famous on TikTok and Instagram the thing is, I wanted to draw for likes and followers not for myself what I love I will continue my hobby, and share the post I love not for followers my English is bad too, so please excuse me
There are so many underrated artist out there and sometimes people post things with no effort and get so many likes. Yet the person taking time hardly gets any at all?
it happens like that sometimes. you have to separate your art from social media, focus on improving, and find value in your work by becomin better than you were yesterday
@@MohammedAgbadi I agree yh. I’m trying to improve and I think that’s the best way and not to compare yourself to others because you will improve at ur own speed! ALSO I AM A BIG FAN
@@defenestrationismyfavoriteword yes only way to overcome this feeling is to ignore it all. Only focus on drawing and putting your work out there. It will take time but everyday you post you get closer to the following amount you yearn ❤❤giving up will end all that no keep going
Make more videos like this, love this energy , friends, community, self improving is way more important than toxic social media on IG trying to please people turning into mindless robots.
TikTok has ruined social media, RUclips and others have to force short video content and now images aren't worth anything unless you record a video. Let TikTok be TikTok, let Instagram be Instagram, and fix Facebook or leave it for shitposts.
Yes. After TikTok started the trend of promoting short form content extremely and making it easy for creators to go viral multiple times, every other platform has tried doing the same one way or another.
I think one of the most disappointing trends and strategies isn't necessarily from the artists, themselves, but the media platforms and algorithms. So much of the digital art being put out onto media today looks very similar. The color choices, the styles, the lack of diversity in subject matter, even. Headshot. Pretty girl, cotton candy colors. Limited analogous palette. They have AI that look for these things and promote them, knowing that it's what will get attention. But not everyone responds to that or can draw in that way. It's become an exclusive club, not necessarily because of the art community, but because of the platforms or online "galleries" that refuse to show anything different. The drawing that made me want to become an artist wasn't anything like that. I was at a con and I saw a comic book artist sketching a boy in a hoodie and baseball cap eating a plate of spaghetti, looking off to one side, annoyed. It was just a simple pencil sketch, but the lack of color brought the attention to his expression, the scene, and his body language. Something like that would never get promoted these days, and I'm sad to think that there could be more expressive sketches out there, completely hidden under mounds and mounds of anime-eye girls with pouty lips, and long strands of cotton candy hair.
Every time I post a sketch, it gets ignored or downplayed because "finish it first" or "why isn't it colored?" I like the sketchy feel, when I do something colored I color it directly, mostly because I have health issues and limited energy too, but my focus is on the feel rather than detail yet every time the reply is "why us the resolution low? Why isn't it inked? There isn't a lot of detail." As if they aren't using their eyes, just a ruler and measuring by pixel.
The reason why this opinion is completely correct. In fact, it was possible to gather 3,000 followers for nothing on the new meta platform. This is a world where you can even get followers and views by paying money. The world is run by lies, and it is safe to say that everything on the Internet in particular is a condensation of lies.
The Instagram reels thing is SO TRUE, they only did it cause they know a short videos based app does well, without any regard of their users that only wanted A PICTURE SHARING APP OMG WHYYYYY
RIGHHTTTTT LIKE UCK- I DONT want to make fucking reeels to get ppl to see my page- I can barely manage posting 😭 but posting is so fun I rather see that then reels cause ppl put too many transitions and I barely SEE the art like bruh 5 seconds at the end they barely put it in 🥲
I personally think the reels feature is very helpful. Before it existed, it's almost impossible for small artists to gain popularity (i mean i don't draw for likes, but i need them to start a career on social media). I do agree that reels are mostly just pointless trend videos, but there are actually interesting ones. It also helps me to find great artists that i've never heard of before
I think most people who draw fanart don't do it to grow on social media, though I understand that it definitely helps you grow. Personally, I love drawing fan art and getting to share it with the community online!
Fan art is no grantee that you'll get followers. 😂 I'm a fan artist of some pretty obscure fandoms and we barely get traction. My OCs get as as much attention as my fan stuff so either way it doesn't make a difference what I draw we're still gonna be invisible 😅
I'm honestly really glad that much of the type of artwork I make (18+) cannot be posted on Instagram. I recently gave up on posting to Twitter because its algorithm absolutely hates artists... my mental health has improved a lot since then. Personally, instead of having a huge following, I'd rather have a small number of followers that regularly engage with me and are positive and supportive.
I like to think of it as I am looking for friends, not followers. I don't like engaging with people I wouldn't actually hang out with in real life lol. But I'm not trying to make a career of it either
EXACTLY!!!!! while i dont post 18 + stuff i just want someone to talk to about art and it seems like art is now a commodity where people are just liking and leaving. its so sad.
God, same here. I feel like having a large following is gonna be harder to manage and keep track because it’s so easy for supporters to go way off the handle in defending their fave artists
not gonna lie- These things been a thing for a long time-since the Deviantart rise era- listening to these takes me back to 2011-and yes I fall into some of these traps! Being away from art community since 2019 and listening to these sure brought be back. It's sad that collaboration died or drawing together on some type of platform were many people see each other drawing- I miss those days!
Wild to me that people don’t like fanart because of different art styles that aren’t the original. To me that’s the coolest part about looking at others’ fanart! :0
Thank god Tumblr lets you report those types of people. Sorry but you stayed out of your lane, off to the shadow realm you go. * Hits report for spam* Also.. you need to do that to combat bots.
I've essentially given up on growing social media because there are so many hoops you need to jump through. Been trying to grow for a few years now and it hasn't gone anywhere. I figure I shouldn't put my attention on it and instead try to get better at art in general.
I am strickly a fanartist. I make art because I like being a fan of said properties, I love if people enjoy what I draw, but I don't really care if I become "popular". Sure I've had those douches complain about how I portray some characters, but I also have many people who enjoy what I make so... It's worth it. After all my art is for me FIRST, and others second; because some enjoy what I make, I go ahead and post my art to social media. Even if nobody enjoyed what I do, I'd still draw tbh I'd just keep it to myself lol
Omg I was about to comment almost exactly what you wrote with the difference that I don't post my art as much because I'm don't know how to deal with those people that will criticize my art. Also, I love to create art for my enjoyment, so people don't need to see it. But it still would be nice to learn how to deal with others critiques
@@inky006 Ah man, dude... It did not come easy; it took a while for me to be able to handle taking punches. I'm close to thirty and have been posting my art online ever since I was 15, so I've had a looooong time to learn how to let go and come to terms that some people kinda... just suck lol :')
So this is why art feels harder to find nowadays. Kinda what youtube has done that buries people I see. I feel especially bad for fanartists as if it's not threats and harassment from shippers it's the "fixers" who gender/raceswap their work they gotta deal with seemingly way more often than other types of art.
Drawing fan art is like... "You're gonna lose it!" "No I won't" "You mean that thing was real!?" The Matrix has drowned out your words, I would not play The Matrix in the background if you don't want to me to be completely distracted. I memorized this entire movie as I played it in the background everytime I draw or animate.
lmaooo i memorized the first and second movie! literally had the soundtrack of the second movie on all my devices and still listen to it uptill now.. so good!
I cannot, for the life of me, have any movie I watched a million times over (Godzilla, any of them), and try to draw, because then I start trying to draw either what I am listening to or start watching the movie instead. LOL So I end up listening to music, like songs from Two Steps of Hell or TeknoAxe, depending on my mood or what I'm drawing (or what I have envisioned drawing and failing horribly at it).
Drawing fanart can be usefully, especially if you want to work for an animation studio. Being able to accurately replicate a style consistently is a good skill.
Instagram has been getting pretty bad lately. I mainly post there and only have 40 followers since my old account got hacked and deleted witch had 200 followers. I don't follow many people and my for you page only has reels whenever people I follow aren't on my screen. It seems to be shadow banning artists who mainly post pictures and not reels. I'm not the only one who's been getting shadow banned for no apparent reason at all.
it's literally just focused on forcing artists to make reels instead of images. i can't stand it tbh. i just login from time to time each week to see what my friends are upto and leave
Me too I got hacked but it did not delete my account and I know who hacked me-Bitcoin. Bitcoin did. Stupid Bitcoin hacked me and a bunch of other people as well as random teens and kids too.
Oh god same, I had 1000+ followers I accumulated over the past 2 years but then I got reported to hate speech (Idk why I think even commenting like, punch or kick is bad) and couldn't reenter my account 😢
Instagram is slowly heading towards a pay your way model and it’s killing small creators from growing a following. If you have less than 10k followers already, it’s incredibly hard to grow unless you either do a collab with a popular artist, or you bring people over from another platform you’re popular on.
Artists used to draw fanarts to show their love/support for series, creator or it way they way to learn to draw. Now they drawing fanarts to "become popular" and sell their fanarts to fans of series. 🙄
I got told to draw stuff for a show i hadn't even seen. Like bruh. If i don't know or enjoy the show, I'm not gonna draw for it. And often times art drawn because the subject is popular just look recycled.
I've come to hate instagram. I remember when i created my first art acc when reel werent a thing yet, my Account grew so fast. I had like 300 followers after 3 weeks and my posts got at least 100 likes. I had cool art friends who supported each other. Then i had a huge art block and abandoned insta for a while. I created a new account for a fresh start but i struggle SO MUCH. My art is a lot better now, but i dont reach anyone. I made reels too out of desperation and these reached people. So after 2 months i reached 100 followers but these followers you gain from reels dont give any interaction at all. My drawings still get about 12 likes at max lol. And i know art shouldnt be about numbers but it is STILL so frustrating. I want to reach people to find art friends, to do art trades, to improve and someday maybe even make some money with comissions
Fan art is a double edge sword, you've got plenty of characters and inspiration along with built in fans, but diverting from what's already established by the fandom can result in controversy. Monetization aside it's also pretty thankless, I know I repost a lot of art I just find cause it looks neat and looks like a character from a series I know, but it's especially scummy when a company produces merchandise with your work and doesn't even try to contact you. If you prefer working in a series you're passionate about and know the characters very well that's fine but there are some who would rather not be tied down by other fans or make their own characters without it feeling like an OC in that universe. Genderswaps and reimagines are going to happen and I'm not too upset with race swapping if it's done with care and not just to exaggerate another culture onto someone elses work (easy way to get recognized for the wrong reasons), but there's also a group of fixers* who do it explicitly in bad faith and that shouldn't be tolerated.
Even in the early 2000 on DeviantArt, fanart & fetish art drowned out everything else. Fan art was the stepping stone & the bait to getting people to accept your real art.
Insta algorithm just hates artists. Artworks I put effort into gets only 10 likes from my loyal followers (which I'm forever thankful for) but something I don't put effort into gets more likes. It's infuriating. What's more harder is trying to branch out, tried on twitter - elon musk ruins it the moment i made an account, tried on tumblr - no attention since acc has been abandoned, discord - server owner supports harassment thus had to leave.
I dont know what the algoritm îs anymore and honestly im done , i just do my own thing i owe IT to myself but mostly to the artist friends /people that i met and that kept me going, there the real MVP's ಥ‿ಥ💜
I've just started attending horror conventions as an art vendor and it's shocked me, just from attending three so far, how many job opportunities have been offered to me, and how much money I've made from them. It feels like a small community, but it is strong. Not only that but looking at every other vendor at every show, I'm the only artist who makes defined cartoon art of horror characters, but not in a cutesy style which is why I think my art draws a lot of people together, both young and old. It's been a huge breath of fresh air and the positive environments have really helped me keep drawing, because social media really does suck.
Everything I've hear so far about art cons and in person art events has been good. I hate that being able to go to or get to those though has somewhat of a barrier of entry, compared to just sharing art as you make it. Maybe in the future.
I really don't get why Western people hate shipping characters so much. That was like the main foundation of Japanese/East Asian(including Southeast I think) Anime/Manga/Doujin culture such as Comike and stuff. I can imagine a lot of people being annoyed at getting unwanted shipping materials while searching Shonen-manga fanarts. However, those who draw these kind of shipping material tend to become the next manga artists or animators that make the contents you will love in the future. Let them draw what they want to draw at least on their SNS.
It's teenagers virtue signaling because weird parasocial stunted socialization due to cohwid + their brains aren't done developing anyway so no sense of nuance
That's why ships usually have their own tags and names. So people who purely seek for their favorite shonen characters won't get mixed up with ship arts
Shipping is just treated differently culturally, I know shipping on East Asian can still be a point of contention in some groups be people see the character as theirs and dislike seeing the romantic aspects directed at a character or anything for example. The difference is culturally I find it less common for them to remark it on others works and instead post about it in other aspects or just keep it to themselves, rather than treat it as something for creators to deal with. Although shipping can get out of hand in East Asian too it’s just culturally not really a thing to have the extreme levels of infighting based on social norms. In both cases I don’t think East Asia is perfect or gets off scot free even if it is an industry in itself and can do well. On the other hand shipping in western communities faces the struggle of people being both very combative and the individual society most live in. Things are meant to appeal to the individual and in that sense there is a right or wrong. People can’t accept that things aren’t canon and take their own ships as real so much to the point it does become a combative system of needing to be right and validated in a way that causes more of an issue because there is little stopping them socially from not posting or acting in a negative value to ships.
I used to be obsessed with wanting to become a popular artist when I was a teenager. A lot of art friends around me became popular because of some of the reasons in this video and it made me absolutely despise them. It became so bad for my mental health and the way I treated others, that I decided to stop actively sharing my art on social media. Now I cheer on my art friends whenever they get the attention they definitely deserve for their work and I just draw whenever I feel like it, which is like once in a blue moon. BUT, I take the time to ENJOY drawing instead of feeling the need to please others with my art. Don't let the pressure of social media get to you.
I draw art of my favorite anime characters almost all of the time so don't be afraid to draw your favorite or popular character, draw what makes you happy! :)
The bad part about trying to get popular from fanart is the sheer competition you effectively have with better, bigger artists. I've been drawing Warcraft fanart for a while, but unless you're really good, people won't really pay attention to your stuff. Same with Genshin, too. It just gets difficult to get an audience if you're not extremely great at art, at all. No idea what to do about it either.
Back when I posted on Deviantart weekly, I loved whenever I got the chance to collab or do an art trade. Collabs there typically meant one of us would color and the other did the lineart. Art trades being what you call collabs. Drawing each other's ocs. I really want to get back into that, though I have become a hermit and don't post nearly as much.
Honestly, it pains me to say how sad it is that people don't share the same ideas about art the way you describe it. I've been an artist for a long time, and I only posted on Instagram because that was quite common back in 2014 where everyone would post random things and it was never about being the next big page on Instagram. Even now, my follower count hasn't gone as high from what it was back in 2014. People I know mostly following me. Since I do multimedia art; never sticking to just one style. I believe that's why I never really got followers and still don't, occasionally I would post fanart and get more likes than usual. But after realising all the stress of being an artist online, I realize it's better to just save my energy and keep doing art as I want it, when I want it, and how I want it. Even when my posts get like 16 likes or less, those few people that I know who like my art and bother commenting, fulfill me with gratefulness. I'm not sure if it would be the same if I was popular on insta but what I can say is, the stress of being perfect online is not worth it if the likes don't mean anything.
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one that hates the idea of making videos on my art. I get that people want to see the process, but I'm not gonna do fancy transitions and voiceovers just for a short video. This is why I am not a fan of social media when it comes to posting art, because I feel like I need to do much more just to advertise my work. I do post on Instagram but almost never on reels. Now I am not sure how to further promote my art without these limitations.
With fan art, I love making it of the characters I love, I don’t make fan art of characters I don’t like, some of my fan art got on UK national television. I’m currently in a huge and wonderful collab at the moment.
I draw mostly fanart, once in a blue moon a post pops off but i havent seen significant growth over the past five years (im not consistent so thats on me lol). Idk, if people dont like fanart cuz they think it’s a cop-out, i dont think they’re recognizing how healing and fun putting ur fave characters in new scenarios can be. For me it’s the art that makes me happiest and it’s some of my fave art to consume. At the end of the day, do what makes you happy and inspired and dont do shit for the algorithm alone cuz the algorithm is dumb and sucks anyway!!! Also great video, been loving ur stuff lately :)
It’s honestly really great to know that the reason why engagement on any platform, especially on Instagram is difficult, isn’t a target towards me. Sure, I often wonder how on earth other artists around my skyrocket so much with followers and engagement, and continue to do so. While me on the other hand, I had a steady following going. Until it all suddenlt came crashing down in about a few months now, and I’ve lost a lot of engagement.
So true... Just came across this video randomly and really agree with the things you said. Reels on IG really are annoying, even more when it's the hundreds: "The algorithm is so unfair. Help me get popular, or you show that you don't care." That is pushing me away instead of making me interact, to be honest. While I reference Pinterest photos, too, it's only for practice. I am not good at drawing humans, so it's the whole range from little children to old people (the wrinkles make them so interesting!). These sketchbook spreads only occasionally make it into my stories, not my feed. I am becoming more and more grateful not to depend on online popularity. With my subjects I am far from any popular topic 😂
I love drawing fanart but I usually only do it to either make myself happy or to accompany the fics I write where I have a specific idea which I wanted to draw and something that can help people who read my fics visualise more what I was going for in the story. It's purely for me to practice whilst also sharing the vision I have for fics I write. However, I do get scared that one day someone will take my idea as theirs (especially when the fanart i have drawn for those fics are very specific to the fic) and it will become really popular in the art community and I wouldn't know and they get credited for it. Personally I also really like seeing fanart because I am very invested in my fandoms and always love new content. I just wish people would credit their inspo if they did take it from other artists and of course, when it's taken directly from the show.
Probably the healthiest way to focus on growing your following online is finding the trends that you'd actually have fun doing. Fanart is an easy one as long as you focus on characters and stories you actually enjoy. If you're a big fan of a meme or trend you can try to do something with that while it's relevant. As long as you're having fun you can reap the rewards of catering to what's popular without issues, the problem is when you start forcing yourself to do stuff that you hate or that disgusts you because you think what you like doing has no chance of growing a following, but honestly that's a pointless endeavor anyway, because you can't grow a following with trends and then revert back to your previous stuff without losing the interest of everyone you got because they came to you for those trends in the first place. And if you just keep doing it you'll hate yourself, your work, burnout and quit.
I used to try and get followers by doing fanart, but for the most part it went unnoticed. I posted a few on reddit, and those did suprisingly well (compared to the usual 10 - 20 likes on inta they got 80 - 300 upvotes,) but I stopped after I had some bad experiences, such as an elden ring fanart I spent many hours on getting taken down beacuse I mentioned ON MY PERSONAL PROFILE that I take commissions, and one that I deleted in the Genshin community beacuse people started making fun of, wich was again a piece I spent many hours on. So ye. I don't care anymore about followers. I tried. It made me angry. I bottled it up, and I'll just go sit in the corner and draw.
Yeah i dont bother with posting to other platforms anymore, like IT makes me extra anxious cuz idealy i loved posting in the fan grups im part in cuz i would like to talk about the hobbies and learn more but artwise Im not good for posting there (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ , ...maybe If i become more skillful 😂 , untill then same as You in the safe corner
9:05 artist collabs are so fun! recently i did one where we had to draw our own human versions of sanrio characters! fanart and a collab in one! it rlly helps if ur friends or at least have something in common so you have something genuinely fun to collaborate over
Why does it feel like theres a large portion of either gatekeepers or art thieves? 💀 At the same time it feels like there's too many clinically online mfs that need to just spout bs at eachother and spread negativity. Just a shame really.
As someone who strictly draws OCs and branching into Manga- I can understand not wanting to draw fanart- Though I'd never put it down. People should draw what gives them the most inspiration. & yes, you will be disadvantaged. But who cares.
I don’t how I’ve avoided this trap for so long. I have only drawn two “cute girl” characters in my lifetime. Cringe name alert: Kailurnuri-Kaira (2010-2017-2019) maybe And Madeline (2020-2022) possibly I haven’t posted either of them on Pinterest, which explains the lack of engagement on my account… But what I did post are some ocs, Acela, Paprika, Paula, etc. And pixel art. Also with no engagement whatsoever… But despite that, I continue to draw without completely fussing over not getting any attention on Pinterest. Just a bit for Tumblr recently and DeviantArt, late 2022. For those of you who read the whole comment: My account name is SwanPair. Do with that information what you will.
another thing i noticed that makes you instantly famous is your art style,,,,,, if you draw in a very detailed anime style, thin lines, cell-shading, soft colors, simple faces, detailed eyes, and what not you're instantly favored by the algorithm my art style is v much NOT that (somewhat realistic somewhat anime, thick lines, blended shading, vibrant colors, detailed faces) so i'm even more muted by the algorithm this at least applies to instagram and twitter, other sites im not sure. but i guarantee you when my art style was so much more anime i was seen a whole lot more. now that it's changed, it's like,,,,,, on top of everything else so the algorithm is like "okay, i see that you're trying real hard to get my attention, but someone just drew klee from genshin and that's way more important than your angel devil from chainsaw man and plus it's not a reel so nice try dummy"
I agree so much with your statement because I feel as if the art community favors certain art styles over others. For example the more “aesthetic” someone’s art is then the more praise they get. Don’t get me wrong all styles deserve love but one style shouldn’t be deemed as superior over another. (This doesn’t really apply to personal preference cause you can like what you like but I wish people were more respectful and less pushy about forcing their preferences onto other artists who draw in their own way)
Im an nsfw fanartist so I always feel really bad whenever I used to get put down for being a nsfw artist and I get ignored cause of it but I started ignoring the negative and started enjoying being an nsfw fanartist. While there are alot of things that are hated in the art community, if its harmless and you enjoy it then dont let others stop you from drawing what you wanna draw!
@@athenapantazes it is in fact the hardest art path, because to draw good nsfw you need to be INSANELY GOOD at anatomy, poses, fluid dynamics, texturing and etc.
Screw what the "american twitter nAzees" who spit on anything "fanservice" said and think. Do what makes you and your followers happy. As long as it doesn't hurt anyone (besides the american twitter nAzees' broken egos). 😂
as an artist myself i have to talk about this. for so many years ever since i picked up my pencil and began to draw, people ALWAYS made me feel terrible about my version of a charcater or my art, people really worship that "emo edgy hot girl/boy" art style that when i add some thing's that make characters less "hot" to them immediately im thrown out the window. like i'm sorry I didnt make jeff the killer a sexy emo boy with a fetish for knives? no one talks about this. everyone seems to be on the second side of tiktok just so obsessed with that pinterest asian artstyle, they make arabs, black people, mexican people, you name it, all look asian in a way like korean, japanese . it really sucks that everyone is the same, copy pasted art with little to no creativity. it's all thrown to the alogrithim. and that SUCKS.
I'm amazed how those artist mostly not bother thinking about releasing products like comic -graphic novel - drawing book guide - merchandise etc . Yes it need dedication and spending time and money , but in the end it will give better outcome than trying hard to be Instagram rockstar
I HATE doing fanart. Every now and I get the sudden urge and I have to sit down and do the fanart start to finish in one sitting or it'll never get finished. I posted 3-4 pieces of fanart out of 17 illustrations in 2023 but I've seen a fair amount of growth anyway. It's very slow growth but I'm happy with that. My top post for the year was an original piece, second place was a DTIYS and third was One Piece fanart. So yes Fanart does help but so does art challenges and well placed hashtags! The algorithm isn't something to chase, slow and steady growth ends up better in the long run! Most importantly passion and loving your art is going to be the biggest draw to yourself!
My biggest art pet peeve is people who directly copy other peoples art styles, but don't learn anatomy, etc. Like aretgerm or sakimichan clones. They can't do anatomy but they can color...
"Let people draw what/however they want it's just a drawing it's not hurting anyone" "no not like that! I don't like what you draw personally so instead of blocking/ignoring you I'm going to harass you instead" Those people can actually die mad about it why do you care so much what I draw and continue to interact with me?
I wonder sometimes if people are aware that there is a HUGE difference between loving to do and make art and making art a "career" aka ones work, or source of income for survival.... A job
I needed to hear the last part of the video, it made me feel better because, I've been practicing character design with OC's that I make. I've engaged with some artists that I look up to and given me advise. I just want to draw stuff that I want and see what other people are drawing. I love seeing art and love doing art. It's a shame that it does get to us mentally because we just wanna be good. (Also, is that The Boondocks Stop Snitching song lol)
This makes me glad I have tumblr and discord to show my art to I've got a small section on Tumblr from my art, and I'm very happy about it It has brought me so much joy, and I love making a bunch of different posts on it I don't mind if something doesn't make all the likes or such, I'm here to vibe and present what I got, talk to people from time to time, and sometimes hunt for art trades hehehe And my discord groups are great, I often fling art/writing at them and the servers enjoy it I have a place, and I'm proud about it
the reason drawing cute girls works is cus thats just what people prefer; youre far more likely to gain traction from drawing women especially with conventionally attractive features like smooth faces, pretty eyes, large breasts/hips, etc. due to the fact lots of people simply just prefer that. subsequently, women also require more effort to draw than men on account of making sure the women actually look good, which in turn will often lead to more technically stunning pieces (and of course, peoples preference for women will reflect within the algorithms too) its always good to draw a more diverse cast of people/characters, but if you wanna gain traction, drawing pretty girls is a surefire way to do so just because thats such a large preference for many many people; and of course, if all ya wanna do is draw pretty girls, thats totally okay too. as long as youre happy drawing, thats all ya really need, right?
I'm not certain if small collabs/switcharounds are that popular anymore, but zines certainly are! That being said I've noticed that there's been a slight push towards more polished final products, the application processes for which discourage many younger artists from trying. I'd like to a see a shift back to rough and loose digital zines or even collages, that's how the medium began after all! And of course, the simplest way to collab is by doing art trades within your circle.
I can confirm art collabs still happen and do sometimes work! They've changed quite a bit though. Most of them involve artists drawing their own image based on a theme instead of artists working on one piece, so the art collabs end up with numbers nearing the 30s. It's a good way to grow, but from what I've seen, only a small number of artists actively do/partake in art collabs, so the growth is very short-lived.
I love your videos so much because I always leave feeling validated. ✨ Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the process of drawing is more important than the result and all the likes you can get from the result.
the problem with fanart is big enough, since the audience just comes and goes to this or that art and if the next art is not with their favorite character, they are very likely to leave and come back when you do this again and so on. Somehow I got carried away with one couple and it was funny when at least 10 people came and went with this pattern It was funny and we even made bets on adding and subtracting
This is what happens when people take art as a means of popularizing themselves. Art is supposed to be free, you create the things you want to create because at the end of the day beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and you as an artist shouldn't be constrained to what other people tell you "YOU SHOULD DO"
I did a whole weekly webcomic for YEARS. No one cared. I've been drawing OC's for years. No one cares. I drew fanart of various works over that same time and that was the only thing that ever got anything close to any kind of "traction". Even that was/is relative. Now I mostly just draw Dragonball and Thicc chicks cuz I enjoy drawing those things, which is basically just still fanart. PS. I also added portraits or, "studies" to my repertoire... People seem to like that the least from me... So it's back to Melons and Peaches. That aside, I like seeing the regular insta/pinterest girls and fanart on my timeline because the people doing them are obviously talented and the art is good. It's when it isn't good with 100x the engagement I could get on my best day is when I get salty.
As an artist who mostly draw fanarts and makes animations about a youtuber, sometimes the community is the thing that push me to draw, it's wholesome. You will always have to put watermark(s) and everything else but it's worth.
I really feel with social media we artists tend to forget to just sit down and draw what we want to draw sometimes. when I started I was drawing fanart and at the time I was really enjoying it. fast forward two years and I still enjoy it. but I endlessly compare myself to other amazing artists drawing the same character as I am. and immediately just stop drawing. I wasn't having fun anymore, but was still pushing myself to draw when I could so I could "get better." needless to say that was self destructive. so I did something I didn't even think I was capable of. I made my firs oc, and I have had so much fun drawing her it is insane. Building a world for her is just as fun, and I'm drawing things I never really did before like backgrounds and drums lol. I now don't compare myself to anyone other than myself, since I'm the only one drawing my character, I haven't had this much fun drawing in a long time.
bro I just draw my cringe half demon half angel alpha wolf hybrid princess queen of hell and heaven/j but sometimes i just draw most of my art just for myself, but not for the audience. ofc sure, i want someone to compliement my art or give me critics if i were to show it online. but I draw fanarts, ocs, myself, or my family just for fun. this is just for me tho, ofc u guys can draw for the audience too but dont force yourself. anyways, im going back to drawing. bye bye :3
Before, I was upset about not gaining enough followers and I thought I was a terrible artist, in addition to putting me down, today even though I aim to make a living from my art, I post drawings that I really feel good about doing, whether it's a character with a story , creation or study.
I think it's sad that we also only ever see similar-looking and generally attractive/cute girls. Heck, a few days ago I saw an artist posting their 100 portraits of the 100 portraits challenge and while the male faces were rather diverse (there were older guys and guys with all shapes of noses for example) but the female faces looked all the same! Yeah, there were POC among them, but every portrait of a female face looked basically the same (20-30 years old, tiny faces, tiny noses, big eyes, full lips - very stereotypical). And then I saw a video of an artist fixing and older portrait of a female character. The by far biggest change was that they made the nose smaller. I think it's sad that people seem to only draw pretty faces instead of also interesting ones. Just try to look for drawings of men with round faces or women with large noses (very broad or aquiline).
poeple are always gonna hate, its not a valid reason to hate artist drawn something people enjoy watching. At the end of the day, you need to realize that instagram is not a plat form for only artist, there are people just appreciating seeing pretty faces, they dont care how technically difficult the art is. Also, hating an Art because how "easly/effortless" it is to draw is the most snobbish thing ive ever heard, if you dont like an art dont do it urself, theres no reason to hate when other peolpe do it
I know I might offend people, but I don’t care. I think and will always think that traditional art including paper to pencil, painting, water color, sculpting, wood carving, using pastels etc is way better then digital art, with that being said I don’t discredit digital artists and personally love some of there work especially Sam does art but, it’s over used to the point that hyper realism and sketch on paper isn’t popular anymore even though it takes so much work, I think the only reason why people do it is because it’s easy, you can zoom in, get any color you want, blend colors and if you make a mistake you can backspace, but the most annoying one is definitely tracing. Again I don’t hate digital artists I think it’s just over used, and younger artists should take a break and learn other forms of art (btw I’ve tried pretty much all art styles lol)
I can understand that as you are learning as an artists, you may default to the default head or bodies you would see in an art book or guide because you’re still trying to understand underlying forms. While it is great for gesture practice, extra folds and fat is extra information to learn about on top of the skeletal and muscles structure so it could be more daunting in the beginning. So I’m sayin’ I agree a lot of same face syndrome and making things sexual or cutesy is a problem for sure, though I think it could also be a transitional period of a lack of knowledge. Does get me thinking though about my influences when making art and what I’d like to make if I was totally free to make what I’d want.
I think most people just draw fanart and hope for the best.For me I dont really care about geting popular I dont wana make money from it so I just draw whatever I want.But recentley I been drawing ponys cuz theres this fan project I been doing I like to write aswel and make charakters so everything comes together to create edgy ponys sometimes or humans or demons or cat girls? Yeah uh.Its nice
Collaborations still happen! I became friends with some artists through a collab request like 3 years ago and we've been doing collabs every once in a while
I too really hate making fanart. I don't feel excited about having to draw someone else's creation. I rather just make my own thing, but I also do recognise that it is somewhat difficult to get your stuff out there if there isn't already some familiarity with the stuff you create, which puts me in a pretty predicament. Before I could probably do a thing or two, but know I absolutely can't be bothered with fan-art anymore. I just lose interest while I'm drawing it.
I have been drawing and sharing art online for over 10 years The biggest difference is my audience At first they used to be people who were into art and I never worried about what I draw Now they are casual people online who want to see pretty pictures, if I drew what I want my art will not receive any attention
I'm glad I found my people here. I hate Instagram reels too 😂 I tried making some myself and was like.. what the heck, what am I doing??? I'm making these short videos that are 3 seconds each, so a minute total, and for what? Making other people waste their time staring at the screen instead of doing something else that can help them improve?? No way. I've also realized how damaging they are. I'm a millennial and I know I once had perseverance and initiative when it came to starting and finishing something. Now it's different , could maybe blame it on the reels, maybe not...but I miss the good old Galleries. My plan is to promote my art locally and connect with people, continue to have an Insta gallery or website and have more time for art instead of trying to please an algorithm.
*_what is your birth month?? tell me now!_*
january
December gang
november!
July
AUGUSTT
Imagine if art of monks just suddenly skyrocketed and became more popular than art of cute girls.
That’d be more favourable tbh monks are epic
I would be making bank
Guys. Post monks, pleeeease!
We should organize a movement which we grow and promote throught the year until november, in which we rally as much people as possible to draw and post monks instead of cute girls. Why november? no particular reason.
Liu kang fanart👹
At the end of the day: draw what makes you happy. If someone doesn’t like what you create - it’s okay! Spend your energy creating what you love and the right audience will find you over time. The people who genuinely want to support you will stick around. 🙏🏾💕
I’ve honestly reached the point where I just post something on Instagram and leave until the next post. I don’t want to cater to algorithms or stress myself out anymore. Now I just chill with the art homies on Discord and draw my OCs during voice calls. And I’ve been a lot happier since I gradually started using socials less often.
This is truly what is most important. Draw what makes you happy and what you’re most passionate about. It’s the only thing that’ll keep you going when you begin to burnout
Yeah exactly!
If you don't care about ever making a living in art, that's fine. If you do want to be commercially viable, you have to produce what the customers and the algorithms care about.
@@waltlock8805 If that's the mindset you're thinking of: then it doesn't apply to what I said. I'm only talking about people drawing what makes them happy, nothing about commercial work. 🤷🏾♀️
@@CozyCabbit and if you’re in an industry you likely won’t be drawing for a social media anyway. Only for your employer.
Bet I could draw pinterest girls all day and STILL lurk beneath the radar
lmaooo now imagine drawing pinterest girls and making reels of the drawing....👈🏽👈🏽👈🏽
Sad but true
Tried tested and true. Been doing that along with cute girls but y'know still with few followers (probably an art skill issue on my end but y'know still)
@@MohammedAgbadi I have done that with my normal drawings just to stay relevant. I have sunken so low so fast
@@floskywalker6220 If it's Instagram it's probably a classic case of the Instagram algorithm
I think one of the biggest reasons the Pretty Girl Portraits are hitting so well is because often times the art styles are very similar to that of Disney or popular Disney Fanarts. The art is very simple with simple color palettes that even people who have no greater understanding of art and art theory can enjoy casually. Also I think many people think it is really quirky to see a real person turned into a cute colorful drawing.
It's aesthetically pleasing, that's why it works imo. That's why anime works all over the world, a huge amount of people thinks it's cute and pleasant to look at. An adorable girl in pastel colors is somewhat soothing to the soul, there's not much more to it really. Disney characters have a similar pleasant palette and style to them c:
@@bighatastreaI agree! Sometimes I just want to draw something cute and aesthetically pleasing.
Anime and Same Face Syndrome are just 2 Toxic Art Styles
@@MiJi_29 wow we have toxic art styles now.......
Becauss it's pretty and people liek pretty girls. Realistic portraits, beautiful landscapes and sunset skies are much harder but when was the last time a landscape artist got popular?
It's sad that fanart has gotten a lot of hate. If you're a Rick Riordan Universe fan (Percy Jackson, Kane Chronicles, Magnus Chase, etc) then you know how important a certain artist's fanart was lol.
omg yes, I'll never forget Viria's art. To this day her name is stuck in my head lmao
What happened?
Thank you! Agreed!
What happened?
@@AwesomeYena @AwesomeYena A few years ago Viria (who was the biggest PJO fanartist a few years ago and has now drawn the new official art) was "canceled" by some fans because they accused her of drawing Annabeth with darker skin than POC characters and they found old Percy X Nico fanart, that they said was NSFW (which it really wasn't) and called her a pedophile. Even though she was a teen herself when she drew it and she aged up the characters.
She got extremely harassed and some people even sent her death threats.
In the end, she left the fandom. After creating amazing art for it for years, she left because of the harassment.
She only recently came back with a drawing of the actors of the TV show, but she said it was a one time thing and she'll never come back to the fandom.
But honestly she's not the only one, there are a lot of PJO fanartists who have left or thought about leaving the fandom, because of how "Fans" are treating them.
I'm a smaller fanartist in the fandom and there was a time when I was scared to upload anything, because of the toxicity. I still am with certain characters. And that's without having a big following. So I can understand to some point why some bigger artists don't want to draw PJO fanart anymore
This made me feel better about my art. I haven't been growing on Instagram for a while to the point where I stopped caring. I honestly thought that my art wasn't really that great, but the second I posted a reel I started to gain more followers. I do NOT want to prosper making reels. I just want people to see my characters and their stories, not have to constantly do something I don't enjoy to gain some eyes.
Even then it depends on the reel. I Show my drawing process in full via a reel (inking & painting) and you're lucky if anyone faves it but rarely does it ever get you a follow.
Same here
I used to care about growing my Insta account. But I realized that I was just... not happy. There's that need to post often, and with my extreme schedule, I just can't draw every day. Maybe I tried making reels, and there was a time when it sort of prospered, but I don't feel good making reels either.
It's the fact that people are just there to see the transitions and fast-paced video followed by a popular song. It's just something to cater to a short attention span. It's sort of why I also don't reveal my art account to anyone I know, because the first thing they're always in awe with is the follower count.
I started to just post whenever I feel like it, and post for the purpose of analyzing and showing my progress in my hobby. I've been much happier this way tbh. And like Meika said, you're lucky if someone likes it, but that's about it. It's never going to be the happiness of reaching another peak in the mountain you're climbing. So best to stop looking at the other climbers and move on.
im an artist as well, but i dont use instagram. i know my sister uses instagram and mainly uses it just to have a popular social media account purely for the sake of money. however, she refuses to use reels to get there, i dont know how well the instagram algorithm works, but if that's the only way of getting a few followers, then i'd much rather just draw for myself and my friends.
@alairia Ayy Another Link pfp but indeed. I'd rather have fun than sell my soul and limit my creativity
The only ones that truly bother me on Instagram is the art repost pages. They post and say “credit unknown” despite there being a signature and watermark saying the artist name and reverse image search is so ridiculously easy. When you tell them who the artist is they delete your comment and block you. It’s simply lazy.
Course there might be some problems with images.
Depending on how they posted and got the image. The image might get blurry and the name ends up being hard to see. (Such how Facebook lowers the quality)
Then you have those that crop out the name. (Which is why it might be better to put the name in the pic instead)
Also reverse image search isn't 100%. I've tried to look for some images and nothing. It'll work better the more the image is posted on sites (although some artists might not post everywhere and being limited)
Most of those are bot-run and barely know whats going on.
frr
They're cowards, nuf said.
I hate instagram. Garbage ass bot infested website.
What if I hate networking? It’s so gross that everything revolves around finding the right person’s butt to kiss to get anywhere in this stupid world.
Non-superficial networking, just means that at least a handful of people, who are, or will be, in a position to fund you in some way, know that your work is worth funding already, without you having to convince them of that again.
Basically, to take an example from a different field, if I collaborate with someone on an open-source software project, and that project happens to be relied on by a company my partner works in, he could easily fast-track an interview for me (in most cases) if I ever needed a job, and vouch for me because he already knows what I can do.
No need for any pleasantries, or even kind words.
Just avoid being a dick for no reason, and try to work in a such a way, that others can easily see what you are capable of.
For more superficial, but still useful, kinds of networking do something that gets the attention of either a recruiter if you're scouting for a 9 to 5, or a client who may commission you for something for freelancing.
Then just keep in touch from time to time.
Ass-kissing is entirely optionally.
Just avoid being needlessly difficult to work with.
Word
Felt very similarly about this until recently. I think the key is: don't kiss up - punch up, and kiss sideways.
Which is to say, hold yourself to the highest standard you can, and surround yourself with like-minded peers that encourage you to grow and enjoy your work.
In my mind, networking is less about kissing ass and more about mainainting a consistent presence in a community so that when an opportunity arises that you'd be a good fit for, people are then actually able to recommend you because you've established a reliable report/work ethic.
Well then it's either stay true to yourself or sell out. I'm glad I can afford the first one and still pay my rent.
Suck it up until its finally your ass is getting kiss
Personally, drawing just a face has been SO hard for me
I like to go to Pinterest to find an interesting pose reference, it could be a headstand, sitting on a swing, etc.
But I love making full poses, and if instagram doesn’t like that, I don’t mind, cause I do.
But your points here are so correct, instagram does favorite certain things better then others,and it’s annoying.
It's okay I recommend a book that teaches you the fundamentals of drawing the body including head. Wish I read it sooner. My drawings are getting a bit better now but not much since I'm not smart enough to utilize what I've learned fully
It's not really "instagram". It's people. People shape the algorithm. Remember to take a lool at the images you like, comment, and engage with.
My face be like:
: )
Years ago I was like 16 years old and I wanted to be an instagram famous artist. So, I started to draw digitally and regulary posted. It was months before I had any follower and I was going crazy looking at younger artists have fame when I only had 3 likes at best. Of course, that was not a healthy aproach, but I was a stressed attention seeker teenager and I started to think that anything I put time to draw should be meant to be posted. Back then I also didn't like to draw fanart, but I started doing it because I wanted people to notice me. When that didn't work I just started drawing other artists fancharacters...I only did that thinking that maybe their followers would notice me or something.
One day, I posted something and came back to it every five minutes, as always, to see if it had gotten any likes. I realized I was stressed because of the number of likes. I did not like this.
I decided to take a break, this was on early 2021. Later on, I just realized I was not meant for it at all. My goal should never have been "make drawings to post", when I started, I just wanted to "post the drawings I had done".
I know, long story. And also bad english, excuse my non native self for that. Just wanted to let anyone that may be going through something similar know that you should focus on your art first. Maybe you are not mentally prepared to post and not care about things like likes and followers.
No....ur situation is literally me........and i post on twitter just to saving my art cuz my memory almost full. And my mentality get much better but get stuck with my inner self for creating art(this kinda hard to explain it's complicated cuz.....im to focus for making a good or just one piece of art that can makes me satisfied and happy...........) Cuz if i satisfied with the drswing result = im happy with the process.
That's literally my situation i post my art then delete it if i don't get any likes and be stressed about it all day
Like I haven't drawn in a week and after that
Lmao true that was how i was when i started to post my artworks. But it was more like "what if people think im lame cuz i domt have much likes nor follows?" That's when i turned pixiv and never looked back. It's all art related and you don't get drowned nor forgotten even if you get inactive. Follows arent visible in pixiv and likes aren't really a big deal in there either. You can see how many people you've reached in plain sight too. I think it's the healthiest app in all that i've used because i don't get so stressed out with the above mentioned. I post what i only like, and people sometimes like them, dont like them, but overall someone will always see them by the end of the day. What matters is that i grabbed someone's attention with the stuff i like even if it's only a split second.
Thank you so much for sharing your story, I am a graphic/web designer and I love to draw a lot, but I am kinda busy and people online who are geeing likes and followers. I used to think that I want to become famous on TikTok and Instagram
the thing is, I wanted to draw for likes and followers not for myself what I love
I will continue my hobby, and share the post I love not for followers
my English is bad too, so please excuse me
thank u
There are so many underrated artist out there and sometimes people post things with no effort and get so many likes. Yet the person taking time hardly gets any at all?
it happens like that sometimes. you have to separate your art from social media, focus on improving, and find value in your work by becomin better than you were yesterday
Pain
This has been the case for as long as known history. Raging at the unfairness of it all will do as much good as trying to wish away gravity.
@@MohammedAgbadi I agree yh. I’m trying to improve and I think that’s the best way and not to compare yourself to others because you will improve at ur own speed! ALSO I AM A BIG FAN
@@defenestrationismyfavoriteword yes only way to overcome this feeling is to ignore it all. Only focus on drawing and putting your work out there. It will take time but everyday you post you get closer to the following amount you yearn ❤❤giving up will end all that no keep going
Make more videos like this, love this energy , friends, community, self improving is way more important than toxic social media on IG trying to please people turning into mindless robots.
Thankyou! I’ll do my best !
TikTok has ruined social media, RUclips and others have to force short video content and now images aren't worth anything unless you record a video. Let TikTok be TikTok, let Instagram be Instagram, and fix Facebook or leave it for shitposts.
Yes. After TikTok started the trend of promoting short form content extremely and making it easy for creators to go viral multiple times, every other platform has tried doing the same one way or another.
Not to mention that Tik Tok is more toxic than the average app 🫤
@@twovioletsevery app is toxic btw
I always feel really bad because I mostly draw fanart 😭 but I really really love drawing characters that I love and make me happy.
Just draw what you love
Fandoms live because of fan art more than original, keep at it.
do not feel bad for drawing fanart. you are not obligated to draw stuff other people want you to! so do what you love ♥
don't feel bad. Fanart and fanfiction each make people really happy and nothing's really that original anyways :)
I think one of the most disappointing trends and strategies isn't necessarily from the artists, themselves, but the media platforms and algorithms. So much of the digital art being put out onto media today looks very similar. The color choices, the styles, the lack of diversity in subject matter, even. Headshot. Pretty girl, cotton candy colors. Limited analogous palette. They have AI that look for these things and promote them, knowing that it's what will get attention.
But not everyone responds to that or can draw in that way. It's become an exclusive club, not necessarily because of the art community, but because of the platforms or online "galleries" that refuse to show anything different.
The drawing that made me want to become an artist wasn't anything like that. I was at a con and I saw a comic book artist sketching a boy in a hoodie and baseball cap eating a plate of spaghetti, looking off to one side, annoyed. It was just a simple pencil sketch, but the lack of color brought the attention to his expression, the scene, and his body language. Something like that would never get promoted these days, and I'm sad to think that there could be more expressive sketches out there, completely hidden under mounds and mounds of anime-eye girls with pouty lips, and long strands of cotton candy hair.
Every time I post a sketch, it gets ignored or downplayed because "finish it first" or "why isn't it colored?"
I like the sketchy feel, when I do something colored I color it directly, mostly because I have health issues and limited energy too, but my focus is on the feel rather than detail yet every time the reply is "why us the resolution low? Why isn't it inked? There isn't a lot of detail."
As if they aren't using their eyes, just a ruler and measuring by pixel.
The reason why this opinion is completely correct. In fact, it was possible to gather 3,000 followers for nothing on the new meta platform. This is a world where you can even get followers and views by paying money. The world is run by lies, and it is safe to say that everything on the Internet in particular is a condensation of lies.
The Instagram reels thing is SO TRUE, they only did it cause they know a short videos based app does well, without any regard of their users that only wanted A PICTURE SHARING APP OMG WHYYYYY
RIGHHTTTTT LIKE UCK- I DONT want to make fucking reeels to get ppl to see my page- I can barely manage posting 😭 but posting is so fun I rather see that then reels cause ppl put too many transitions and I barely SEE the art like bruh 5 seconds at the end they barely put it in 🥲
Fr. Everything’s gotta become tiktok now
I heard Instagram is rethinking pushing reels so much. I forgot the channel tho
I personally think the reels feature is very helpful. Before it existed, it's almost impossible for small artists to gain popularity (i mean i don't draw for likes, but i need them to start a career on social media). I do agree that reels are mostly just pointless trend videos, but there are actually interesting ones. It also helps me to find great artists that i've never heard of before
I think most people who draw fanart don't do it to grow on social media, though I understand that it definitely helps you grow. Personally, I love drawing fan art and getting to share it with the community online!
Fan art is no grantee that you'll get followers. 😂 I'm a fan artist of some pretty obscure fandoms and we barely get traction. My OCs get as as much attention as my fan stuff so either way it doesn't make a difference what I draw we're still gonna be invisible 😅
Same i draw fanart 98% and never get 100 followers its depend what you draw for fandom ;)
I'm honestly really glad that much of the type of artwork I make (18+) cannot be posted on Instagram. I recently gave up on posting to Twitter because its algorithm absolutely hates artists... my mental health has improved a lot since then. Personally, instead of having a huge following, I'd rather have a small number of followers that regularly engage with me and are positive and supportive.
I like to think of it as I am looking for friends, not followers. I don't like engaging with people I wouldn't actually hang out with in real life lol. But I'm not trying to make a career of it either
EXACTLY!!!!! while i dont post 18 + stuff i just want someone to talk to about art and it seems like art is now a commodity where people are just liking and leaving. its so sad.
God, same here. I feel like having a large following is gonna be harder to manage and keep track because it’s so easy for supporters to go way off the handle in defending their fave artists
Where do you share now? I feel stuck to Instagram and would welcome any recommendations!
@@deanhensby9610 like the only places where 18+ stuff is
not gonna lie- These things been a thing for a long time-since the Deviantart rise era- listening to these takes me back to 2011-and yes I fall into some of these traps! Being away from art community since 2019 and listening to these sure brought be back.
It's sad that collaboration died or drawing together on some type of platform were many people see each other drawing- I miss those days!
I still do enjoy those collabs. On blue YT. And on the new green YT. Streaming is a cool thing.
What is green yt?
@@carlosemiralonso7997 I still have no idea what green yt is, but thanks.
I'm totally game for collabs!
Collabs are rare nowadays bc people are generally bust or burnt out, sadly...
Wild to me that people don’t like fanart because of different art styles that aren’t the original. To me that’s the coolest part about looking at others’ fanart! :0
Remember the time Instagram used to be purely a photo sharing platform and not TikTok 2.0?
Me neither.
The most hated strategy isn't the art style, but using popular tags.
SERIOUSLY. Once I was scrolling the autism acceptance tag and found Naruto fanart because they were tag spamming. It's so annoying.
Thank god Tumblr lets you report those types of people.
Sorry but you stayed out of your lane, off to the shadow realm you go. * Hits report for spam*
Also.. you need to do that to combat bots.
*Sexy Times with Wangxian intensifies*
i see someone following these tips and actually becoming popular...goodluck gang
I've essentially given up on growing social media because there are so many hoops you need to jump through. Been trying to grow for a few years now and it hasn't gone anywhere. I figure I shouldn't put my attention on it and instead try to get better at art in general.
I am strickly a fanartist. I make art because I like being a fan of said properties, I love if people enjoy what I draw, but I don't really care if I become "popular". Sure I've had those douches complain about how I portray some characters, but I also have many people who enjoy what I make so... It's worth it. After all my art is for me FIRST, and others second; because some enjoy what I make, I go ahead and post my art to social media. Even if nobody enjoyed what I do, I'd still draw tbh I'd just keep it to myself lol
Omg I was about to comment almost exactly what you wrote with the difference that I don't post my art as much because I'm don't know how to deal with those people that will criticize my art. Also, I love to create art for my enjoyment, so people don't need to see it. But it still would be nice to learn how to deal with others critiques
@@inky006 Ah man, dude... It did not come easy; it took a while for me to be able to handle taking punches. I'm close to thirty and have been posting my art online ever since I was 15, so I've had a looooong time to learn how to let go and come to terms that some people kinda... just suck lol :')
So this is why art feels harder to find nowadays. Kinda what youtube has done that buries people I see. I feel especially bad for fanartists as if it's not threats and harassment from shippers it's the "fixers" who gender/raceswap their work they gotta deal with seemingly way more often than other types of art.
Drawing fan art is like... "You're gonna lose it!" "No I won't" "You mean that thing was real!?" The Matrix has drowned out your words, I would not play The Matrix in the background if you don't want to me to be completely distracted. I memorized this entire movie as I played it in the background everytime I draw or animate.
lmaooo i memorized the first and second movie! literally had the soundtrack of the second movie on all my devices and still listen to it uptill now.. so good!
@@MohammedAgbadi Dunno what it is about it that inspires art.
I cannot, for the life of me, have any movie I watched a million times over (Godzilla, any of them), and try to draw, because then I start trying to draw either what I am listening to or start watching the movie instead. LOL
So I end up listening to music, like songs from Two Steps of Hell or TeknoAxe, depending on my mood or what I'm drawing (or what I have envisioned drawing and failing horribly at it).
@@ArtistChibi Sometimes I'll watch aka listen to Tron Legacy, I think it's the predictability that adds to the relaxing part.
Drawing fanart can be usefully, especially if you want to work for an animation studio. Being able to accurately replicate a style consistently is a good skill.
Instagram has been getting pretty bad lately. I mainly post there and only have 40 followers since my old account got hacked and deleted witch had 200 followers. I don't follow many people and my for you page only has reels whenever people I follow aren't on my screen. It seems to be shadow banning artists who mainly post pictures and not reels. I'm not the only one who's been getting shadow banned for no apparent reason at all.
ahh same here :((
it's literally just focused on forcing artists to make reels instead of images. i can't stand it tbh. i just login from time to time each week to see what my friends are upto and leave
Me too I got hacked but it did not delete my account and I know who hacked me-Bitcoin. Bitcoin did. Stupid Bitcoin hacked me and a bunch of other people as well as random teens and kids too.
Oh god same, I had 1000+ followers I accumulated over the past 2 years but then I got reported to hate speech (Idk why I think even commenting like, punch or kick is bad) and couldn't reenter my account 😢
Instagram is slowly heading towards a pay your way model and it’s killing small creators from growing a following. If you have less than 10k followers already, it’s incredibly hard to grow unless you either do a collab with a popular artist, or you bring people over from another platform you’re popular on.
Artists used to draw fanarts to show their love/support for series, creator or it way they way to learn to draw.
Now they drawing fanarts to "become popular" and sell their fanarts to fans of series. 🙄
😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 you took me back to 2009/10
There are still some artists on tumblr that draw fanarts just because they can and want. ❤
People on twitter... well they draw commissions. 😆
I got told to draw stuff for a show i hadn't even seen.
Like bruh. If i don't know or enjoy the show, I'm not gonna draw for it.
And often times art drawn because the subject is popular just look recycled.
@@ChisaiHoshioh that's me... glad to say i never sell fanart and enjoy drawing what i love ... with no money in pocket
This. This beautiful comment. I 1000% with you. 😫😁
I've come to hate instagram. I remember when i created my first art acc when reel werent a thing yet, my Account grew so fast. I had like 300 followers after 3 weeks and my posts got at least 100 likes. I had cool art friends who supported each other. Then i had a huge art block and abandoned insta for a while. I created a new account for a fresh start but i struggle SO MUCH. My art is a lot better now, but i dont reach anyone. I made reels too out of desperation and these reached people. So after 2 months i reached 100 followers but these followers you gain from reels dont give any interaction at all. My drawings still get about 12 likes at max lol. And i know art shouldnt be about numbers but it is STILL so frustrating. I want to reach people to find art friends, to do art trades, to improve and someday maybe even make some money with comissions
Fan art is a double edge sword, you've got plenty of characters and inspiration along with built in fans, but diverting from what's already established by the fandom can result in controversy. Monetization aside it's also pretty thankless, I know I repost a lot of art I just find cause it looks neat and looks like a character from a series I know, but it's especially scummy when a company produces merchandise with your work and doesn't even try to contact you. If you prefer working in a series you're passionate about and know the characters very well that's fine but there are some who would rather not be tied down by other fans or make their own characters without it feeling like an OC in that universe. Genderswaps and reimagines are going to happen and I'm not too upset with race swapping if it's done with care and not just to exaggerate another culture onto someone elses work (easy way to get recognized for the wrong reasons), but there's also a group of fixers* who do it explicitly in bad faith and that shouldn't be tolerated.
Even in the early 2000 on DeviantArt, fanart & fetish art drowned out everything else. Fan art was the stepping stone & the bait to getting people to accept your real art.
Insta algorithm just hates artists. Artworks I put effort into gets only 10 likes from my loyal followers (which I'm forever thankful for) but something I don't put effort into gets more likes. It's infuriating.
What's more harder is trying to branch out, tried on twitter - elon musk ruins it the moment i made an account, tried on tumblr - no attention since acc has been abandoned, discord - server owner supports harassment thus had to leave.
Can I have the name of your Insta account? Your PP is absolutely cute!
I dont know what the algoritm îs anymore and honestly im done , i just do my own thing i owe IT to myself but mostly to the artist friends /people that i met and that kept me going, there the real MVP's ಥ‿ಥ💜
@@Melanie-Elisabeth sorry for the late response, it's elevenfour.114
and ifg what I was using as my pfp when I commented
@@lilpretzel5629 I've cut ties with some artist friends and my current ones dont use instagram that much. So I'm fighting the algorithm all by myself.
Ain't no way you put Sam and Zee in the same topic
of course not come on
I've just started attending horror conventions as an art vendor and it's shocked me, just from attending three so far, how many job opportunities have been offered to me, and how much money I've made from them. It feels like a small community, but it is strong. Not only that but looking at every other vendor at every show, I'm the only artist who makes defined cartoon art of horror characters, but not in a cutesy style which is why I think my art draws a lot of people together, both young and old. It's been a huge breath of fresh air and the positive environments have really helped me keep drawing, because social media really does suck.
Everything I've hear so far about art cons and in person art events has been good. I hate that being able to go to or get to those though has somewhat of a barrier of entry, compared to just sharing art as you make it. Maybe in the future.
I really don't get why Western people hate shipping characters so much. That was like the main foundation of Japanese/East Asian(including Southeast I think) Anime/Manga/Doujin culture such as Comike and stuff. I can imagine a lot of people being annoyed at getting unwanted shipping materials while searching Shonen-manga fanarts. However, those who draw these kind of shipping material tend to become the next manga artists or animators that make the contents you will love in the future. Let them draw what they want to draw at least on their SNS.
Yeah. It’s the basis of Western fandom too, since women were writing KirkXSpock fanfiction since Star Trek was first running.
It's teenagers virtue signaling because weird parasocial stunted socialization due to cohwid + their brains aren't done developing anyway so no sense of nuance
That's why ships usually have their own tags and names. So people who purely seek for their favorite shonen characters won't get mixed up with ship arts
Shipping is just treated differently culturally, I know shipping on East Asian can still be a point of contention in some groups be people see the character as theirs and dislike seeing the romantic aspects directed at a character or anything for example. The difference is culturally I find it less common for them to remark it on others works and instead post about it in other aspects or just keep it to themselves, rather than treat it as something for creators to deal with. Although shipping can get out of hand in East Asian too it’s just culturally not really a thing to have the extreme levels of infighting based on social norms. In both cases I don’t think East Asia is perfect or gets off scot free even if it is an industry in itself and can do well.
On the other hand shipping in western communities faces the struggle of people being both very combative and the individual society most live in. Things are meant to appeal to the individual and in that sense there is a right or wrong. People can’t accept that things aren’t canon and take their own ships as real so much to the point it does become a combative system of needing to be right and validated in a way that causes more of an issue because there is little stopping them socially from not posting or acting in a negative value to ships.
I used to be obsessed with wanting to become a popular artist when I was a teenager. A lot of art friends around me became popular because of some of the reasons in this video and it made me absolutely despise them. It became so bad for my mental health and the way I treated others, that I decided to stop actively sharing my art on social media. Now I cheer on my art friends whenever they get the attention they definitely deserve for their work and I just draw whenever I feel like it, which is like once in a blue moon. BUT, I take the time to ENJOY drawing instead of feeling the need to please others with my art. Don't let the pressure of social media get to you.
I draw art of my favorite anime characters almost all of the time so don't be afraid to draw your favorite or popular character, draw what makes you happy! :)
Honestly, if people hated me for making fanart then I wouldn't care.🤷I dont find anything wrong with that
Honestly I just want to show my art. Don’t care how popular it is, I just want to show my art.
The bad part about trying to get popular from fanart is the sheer competition you effectively have with better, bigger artists. I've been drawing Warcraft fanart for a while, but unless you're really good, people won't really pay attention to your stuff. Same with Genshin, too.
It just gets difficult to get an audience if you're not extremely great at art, at all. No idea what to do about it either.
Back when I posted on Deviantart weekly, I loved whenever I got the chance to collab or do an art trade. Collabs there typically meant one of us would color and the other did the lineart. Art trades being what you call collabs. Drawing each other's ocs. I really want to get back into that, though I have become a hermit and don't post nearly as much.
Honestly, it pains me to say how sad it is that people don't share the same ideas about art the way you describe it.
I've been an artist for a long time, and I only posted on Instagram because that was quite common back in 2014 where everyone would post random things and it was never about being the next big page on Instagram. Even now, my follower count hasn't gone as high from what it was back in 2014. People I know mostly following me. Since I do multimedia art; never sticking to just one style. I believe that's why I never really got followers and still don't, occasionally I would post fanart and get more likes than usual.
But after realising all the stress of being an artist online, I realize it's better to just save my energy and keep doing art as I want it, when I want it, and how I want it.
Even when my posts get like 16 likes or less, those few people that I know who like my art and bother commenting, fulfill me with gratefulness.
I'm not sure if it would be the same if I was popular on insta but what I can say is, the stress of being perfect online is not worth it if the likes don't mean anything.
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one that hates the idea of making videos on my art. I get that people want to see the process, but I'm not gonna do fancy transitions and voiceovers just for a short video. This is why I am not a fan of social media when it comes to posting art, because I feel like I need to do much more just to advertise my work. I do post on Instagram but almost never on reels. Now I am not sure how to further promote my art without these limitations.
With fan art, I love making it of the characters I love, I don’t make fan art of characters I don’t like, some of my fan art got on UK national television. I’m currently in a huge and wonderful collab at the moment.
I draw mostly fanart, once in a blue moon a post pops off but i havent seen significant growth over the past five years (im not consistent so thats on me lol). Idk, if people dont like fanart cuz they think it’s a cop-out, i dont think they’re recognizing how healing and fun putting ur fave characters in new scenarios can be. For me it’s the art that makes me happiest and it’s some of my fave art to consume. At the end of the day, do what makes you happy and inspired and dont do shit for the algorithm alone cuz the algorithm is dumb and sucks anyway!!!
Also great video, been loving ur stuff lately :)
It’s honestly really great to know that the reason why engagement on any platform, especially on Instagram is difficult, isn’t a target towards me.
Sure, I often wonder how on earth other artists around my skyrocket so much with followers and engagement, and continue to do so. While me on the other hand, I had a steady following going. Until it all suddenlt came crashing down in about a few months now, and I’ve lost a lot of engagement.
>Draw and create art
>Share it on Social Media
>Input some tags
>Refuse to further elaborate
> draw shit with loli
> make own site
> repost on 4ch*n
> become new Sh*dman
> no no no wait wait wait
I love your levelheaded and logical commentary. Please don’t lose it.
So true... Just came across this video randomly and really agree with the things you said. Reels on IG really are annoying, even more when it's the hundreds: "The algorithm is so unfair. Help me get popular, or you show that you don't care." That is pushing me away instead of making me interact, to be honest.
While I reference Pinterest photos, too, it's only for practice. I am not good at drawing humans, so it's the whole range from little children to old people (the wrinkles make them so interesting!). These sketchbook spreads only occasionally make it into my stories, not my feed. I am becoming more and more grateful not to depend on online popularity. With my subjects I am far from any popular topic 😂
Never stop drawing! Especially that inspires you and makes happy. Sharing it is another topic
I love drawing fanart but I usually only do it to either make myself happy or to accompany the fics I write where I have a specific idea which I wanted to draw and something that can help people who read my fics visualise more what I was going for in the story.
It's purely for me to practice whilst also sharing the vision I have for fics I write.
However, I do get scared that one day someone will take my idea as theirs (especially when the fanart i have drawn for those fics are very specific to the fic) and it will become really popular in the art community and I wouldn't know and they get credited for it.
Personally I also really like seeing fanart because I am very invested in my fandoms and always love new content. I just wish people would credit their inspo if they did take it from other artists and of course, when it's taken directly from the show.
I miss those art collaborations! It was always exciting to see and a great way to discover others in the community
Probably the healthiest way to focus on growing your following online is finding the trends that you'd actually have fun doing. Fanart is an easy one as long as you focus on characters and stories you actually enjoy. If you're a big fan of a meme or trend you can try to do something with that while it's relevant. As long as you're having fun you can reap the rewards of catering to what's popular without issues, the problem is when you start forcing yourself to do stuff that you hate or that disgusts you because you think what you like doing has no chance of growing a following, but honestly that's a pointless endeavor anyway, because you can't grow a following with trends and then revert back to your previous stuff without losing the interest of everyone you got because they came to you for those trends in the first place. And if you just keep doing it you'll hate yourself, your work, burnout and quit.
I used to try and get followers by doing fanart, but for the most part it went unnoticed. I posted a few on reddit, and those did suprisingly well (compared to the usual 10 - 20 likes on inta they got 80 - 300 upvotes,) but I stopped after I had some bad experiences, such as an elden ring fanart I spent many hours on getting taken down beacuse I mentioned ON MY PERSONAL PROFILE that I take commissions, and one that I deleted in the Genshin community beacuse people started making fun of, wich was again a piece I spent many hours on.
So ye. I don't care anymore about followers. I tried. It made me angry. I bottled it up, and I'll just go sit in the corner and draw.
Yeah i dont bother with posting to other platforms anymore, like IT makes me extra anxious cuz idealy i loved posting in the fan grups im part in cuz i would like to talk about the hobbies and learn more but artwise Im not good for posting there (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻ , ...maybe If i become more skillful 😂 , untill then same as You in the safe corner
9:05 artist collabs are so fun! recently i did one where we had to draw our own human versions of sanrio characters! fanart and a collab in one! it rlly helps if ur friends or at least have something in common so you have something genuinely fun to collaborate over
Why does it feel like theres a large portion of either gatekeepers or art thieves? 💀
At the same time it feels like there's too many clinically online mfs that need to just spout bs at eachother and spread negativity. Just a shame really.
As someone who strictly draws OCs and branching into Manga- I can understand not wanting to draw fanart- Though I'd never put it down. People should draw what gives them the most inspiration. & yes, you will be disadvantaged. But who cares.
I don’t how I’ve avoided this trap for so long. I have only drawn two “cute girl” characters in my lifetime.
Cringe name alert:
Kailurnuri-Kaira (2010-2017-2019) maybe
And
Madeline (2020-2022) possibly
I haven’t posted either of them on Pinterest, which explains the lack of engagement on my account…
But what I did post are some ocs, Acela, Paprika, Paula, etc. And pixel art.
Also with no engagement whatsoever…
But despite that, I continue to draw without completely fussing over not getting any attention on Pinterest. Just a bit for Tumblr recently and DeviantArt, late 2022.
For those of you who read the whole comment: My account name is SwanPair.
Do with that information what you will.
I also got affected by this for quite a long time :( glad i grew out if it though i just draw my OC's and write stories out of them now :)))
another thing i noticed that makes you instantly famous is your art style,,,,,, if you draw in a very detailed anime style, thin lines, cell-shading, soft colors, simple faces, detailed eyes, and what not you're instantly favored by the algorithm
my art style is v much NOT that (somewhat realistic somewhat anime, thick lines, blended shading, vibrant colors, detailed faces) so i'm even more muted by the algorithm
this at least applies to instagram and twitter, other sites im not sure. but i guarantee you when my art style was so much more anime i was seen a whole lot more. now that it's changed, it's like,,,,,, on top of everything else so the algorithm is like "okay, i see that you're trying real hard to get my attention, but someone just drew klee from genshin and that's way more important than your angel devil from chainsaw man and plus it's not a reel so nice try dummy"
all in all, if your art style doesn't follow the guidelines set by the algorithm, you're screwed 😭
I agree so much with your statement because I feel as if the art community favors certain art styles over others. For example the more “aesthetic” someone’s art is then the more praise they get. Don’t get me wrong all styles deserve love but one style shouldn’t be deemed as superior over another. (This doesn’t really apply to personal preference cause you can like what you like but I wish people were more respectful and less pushy about forcing their preferences onto other artists who draw in their own way)
Im an nsfw fanartist so I always feel really bad whenever I used to get put down for being a nsfw artist and I get ignored cause of it but I started ignoring the negative and started enjoying being an nsfw fanartist.
While there are alot of things that are hated in the art community, if its harmless and you enjoy it then dont let others stop you from drawing what you wanna draw!
I mean as long as the characters are all adults I think this is a great genre of art that takes a lot of study and skill!
@@athenapantazes it is in fact the hardest art path, because to draw good nsfw you need to be INSANELY GOOD at anatomy, poses, fluid dynamics, texturing and etc.
@@PamellaCardoso-pp5trneed? Nah i saw a lot of artist who have shitty artstyle and skill but still drawing nsfw for example *cough* me *cough*
I hope the characters you draw nsfw from are all adults tho..
Screw what the "american twitter nAzees" who spit on anything "fanservice" said and think. Do what makes you and your followers happy. As long as it doesn't hurt anyone (besides the american twitter nAzees' broken egos). 😂
as an artist myself i have to talk about this.
for so many years ever since i picked up my pencil and began to draw, people ALWAYS made me feel terrible about my version of a charcater or my art,
people really worship that "emo edgy hot girl/boy" art style that when i add some thing's that make characters less "hot" to them immediately im thrown out the window.
like i'm sorry I didnt make jeff the killer a sexy emo boy with a fetish for knives?
no one talks about this. everyone seems to be on the second side of tiktok just so obsessed with that pinterest asian artstyle, they make arabs, black people, mexican people, you name it, all look asian in a way like korean, japanese .
it really sucks that everyone is the same, copy pasted art with little to no creativity. it's all thrown to the alogrithim. and that SUCKS.
I just discovered your channel and I just want to say that it's been really nice to hear/watch your videos while drawing.
I just don't have the energy to follow trends anymore 😅
lmaoooooooo
I'm amazed how those artist mostly not bother thinking about releasing products like comic -graphic novel - drawing book guide - merchandise etc . Yes it need dedication and spending time and money , but in the end it will give better outcome than trying hard to be Instagram rockstar
I HATE doing fanart. Every now and I get the sudden urge and I have to sit down and do the fanart start to finish in one sitting or it'll never get finished. I posted 3-4 pieces of fanart out of 17 illustrations in 2023 but I've seen a fair amount of growth anyway. It's very slow growth but I'm happy with that.
My top post for the year was an original piece, second place was a DTIYS and third was One Piece fanart.
So yes Fanart does help but so does art challenges and well placed hashtags! The algorithm isn't something to chase, slow and steady growth ends up better in the long run! Most importantly passion and loving your art is going to be the biggest draw to yourself!
My biggest art pet peeve is people who directly copy other peoples art styles, but don't learn anatomy, etc. Like aretgerm or sakimichan clones. They can't do anatomy but they can color...
Probably due to my particular set of experiences and interests I can do anatomy and not shading
"Let people draw what/however they want it's just a drawing it's not hurting anyone"
"no not like that! I don't like what you draw personally so instead of blocking/ignoring you I'm going to harass you instead"
Those people can actually die mad about it why do you care so much what I draw and continue to interact with me?
I wonder sometimes if people are aware that there is a HUGE difference between loving to do and make art and making art a "career" aka ones work, or source of income for survival.... A job
I needed to hear the last part of the video, it made me feel better because, I've been practicing character design with OC's that I make. I've engaged with some artists that I look up to and given me advise. I just want to draw stuff that I want and see what other people are drawing. I love seeing art and love doing art. It's a shame that it does get to us mentally because we just wanna be good. (Also, is that The Boondocks Stop Snitching song lol)
this is what the art community has come to, why cant we just let artist draw what makes them happy to draw
draw what you like simple
@@kylelee5966 preach
This makes me glad I have tumblr and discord to show my art to
I've got a small section on Tumblr from my art, and I'm very happy about it
It has brought me so much joy, and I love making a bunch of different posts on it
I don't mind if something doesn't make all the likes or such, I'm here to vibe and present what I got, talk to people from time to time, and sometimes hunt for art trades hehehe
And my discord groups are great, I often fling art/writing at them and the servers enjoy it
I have a place, and I'm proud about it
I have seen a few collabs where artists swap sketches/lineart and the other colours/paints it
the reason drawing cute girls works is cus thats just what people prefer; youre far more likely to gain traction from drawing women especially with conventionally attractive features like smooth faces, pretty eyes, large breasts/hips, etc. due to the fact lots of people simply just prefer that. subsequently, women also require more effort to draw than men on account of making sure the women actually look good, which in turn will often lead to more technically stunning pieces (and of course, peoples preference for women will reflect within the algorithms too)
its always good to draw a more diverse cast of people/characters, but if you wanna gain traction, drawing pretty girls is a surefire way to do so just because thats such a large preference for many many people; and of course, if all ya wanna do is draw pretty girls, thats totally okay too. as long as youre happy drawing, thats all ya really need, right?
I'm not certain if small collabs/switcharounds are that popular anymore, but zines certainly are! That being said I've noticed that there's been a slight push towards more polished final products, the application processes for which discourage many younger artists from trying. I'd like to a see a shift back to rough and loose digital zines or even collages, that's how the medium began after all!
And of course, the simplest way to collab is by doing art trades within your circle.
I have a friend who kept applying to zines but kept getting rejected because their follower count was too low.
YESSS OH MY GOD
I can confirm art collabs still happen and do sometimes work! They've changed quite a bit though. Most of them involve artists drawing their own image based on a theme instead of artists working on one piece, so the art collabs end up with numbers nearing the 30s. It's a good way to grow, but from what I've seen, only a small number of artists actively do/partake in art collabs, so the growth is very short-lived.
I love your videos so much because I always leave feeling validated. ✨ Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the process of drawing is more important than the result and all the likes you can get from the result.
Today morning i just started writing about my new OC story lmao
Beautiful video and really simple but clever points
Luv ya :3
the problem with fanart is big enough, since the audience just comes and goes to this or that art and if the next art is not with their favorite character, they are very likely to leave and come back when you do this again and so on. Somehow I got carried away with one couple and it was funny when at least 10 people came and went with this pattern
It was funny and we even made bets on adding and subtracting
This is what happens when people take art as a means of popularizing themselves. Art is supposed to be free, you create the things you want to create because at the end of the day beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and you as an artist shouldn't be constrained to what other people tell you "YOU SHOULD DO"
I did a whole weekly webcomic for YEARS. No one cared. I've been drawing OC's for years. No one cares. I drew fanart of various works over that same time and that was the only thing that ever got anything close to any kind of "traction". Even that was/is relative. Now I mostly just draw Dragonball and Thicc chicks cuz I enjoy drawing those things, which is basically just still fanart. PS. I also added portraits or, "studies" to my repertoire... People seem to like that the least from me... So it's back to Melons and Peaches. That aside, I like seeing the regular insta/pinterest girls and fanart on my timeline because the people doing them are obviously talented and the art is good. It's when it isn't good with 100x the engagement I could get on my best day is when I get salty.
As an artist who mostly draw fanarts and makes animations about a youtuber, sometimes the community is the thing that push me to draw, it's wholesome.
You will always have to put watermark(s) and everything else but it's worth.
I really feel with social media we artists tend to forget to just sit down and draw what we want to draw sometimes. when I started I was drawing fanart and at the time I was really enjoying it. fast forward two years and I still enjoy it. but I endlessly compare myself to other amazing artists drawing the same character as I am. and immediately just stop drawing. I wasn't having fun anymore, but was still pushing myself to draw when I could so I could "get better." needless to say that was self destructive. so I did something I didn't even think I was capable of. I made my firs oc, and I have had so much fun drawing her it is insane. Building a world for her is just as fun, and I'm drawing things I never really did before like backgrounds and drums lol. I now don't compare myself to anyone other than myself, since I'm the only one drawing my character, I haven't had this much fun drawing in a long time.
bro I just draw my cringe half demon half angel alpha wolf hybrid princess queen of hell and heaven/j but sometimes i just draw most of my art just for myself, but not for the audience. ofc sure, i want someone to compliement my art or give me critics if i were to show it online. but I draw fanarts, ocs, myself, or my family just for fun. this is just for me tho, ofc u guys can draw for the audience too but dont force yourself. anyways, im going back to drawing. bye bye :3
Before, I was upset about not gaining enough followers and I thought I was a terrible artist, in addition to putting me down, today even though I aim to make a living from my art, I post drawings that I really feel good about doing, whether it's a character with a story , creation or study.
This is why I post on smaller social media's, not that it's perfict, it's just a smaller community and less toxic
I think it's sad that we also only ever see similar-looking and generally attractive/cute girls. Heck, a few days ago I saw an artist posting their 100 portraits of the 100 portraits challenge and while the male faces were rather diverse (there were older guys and guys with all shapes of noses for example) but the female faces looked all the same! Yeah, there were POC among them, but every portrait of a female face looked basically the same (20-30 years old, tiny faces, tiny noses, big eyes, full lips - very stereotypical). And then I saw a video of an artist fixing and older portrait of a female character. The by far biggest change was that they made the nose smaller. I think it's sad that people seem to only draw pretty faces instead of also interesting ones. Just try to look for drawings of men with round faces or women with large noses (very broad or aquiline).
poeple are always gonna hate, its not a valid reason to hate artist drawn something people enjoy watching. At the end of the day, you need to realize that instagram is not a plat form for only artist, there are people just appreciating seeing pretty faces, they dont care how technically difficult the art is. Also, hating an Art because how "easly/effortless" it is to draw is the most snobbish thing ive ever heard, if you dont like an art dont do it urself, theres no reason to hate when other peolpe do it
I know I might offend people, but I don’t care. I think and will always think that traditional art including paper to pencil, painting, water color, sculpting, wood carving, using pastels etc is way better then digital art, with that being said I don’t discredit digital artists and personally love some of there work especially Sam does art but, it’s over used to the point that hyper realism and sketch on paper isn’t popular anymore even though it takes so much work, I think the only reason why people do it is because it’s easy, you can zoom in, get any color you want, blend colors and if you make a mistake you can backspace, but the most annoying one is definitely tracing. Again I don’t hate digital artists I think it’s just over used, and younger artists should take a break and learn other forms of art (btw I’ve tried pretty much all art styles lol)
I can understand that as you are learning as an artists, you may default to the default head or bodies you would see in an art book or guide because you’re still trying to understand underlying forms. While it is great for gesture practice, extra folds and fat is extra information to learn about on top of the skeletal and muscles structure so it could be more daunting in the beginning.
So I’m sayin’ I agree a lot of same face syndrome and making things sexual or cutesy is a problem for sure, though I think it could also be a transitional period of a lack of knowledge. Does get me thinking though about my influences when making art and what I’d like to make if I was totally free to make what I’d want.
Honestly reels are a pain, I’ve barely given time to admire the drawing before the video ends, it’s sad
I think most people just draw fanart and hope for the best.For me I dont really care about geting popular I dont wana make money from it so I just draw whatever I want.But recentley I been drawing ponys cuz theres this fan project I been doing I like to write aswel and make charakters so everything comes together to create edgy ponys sometimes or humans or demons or cat girls? Yeah uh.Its nice
I stopped caring about likes and followers 5 years ago. I draw what I enjoy.
Collaborations still happen! I became friends with some artists through a collab request like 3 years ago and we've been doing collabs every once in a while
I too really hate making fanart. I don't feel excited about having to draw someone else's creation. I rather just make my own thing, but I also do recognise that it is somewhat difficult to get your stuff out there if there isn't already some familiarity with the stuff you create, which puts me in a pretty predicament. Before I could probably do a thing or two, but know I absolutely can't be bothered with fan-art anymore. I just lose interest while I'm drawing it.
Do your art! It’s hard but I love finding people’s artwork
@@darkstarr984 thanks for the encouragement. Will do!
I have been drawing and sharing art online for over 10 years
The biggest difference is my audience
At first they used to be people who were into art and I never worried about what I draw
Now they are casual people online who want to see pretty pictures, if I drew what I want my art will not receive any attention
I'm glad I found my people here. I hate Instagram reels too 😂 I tried making some myself and was like.. what the heck, what am I doing??? I'm making these short videos that are 3 seconds each, so a minute total, and for what? Making other people waste their time staring at the screen instead of doing something else that can help them improve?? No way. I've also realized how damaging they are. I'm a millennial and I know I once had perseverance and initiative when it came to starting and finishing something. Now it's different , could maybe blame it on the reels, maybe not...but I miss the good old Galleries.
My plan is to promote my art locally and connect with people, continue to have an Insta gallery or website and have more time for art instead of trying to please an algorithm.