I'm by no means a beginner, have drawn since I could hold a crayon and digitally for 15+ years. My art has gotten thousands of upvotes on Reddit and on my old Tumblr. But Instagram? I'm lucky to get maybe 16 likes. And I've had my art reposted (without permission) by bigger accounts and seen the difference in like ratio based off their following vs my own. Algorithm plays a huge part in the recognition your work gets, regardless of how good your art really is, and I think we're too hard on ourselves for something that's quite frankly beyond our control.
There's a persistent theme in internet q&a that essentially goes "Wondering why your art isn't getting noticed? It's because you're not good enough. Get good and the results will magically start coming" which seems a bit simplistic and can be discouraging. It's something that's probably true to an extent, but isn't the only factor like some make it out to be.
instagram sucks, I'm stuck at 3 likes per post and they're all from friends... I've made 47 posts up to now. Sometimes I get strangers to come, but they are rare.
Very good point that platform fit is a huge factor- some people get traction different places! I typically just use Instagram as an example to keep things simple.
Instagram isn't a platform that favors anyone. I know there are huge users in the platform, with millions of followers, but I've never interacted nor seen their content be it voluntarily or forced by the algorithm, only when you're new to the platform such thing happens, but once you've tailored your feed to your liking, all you get is content that you genuinely like, unless you're the kind of person that throws likes at every post you see or barely use the Save and Like function, in said case the APP is still trying to figure out WHO you are and WHAT you like. Twitter and RUclips work the same way. If at some point you don't seem to be getting new content, or rather content that you like, is because the platform can't find any for the moment, so they either show you stuff you've already seen, or new stuff that you "might" like (you probably won't, as there is no way for them to really know what you might like just based on what you liked before if there isn't more of that content, so they just try to match what other people with your taste also liked or interacted with). Growing on instagram relies on either knowing people, or already having a following outside of it (that also uses instagram, if your twitter followers don't use it, then no matter how much you advertise your instagram, it won't grow much). That's why RUclips videos recommend you to "get good", so other artists start to look your way and interact with your work. If you happen to also get to talk with them, you will accomplish another thing that RUclips videos recommend; "make connections". Connections won't just help you emotionally, but also to grow your platforms and potentially get you a job in the industry (if you want one). It's obviously easier said that done because, well; you first need to have something to show to be able to show something. If you don't work on your art, then no one is going to do it for you, and that often times is the hardest task; knowing what to work on. If you don't have a clear direction, then you can only walk until you either tire yourself out, get lost or reach what seems to be the goal even though doesn't look like it because there's no one to congratulate you for it (if not even you knew that you were walking towards that goal, then most likely nobody else knew either). Figure out your goals and aspirations, work towards them without making any excuses nor skipping anything, and you will eventually find yourself in a comfortable place.
My biggest problem with Instagram is indeed the algorithm. If you're not following tags, you will miss 1000 posts, even by people you follow. It sucks. I occasionally get a person who likes my fandom stuff but when it comes to OCs, well, that's a different story. Because no one will be actively look for specific tags for OCs.
I can absolutely understand the frustration people feel by not being noticed especially when you put out more work then other. My mindset is “improve because you want to no because you have to” last thing you don’t want to do is make drawing a chore.
It's truly crippling when art becomes a chore. Last year I was still a tattoo apprentice and as it was my first time taking a leap at being a working artist, it became a real stumbling block and I burnt out really bad 😅. Glad I went through it for the experience, but it was not my passion, concept art is, and it's so essential to me now that I remember to pace myself and I'm doing this because I love making art more than anything else in this world, and that's why I'm pursuing such a hard career path.
Right!!! I literally have an INPRNT account, and the Instagram algorithm is changing, though drawing the things that most people like like drawing characters, faces, portraits, facial features, eyes, mouths, the categories of the popularity spectrum, is what frustrates artists most of the time. You can help but create what matters to you and not what just matters to everyone else.
Ngl I love discovering old ass art when scrolling backwards on the Instagram accounts of artists I follow and seeing where they used to be. Sometimes it's just minor tweaks and improvements that made the art go from okayish to legitimately great. So even if your beginner art gets zero engagement now, it might be inspiring to other beginner artists at some point down the line.
I adore beginner art. I love all art in general. Being able to create anything is wonderful! Even if the outcome isn't the best (for both pro or beginner artists), you still created something, and that is awsome in itself!
Thank you for vouching for all beginner artists! As an animator who is still getting used to it, I think I speak for all of beginner artist community when I say TYSM! :D
My time with Insta and Twitter didn't go too smoothly when I was a beginner artist years ago. Me looking up towards artists having better skill in art than me and expecting them to give the same in return towards me was the STUPIDEST move I ever made. I was SOOOOO hooked on likes (that and my work being in beginner level and feeling frustrated everytime a skilled artsit didn't like it back) much to the point where it wrecked my mental health and I had to leave social media entirely. I hope this is a lesson why you shouldn't prioritize your work WAY too much towards other people and focus on impoving stuff on your own.
@@zellafae you'll be chasing all the other content that people like instead of just settling for what you specifically want, plus you'll probably be happier
Allright, I've came back to making a social media account and I want to say, I has been a mixed bag lately. I'm feeling a *little* better by taking breaks, but in ways, I still feel like I've been treated small and like a Beginner artist there. Despite me taking life drawings this and last year. 🤧
This was a very welcome and, admittedly, difficult video. As someone who has worked hard at building up a world and characters and spent years working on my art and writing skills, it can feel absolutely deflating to share something that means the world to you but just gets a 'meh' from everyone else. I often have to remind myself that people don't hate the character or the world, they simply just don't *know* it yet and a foundation needs to be built in order to help people care. Still, it can be really hard to get that foundation going. Publishers tend to not bite onto ideas that aren't proven, and it's hard to test what does or doesn't work for an audience when that audience is still so small. It can make it feel like you're screaming into a dark room when you're trying to get something creative off the ground. There are some excellent tips in this video! Even with my years of working on things, I still need to improve at that all-important skill factor. That feels like a never-ending journey.
I'm not an artist in any way shape or form, but here's how I see the art "industry" if you could call it that: - Y'all work your ASS off for what you love, all of you. In software development we get some people who've been programming since they were twelve and have a deep love for it as a hobby, in the visual arts pretty much everyone's like that, or at least it's closer to a lifestyle than just a job. - Any industry like that is, of course, competitive as all hell. And on top of that, it's not like most where there's a numbers game revolving around how many artists big companies need, at least not to the same degree. You're basically freelancers, and an oversaturated market of freelancers has got to be the most "competitive" in the world. - ... And yeah, you're sort of just fighting for people's attention. It's easy to be desensitized by all the wonderful stuff people create because there's just _so much_ of it. I try to take a personal interest in things that catch my eye a bit... probably once a week? Just to be like, yo, this is cool. But it still kinda seems like shouting from the void the other way around.
so relatable... I've been building a world and story it's been 6 years now I love drawing the characters from the book, building the ambience, and I really like the story, I've shown it to some people and they liked it too! I hope one day I'll be able to do an animation about my book and people will actually enjoy watching it... the chances I fail are high ig since I've been drawing for 7+ years and my art is not even good, but I still have a chance to try so I might as well just do it I don't care if I'll be, idk, 70 when this thing drops, I'll show the world my original story no matter how long it takes!!!
People are usually satisfied with pretty basic stuff. If you make a "mona lisa", chances are you will be the only one appreciating it for a very long time. But make something stupid or even vaguely better than something else and watch how viral it can get. Happens all the time. Just human nature to be easily entertained and distracted. Besides, a lot of us crave for something simple if it's undemanding and enjoyable. Like youtube. Most important is that you're making it because you enjoy it. But sometimes that isn't enough and money gets in the way. Don't cast your pearls before swine, because they will always give a "meh" for something they don't get. That's not a big deal. Keep doing you.
I personally grew up on Tumblr and was actively interacting with a bunch- and I mean a bunch of artists. I think this was the best possible environment for me starting out because people obviously noticed I was quite young, but they were all very supportive. Never did I have anyone saying my art was bad, but I was given constructive criticism. I met a lot of friends on there. Sadly it's not really the same as it was in 2017, but I think the point isn't about becoming popular or well seen. I wasn't at first- and even if every new follower made me excited, I drew mostly for fun! I drew every day because I had a good time drawing characters and showing them to people. I noticed that when my account really picked up I just... didn't want to post art on it anymore. It wasn't fun for me. There comes a pressure to create and impress people.
This has been my thoughts lately about not really caring about my own creations if none of them have surrounding lore or share a universe. I need the story and lore structure to be the basis for designing the characters, so it's all interconnected. Then I can feel like I'm developing an idea of my own rather than an OC with no hints as to how they're relevant
I really like how gentle and straight forward you were at the same time. I’m tired of people saying they’re just being honest, when they’re also obviously being a bit harsh. There’s a way to do this and you did!!! It’s super important for many people to feel encouraged this way. I’ve often avoided art tips and learning because of how unkind it has often been (at least from what I’ve often seen for the last 10 years). It on,y ever left me feeling like a failure and I couldn’t absorb the actually useful info bc I was distracted by feeling hurt and discouraged :( It’s such a nice breath of fresh air to see this done so well ❤
As someone who's also had a pilot (of sorts) in production for the last 3 years, this also resonates with me deeply. This has been a major mind-game for me as I have put in over 2,000 recorded hours and $6k+ investment. But something that has kept me going is those friendships that I have forged along the way that keep at my side to remind me not to push too hard since I am crazy self-motivated. Without them, I likely would have stopped a long time ago and I feel that I owe it to them to finish what I started now that I know for certain my goal is possible and accomplishable. I hope that you will find that inflection point in your journey where the process is discovered at long last and you have a few seconds of finished animation to look at and enjoy knowing that the hardest part of the project is over and all there is left is to finish. Safe journeys my friend.
Being a beginner in any thing will mostly if not always is going to be Really hard and challenging, And Art is no exception, Beginners always struggles and get confused with if they are doing something wrong or why its not looking like that or why its not being appropriated, And thats fine its not you are wrong no but its You lack knowledge, guidance and experience of what you are doing, and Spending time days after days year after year and not giving up and learning from all the mistakes is THE BEST thing to do, you will be there, take your time, enjoy what you are doing, maybe not everyone appropriate or understand what you are doing now but surely they will eventually,👍never give up.
I LOVE looking at OCs. I love seeing OCs for franchises/fandoms i like. I finally stopped seeing OC x Canon as cringe, too, which is silly but makes learning about fandom OCs even more fun. And yet I see excellent art and excellent OCs and excellent writing go unnoticed. Not by me, since I seek it out, but in general. Sometimes it’s just… some combo of these things. You’re new to a platform. Your stuff’s still a baby. The algorithm isn’t hitting. People in the Fandom you’re creating for (if you’re creating for one) don’t know your work yet. So many reasons your stuff isn’t getting interaction/gaining traction… and sometimes it’s just genuinely hard for people to care about OCs that aren’t their own. Just know that SOME folks do like seeing it. Even if it’s 1-10 likes, you’ve got 1-10 people who thought what you made rocks. And giving up due to a lack of interaction on big platforms… would be sad. Maybe find a discord server or smaller community that has people who’d like what you’re doing, original or fandom! I’ve had a lot of encouragement and made new friends and seen tons of OCs I love that way. Also, you may find that in smaller communities you can get positive and constructive critique to help you level up your skill, too!
8:20 This is something I've recently learned the hard way. In an art class I was attending I say my best piece was a charcoal drawing of a statue we had in the room. I probably spent maybe 30 minutes on it tops. It had more weight, the space was better, less detail but still enough for charcoal. That 30 minute piece turned out way better than the graphite drawing I did of that same statue and spent around 15-16 hours on
Didn't expect the video to go into why original content has a hard to being seen, and a great reminder to just get things out, thank you for your video
I feel like this applies to every kind of creative output (drawing, animating, singing, writing,....) ❤ Also I was way to invested in those microphone holders XD
Point 1 goes hand-in-hand with the "large ocean" that you the artist are a "small fish" in. It's nigh-on impossible to get personally noticed when you are just one search result out of thousands. Speaking of which, as a hobby artist myself I don't get many notifications, but the flipside is I can review each notification individually when it happens. I often check out the artist's page to see what their gallery is, or (failing that) what _else_ they've faved/liked. Many times I can almost guess their search history....
I think there can be an argument made that, using the fish/ocean analogy, your *art* is the fish that could be caught, so you'd want to have more fish out in the water to increase the likelihood of being caught, until people start actively seeking out the kind of fish you're making.
number 8 is definitely the reason because i have everything in place to start but i keep doing fanart or pieces of the characters that don’t build upon the story because they’re easier to do and i don’t have to worry about messing up the story
Hearing all of this is extremely freeing. I've been struggling with a lot of this beginner artist stuff for a while, and haven't been able to pinpoint why I've not enjoyed drawing or sharing my art and stories (even though I've been drawing for a long time up to this point). Thank you so much for making and sharing this video! I have a lot to work on, but now that I know what it is I can work on as an artist, storyteller, and person, I'm excited going forward.
I replied to a comment with this and think it belongs here too - This is why places where everybody is an artist are so much healthier. They know the work you put into making your art, and also give more honest feedback. You dont commonly get bullied for a mistake like on other social media. (you have an infinite amount of inspiration too) Yeah, I do miss flipnote
This really resonates with me. I look up to many artists on social media, seeing the community they create and wishing I could be a part of it, yet I can't get a single like on an animation or drawing I post on Twitter. It sucks, but knowing that this is a common feeling and common hurdle takes some weight off my shoulders, and honestly gives me the relief of, "ok I don't have a giant audience to appeal to or any expectations from anyone." It doesn't change the way I feel about 'being behind' other people or the fear that I may never make it, but this video helps a lot.
Leaving a comment for the algorithm, but also to say that I appreciate the content, and I'm looking forward to that pilot you've been working on for three years.
Thank you so much for this video - I especially appreciate how candid yet kind you are with your points. I stopped drawing when I was in university for a multitude of reasons, but the main art-related one is how frustrated I was at my lack of skills in delivering my own vision. I was so afraid of failing that I decided to just run away. Recently (last December?) I decided to give art a try again. I am by no means “serious” in the sense that I have my OCs / original world etc, but more of creating fan art with an original spin. Everyone says fan art is the way to grow your following, but I beg to differ. I found your video precisely at the point where I wonder if it is worth it to continue or should I just stop this hurrah, and your video made me reflect and evaluate my own take on art - with the same honesty and kindness you have demonstrated to all of us.
Even though I'm not exactly a beginner, this video was really insightful as someone experiencing some frustration at trying to garner an audience for original works, but not sure what's that barrier that's stopping the same level of attention as garnered from fanworks. Thank you for posting this!
i admit most of my art is simply self indulgent lol, id like to share my ocs stories with the people that follow me but im not quite sure how. its also a bit of a struggle for me to bring myself to draw anything. but tbh i just draw whatever and post it, ive mostly stopped caring about whether people like my art or not now. one of my characters i draw quite often was originally a Gravity Falls fan character, but now hes become his own thing separate from Gravity Falls and people seem to like him, i also have other characters that im still currently working on. i do typically draw fan art for shows i like to fixate on, i often try to replicate the style of shows i watch (which might come in handy if i want to become an animator or an artist on a future show, if thats even possible) one cartoon in particular is Villainous. it has helped me so much with improving my art work and its also in a way helped me improve on my character design skills. i feel like more people like my characters now than they did back then back when my art was more beginner i honestly like not being a popular or huge artist
I wouldn't really call myself a beginner any longer, I've drawn on and off for at least a decade - if not longer. In the early years I definitely was the "This is my character. Why don't you love them???" person. I would post something I drew, and if I didn't receive a ton of likes and favorites and comments within 15 minutes I got upset that I wasn't good enough and stopped drawing art. It's a horribly toxic mindset I wish I had been able to get through earlier. Even now, I don't get a lot of engagement with my art. It still sucks, but I've grown to accept that the problem is (mostly) outside my control. There isn't really a website for artists since DA jumped on all these terrible ideas. The other options don't set themselves up for artists in a similar way (Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc). I'm definitely not amazing when it comes to marketing myself or my ideas. But I finally found my niche where I really enjoy drawing what I do, so I find I don't mind as much. Even if I'm still a long way off from my eventual goal of starting my own webcomic... baby steps
I know this video is over a year old but man did I need it. I'm currently participating in my first inktober and although I'm thrilled to be drawing more in the past 10 days than I have in the last 10 years I also feel so incredibly discouraged and untalented. My instagram feed is full of amazingly talented artists getting thousands of likes and tons of engagement, and I by no means think I am deserving of equal engagement, but it's hard not to compare yourself. This video made me feel much better about where I am on my art journey and was a good reminder that lack of engagement on social media doesn't mean my art is complete shit. And it's nice to hear it from someone that isn't my mom.
Love the bluey mic lol, but yeah it can be hard pouring so much effort into a project knowing not many will ever see it, I just have to remember that I have my family and close friends supporting my endeavors and that is truly something.
As someone who's been isolated from peers as they grew up while I couldn't grow up the same as them, I try so hard to do art that I love and it hurts to see I get darkness, nothing no likes, little views. I will try to keep going and keep drawing even if not everyone likes it, there will be people who will like it.
I am creating art for myself but I realized, its not about myself, it's about people whether they care or not. That is why I am starting to draw based their interest, and works. I join specific community and create my own niche where I have in common with the community that I enjoy myself and they also appreciate my art slowly.
Something I use a lot (especially for hands) is what I like to call "Avoid the problem like an artist" which is basically just not drawing hands, but in a creative way. When I'm just drawing for the sake of drawing, I'll let the story of the art be dictated by what I have the ability to draw. Doing this can show strange and new perspectives, give looks into alternate dimensions, and create brand-new species with colorful characteristics (like scattered eyes showing different emotions). I still learn things from these pieces of art, but at the same time, changing what I want them to be for what they are turns everything into near-perfection,which gives me the motivation to keep going.
@flitefulwantssubs402 I couldn't figure out how to give a character eyes, so I gave them many, all showing different expressions, all over their face. I created an entire species by doing that, plus lore, plus a plot for a story, PLUS it got me to drawing other creatures for this world which I didn't compromise in drawing, so I'd say I learned more by avoiding the problem than by pushing through and solving it. On top of that, I won't look back through my notebook and see the drawing as not-quite-what-I-wanted. :)
Ehh, I’d say this has a place, but is not a good solution long-term. For instance, you can go, “eh, don’t feel like drawing hands today,” but if “today” stretches for too long, you’ll never get better at hands. However, if you’re drawing a piece to relax and you want something easy, that’s ok sometimes.
@flitefulwantssubs402 I partially agree, I think when you aren't good at something then in compositions not related to it doing that sort of thing is good. However, it's important to dedicate time specifically to working on it. In addition to looking stuff up to help with hands as an example. Doing stuff like working from photo reference, or drawing close up peices which are entirely focused on the hand can be a way to force improvement, It won't be super easy, but so long as you are still tackling it till you do get better than avoiding it in the short term is fine. More generally as a newer artist, You could always go for a style that lets you just use circles for the hands for awhile. So you can still practice the general form a gesture, as well has doing face portraits, landscapes, vehicles, etc. anything that you enjoy and helps improve your fundamentals too.
I'm sad too that no one appreciates me, but seeing this vid makes me see the experience of many others of this fate, and appreciate that one day, we'll get there. Love ur oc btw!
A trick : Do a bit of fanart (fanart of things you love of course). It helps and it makes you "understand" a bit of what the creator wanted to share. And people love that, even tho your art is "not at its best". But do it for fun.
I feel like I really needed this video. I've recently been having some rather intense feelings over my art/talking about my passions and feeling like maybe I'm just not Doing It Right because I couldn't get other peoples' interest or i couldn't get the same kind of emotional response i was hoping for and unfortunately it's made me shell up to the point where i dont often talk about or post my art as I used to. I wish I knew when i got so focused on if other people see the message in my work (and i guess in me?) but writing these steps and notes down then going over my own art with them and how i feel about my art really helped
Fan creations for existing IPs often have an easier time finding an audience in comparison to launching your own IP, because there're people already attached to that original IP who're looking for more content about it, and giving them that content is that "giving value to the audience" part.
@@CharacterDesignForge Given that some IP holders allow to monetize fan content (e.g. through Patreon or serving ads), it might not necessarily be a trap, but a launch pad. Them's Fightin' Herds come to mind, or basically everything by Valve.
Great video. I’ve been on a break from visual art for a while and this is the first video I’ve watched as I consider getting back into my hobby. You are always so down to earth. I relate to feeling frustrated and I knew all those points, deep down but didn’t want to acknowledge them. Skill is the hardest part for me because *self-lead study* is a massive struggle. I learn by filling gaps I already see, which means I need to draw… which means I am going to be awful. Allowing myself to be terrible in private and being selective about what I share publicly has been a help. I find it helpful to maintain a low ratio of public-to-private art-make a lot, don’t share a lot. I also got frustrated when I started posting in IG in the rat race to be successful. Watching my friends kind of succeed at it was also hard. But art has always been a hobby for me and when I get more concerned about people interacting with my art, I know I’ve wandered away from my path. I need to love what I make first. If my opinion of a piece changes based on others, I need to recenter myself. Anyway, great thoughts!
I've only seen 1 other artist talk about Value in the way you did in this video and that was Naoiki Saito a Japanese character designer and illustrator going over googles HERO method. Not a lot of artists break down why an audience actually likes art. I can say this as well not everyone can be a teacher even if you're an astounding amazing artist. Some people just know how to do. I think that's why this is talked about ao little. Just get better and have more skill and people will like your work. In this era it's not that simple. The emotional connection the meme of it if you will is quite important. Thanks for making this video! RUclips is usually pretty good at serving me stuff it knows I'll like so yeah I'm subbing and liking and all that jazz
I learned graphic design in polytechnic institute and what I learned is you need to work almost every day to perfect your idea and that includes research, artistic practice, History and social connections on what is popular that suits you and others
wish there was actually a way to force myself to believe all this, but whenever I ask popular artists how they got that way and for advice and they say 'oh i just drew exactly what i enjoy and people somehow found me lol' the stuff i like and make looks nothing like the oversaturated market of samey good artstyles I seem to see everywhere, I'm so used to just having 0-2 likes on anything and those are from close friends. I think, for me personally, it needs to be a change into what people like. I've already tried to bounce off of popular creators (on tumblr) and basically leech off their success but I think I need to learn how to emulate exactly the content that people like, and then when there's enough people who consistently care about it, then I can make things I actually like
This is all great advice. I'm running into a different problem though. I started posting my work online a couple months ago, as I'm graduating from art school at the end of the year and wanted to start having some kind of online presence. But none of the platforms show my work to anyone. I'm lucky to get maybe 10 views. No, not likes, just views. I've tried different hashtags and everything, but IG recently made those useless. And of course twitter is on fire and places like deviant art are just AI platforms at this point. I dont really care about the likes or anything, I just want to get my name out as an artist so I can start getting some freelance work. But that seems basically impossible now. Outside of randomly cold calling people, but that's pretty difficult these days too.
I'm glad I watched this, right when I noticed getting a little bit too sensitive that the last drawing I posted - which I feel is my best yet and meant a lot to me- has gotten literally no responses (usually I get a few). I'm still in the early stages of sharing so I have a following that's in the 2 digits and I was fine with it but it really started to get on my nerves lately. Thankfully I realize now I should just focus on making my games/stories first, and not worry too much that I'm not getting heard for now. Thanks for the wake-up call :')
Absolutely love your videos! Thank you so much for explaining these points for why someone may not care about a beginner’s art. Yeah, I’ve definitely got these big ideas for things that I’ve never followed through with 😅 I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve realized that, like you said, my skills need improvement if I’m going to communicate something people care about. Thank you for the great video Brookes, can’t wait to see more from you!
Grulbus looks like hes aspiring to be a champion of bowling and I´m going to fully support him. PD: Please don't send him to the forgotten OCs vault😢, he deserves to be loved and can be a prime proof that all OCs just need a bit of LOVE to be great!!!
THE BLUEY CLIP ON THE MIC 😭💕💕💕 Love this video but I kept having to rewind to actually LISTEN to what you were saying because I kept staring at and getting distracted by the tiny little bluey in hand. Grulbus is adorable btw and I AM invested in the character 😤
I'm working to get better at 3D animation, and though I'm not yet at a point where I see it worth publicly putting out there I thought this was a great video. I especially love the way you talked about point 3, skill, and how you said "we" and not "you". Made you and the points you made in the video seem much more down to earth.
I Appreciate this video, I wouldn't consider myself a beginner artist more so intermediate I've have been drawing traditionally my whole life I recently got into digital art in a few months ago because I've always enjoyed seeing digital art but it always frustrated me because I never liked anything I made and felt like having to relearn everything all over again, it was embarrassing and extremely discouraging at times for me to even try because I would spend literal days on a drawing only to post it for nobody to see or care or one of my "friends" trolling me under my post which made me feel bad about my work. But within these last few months I learned a lot of things, surround yourself with people around your skill level and share a similar interest as you do, it not only grows great bonds and new friends, but you have fans for your work because your friends were there with you during the creative process, you are all here to grow and that's important. Celebrate your growths and personal milestones, I was so happy and proud of my last drawing because I cut the time I took draw it in half instead of taking a week it was two days, a dynamic i had learned to make, and I learned how to make my own brush. when posting drawings of your own oc's it's important to remember that your own work may not be recognized as much as fanart, regardless of skill level people are more likely like a drawing of mario than they are a drawing of your own oc. A well established IP is more easily able to be more recognized compared to someone you just created from your head, you have to build them up to that point first. I really appreciate the message at the end and I hope in future you could do a video on helping encorage artist with trying a new medium.
i normally dont mind being an small artist because i do art for myself and doing art for those who can appreciate my art the only thing that somewhat disapoints me is when there is an "big" following but little interaction that gives off an disappointing feeling
I just had a mental breakdown and posted a story on instagram stating I won't put much effort anymore into creating content because it's never paid off after more than 10 years of doing so, and I don't know if to apologize or to spend my time in something else and abandon the platform. The thing is that I enjoy doing art, but creating content is something extra you have to do and spend time with as well and that's not fun at all, specially if you are stuck with your same audience for years that supports you less and less, I'm just a very tired artist and honestly idk what I'll do.
9:00 I was listening in the background when that Napoleon Dynamite reference stopped me in my tracks and put me straight into SHOW LOVE MODE ❤💝 😂 then saw you had the visual too- so funny - this is every beginners transition into becoming an artist moment no matter what age you start for real.
Technically speaking, I am not a true beginner, I've been drawing for 4-5ish years, but I am new to posting my stuff on RUclips. Every time I post I 1) take 18 years to convince myself I won't be bashed into the ground for posting this and 2) once I finally post it I repeatedly check on the views for the first couple hours or days or so until I decide 'yeah another flop' and stop until I post something new. Yeah, 2 of my videos did pretty well, view wise, and that got me to want to post more! And then I did, and I'm back to struggling for views again, except this time I was actually really proud of what I made, and also really scared to post it because it was a gift for an artist/writer I really like and do comment on her works regularly with responses, she just hasn't seen it, which is understandable because I only have 5 videos and 11 subscribers. But as a person with anxiety and a very serious problem of hating everything I make and thinking everyone else will too, it gets really hard to keep going. Especially when I don't really have a lot of social medias for posting stuff, besides a TikTok (that's private anyway) and a Tumblr (that I'm too scared to post anything on). I'm not too sure how this video got into my recommended, since I've seen nothing of this channel before, but I'm glad it did because while it didn't get rid of my inferiority complex and I'm probably the only person who can get rid of that, it does talk about things that help boost that confidence, even if it's only a little. I and many other beginners (relatively speaking) will have a hard time finding traction on and platform just because we're new, and I'm sure everyone goes through a phase like I am where they're desperately trying to be acknowledged just because they don't acknowledge themselves. But I've seen my own friend go from a very small, relatively unseen RUclipsr to something bigger, and I'm proud of her. I know I can do the same thing, in time. So, thank you for posting this video. It means a lot, as an artist struggling to find her feet.
What I definitely understood from reading the comments under this video is that topics like this (especially if they come up in the video) can serve as a kind of rallying point for us. I, like many commentators, also work on my universe, characters, etc. We could support each other in our endeavors, learning about each other's world, following what really hooked us. (I used a translator, sorry if that.)
“…in the woods, it’s usually bundled up, very bundled up, or… There’s one trick to flush out nail fungus almost overnight.” Perfect time for an ad. Anyway, I loved this video! On #8; it’s a default of mine to huddle up and not show what I’m doing until it’s ready for an audience. People around me always tell me to share my WIPs and learning-work, but the internet is so full of people fighting for getting their voice heard. I want my work to actually have a reason to exist and not exist for the sake of the work itself. And yea, showing the ten paragraphs is like showing a sketch, it should only exist for the sake of taking it to finish as a framework, but it’s also kinda cool if it turns out to be a byproduct itself. People usually get the preliminary “art of” books *after* they enjoy the finished product (ignore that there’s a HTTYD art of book staring at me right now even though I haven’t seen the series). Thanks for providing videos like this; I really enjoy being surrounded by discussions like this, and it’s clear your experience makes for valuable information. :)
It's hard growing into what's now an algorithm plagued social media space, something that's starting to dictate almost everything someone posts. I know there's other factors to apply in order for art to get traction and I'm glad to know that there's a method to the madness and I'm just not going insane, but I hate how it's all really a gamble, some pieces would blow up, some would pathetically shrivel up. I'm baffled time and time again how small doodles blow up in likes compared to other artist's astonishing high quality work, It's all that luck that goes into hoping you're favored by the algorithm Even though I've been a self-taught digital artist whos been in the works for almost 2 years now, I still consider myself a beginner since there's still so much to learn. I've learned a lot from this video, if there's a major thing I can take away from this, it's to show and not tell. I've made countless OCs and characters that all mingle in these stories and concepts that reference media and ideas I like but the stories they're in are always lightly hinted at in a small paragraph below the description that nobody really bothers to read or engage in. The character designs themselves as of right now are still in their first iteration in concept but it's far from what I truly desire they look like. A quote I've heard that unfortunately rings true "If you want your art to get attention, just make the characters sexy" It's something that I've tested and it worked almost like magic, but the dilemma is that the characters themselves in that way of design don't match the true design I desire them to have, something that matches the description, a scene that can tell a story instead of just showcasing a concept. It's not that I hate drawing like that, I've learned a lot simply from practicing this type of style. It's just that it feels dirty that this is what I have to do to be part of the "relevancy club". I'm looking towards making more complicated scenes and possibly pieces that display key moments in the story to hook viewers in, it's true that viewers would love to see art on display than words on display. My plan is to reach a status where I'm buddy buddy with the system and then usher in the art that best reflects the stories and concepts I want to tell. This video helped clear out a lot of questions I've had and I'm motivated even more to keep improving, something I'll reference to during my journey
I can't speak for anyone else, but myself. So that's what I'll do. I started out before Social media was a thing. The most I could do was uoad my art to sites like Renderosity and then DeviantArt. And it was great. Folks were liking and giving feedback. Doing what they could to help me improve. I even got to personally know some, now, very popular artists as a result. Then came MySpace and that only increased my popularity, this landing me freelance jobs. Mostly in the gaming world. It was a great time to be a artist. But not a great time to be a creator. No one ever cared about my original creations. All they wanted to see was more fan art. And so I continued to provide. When Markiplier started to hit it big, I created the "Slenderplier" character. Which was just Slenderman with a pink mustache. And it blew up on DeviantArt and took a life of it's own. Even Mark took notice and featured my at the end of one of his videos. I took that opportunity to use my bean characters to create a parody of Markiplier and Slenderman. Then it blew up! Mark featured that piece twice! But just as quickly the fame came, it left even faster. No one cared about the non-fan art in my gallery. So they moved on. And they've not returned since. I have skills, and I know that. But I'm sooooo incredibly burned out on creating art based on already established IPs. Any artist can do that. I moved to creating parody art and that became successful and allowed me to make a little income. But companies like Nintendo and Disney do not care about Fair Use laws and will send DMCA claims because they know they are too large to fight. Shoot. Back when Zootopia came out, I created a God Father parody of the rat in the Dismal Disney film. In fact, it's still on my TeePublic store. But Disney literally lifted my design, made minor changes and used it for the intro to one of their Disney Plus shorts! They literally made a parody of a parody, by using my design! I'm now done with fan art and parodies. And I'm struggling to make any sales, let alone commissions. But I refuse to give up. I'm switching gears a bit and working on a children's project that uses my original characters. It may sale, or it may not. But I MUST TRY. I can't keep relying on someone else's IPs. I can't get anywhere doing that anyway. And I'm sick of it anyway.
0:03 Bold of you to assume I don’t love him already. He’s a friend-shaped bean that happens to like my favorite sport. I wanna pick him up and squeeze him right now!
You brought up really interesting points! It definitely takes to make a whole story or comic or animation, but it's a definitely fun way to share your characters with people and it's easier to relate to characters that way too
I tend to draw things i like, mainly dragons and reptiles and stuff, i don’t really share the things i draw anymore mainly because an experience i had, i was told by a friend that i should try to draw something else, so i chose to try and draw a person and… man it was not good but i was still sorta proud of it, so i shared it with some people… and immediately got made fun of for it lol. For that reason now i don’t really like sharing art anymore, however this experience still hasn’t stopped me from drawing! Even if people don’t like the things you make, as long as you enjoy what you’re doing you should keep going!
The attention craving is something I had to drag myself out of and have been dropping on the heads of smaller/younger artists that tend to flock around me in group chats (if I had a nickel for every time I became Art Chat Auntie I'd have two nickels) because I see the pattern and try to assure and correct it. But recently it got very obvious and very bad because unfortunately someone that I was trying to help to recognize and then get out of the "I need constant validation on every stage of my art and if no one comments on it I'm going to delete it" funk they're in because it's going to be bad for them long term, they ended up being the kind who don't hear anything that isn't pure praise or acknowledgement and any criticism of themselves or their art is taken so deeply they default to "I just suck I should leave, I want to die, I'm a mistake" and realizing they don't care or want or aren't ready (despite being over 20, not a teen) for that talk is extremely disheartening. As of now, I've gotten so tired of the cycle of "no one commented, I don't want to finish this" and me not being willing to snap at them when they have the emotional integrity of a wet napkin that I've left the group entirely. A lesson learned on my own about my compulsive desire to help and be the guidepost I wish I had at their age when they clearly don't want one. Oh well, I still have the ones who appreciate the Helpful Adult Guidance desire this.
I'm not a beginner artist, but comments and video hits me close to home: I onlgy get attention when I draw fanart of a popular charatcer within the fandom.I get 10+ or 28-30 bookmarks/faves at best on Pixiv and DA respectively. I want to draw an my fave obscure characters/ my own characters, except they're more interesting to look at.
I really resonate with this video. Im actually holding off completely on posting on my Instagram because it's just a distraction at this point. My skills are probably medium at this point, but I have watched enough concept artist pros to know that skill-wise I don't have all my tools. It's been very liberating to just focus on practicing so I can clearly create my character ideas the way I envision them. Just keep your eye on the prize, it will happen.
This was very good for me to watch. I'd come to a similar conclusion about my work but in a more negative light: no one cares because my art isn't good enough to care about. Your video helped me reframe that thought and focus more on skill development.
Awesome video as always Brookes!! I consider myself a somewhat experienced artist but I also constantly feel like a baby lol. These are good points to keep in mind even as I am not super active on social media as to why ppl may not respond to OCs as much even when they're my favorite I say this as someone who's been back burner developing a comic for almost 10 yea--
Loooool I have a stop motion planned since the beginning of my channel, I felt that 3 years of not making something yet to my core 😅 Happy to subscribe, great content.
part of me envies yall that are still new artists and got that spark of hope, but also just gonna put this out there as a cautionary tale ive been trying since 2019 to make a name for myself, i dont even begin to know how many hours ive put into it all, ive improved SO much since i started posting publicly. but everytime i do something that "works" it only ever works once, doesnt matter how soon i try it again, doesnt matter if i make something that i would say is even better. i ended up privating most of my work because i thought that was the problem, people were seeing my older things and thought i just wasn't as good as i actually am. and now it just kind of feels like im being drowned out by all this ai stuff, where people are more into the novelty of some new toy and not as worried with "oh well that was just made by a normal human, seen it already a hundred times" idk i just kind of have to wonder if its worth it to put even more years into something that has very little shot at actually succeeding. even with the fact that with a bigger audience comes more critics, man im already gay i hear it to my face near daily. i would rather have hundreds of people yelling about why my art is bad than sit there for weeks waiting for even one like that isn't just my parents
Usually when I see an Underrated artist on like tiktok or something, I like their post just because I understand how it feels to have no likes on a post your really proud of
I feel like there’s some nuance there, I wouldnt agree that it’s NEVER the artist, but social media is definitely it’s own game with a lot of factors for sure
That's all true and well put, but let's not forget that instagram just randomly punishes you for say using similar hashtags over again or using a different hashtag suddenly. My posts were getting stright into shadowban area after Inktober (lol, right?). I'm so dead inside (tm) now that I just draw my stuff and webcomic offline and never show it to anyone untill it's done (and than it will the problem for a future me). I recently finished a big project offline, currently in a process of printing it. And only my close friends saw it. I wonder, is this my life now? I used to live for the views (in a good way) sharing my art and drawing requests and gifting art has always been my way of communication. Social media killed my will to share so much. And I'm not quite the beginner, I honestly think my art is catchy.
@@CharacterDesignForge Oh, thank you! I did not expect you'd actually take a look, when I was venting my spleen here 😅That meens a lot, thank you. I'm kinda no clue how to do this kind of marketing right. I bougth instagram ad once or twice (for sciense! xd), like $10 promotion and it showed some results (the post was actually seen by more people), but I'm not sure that paying for views is the way to go. Especially when I'm not making money as an artist ._.
I am new to this channel and unfortunately despite having no connection to you or hour work I find Grulbus to be fine, maybe even decent. Also despite the fact that I am at the "practice how to draw basic lines and shapes" stage of learning art this video was surprisingly useful.
It seems I'm pretty late to discovering this video lol. But I'm an amateur artist, really no interest in turning it a career and I do have trouble being consistant (drawing like mad for a week than being burnt out for a month or two). Anyway, I've spent quite a while posting art on stuff like twitter, deviantart, instagram, even furaffinity, but barely get's any attention. If I post something on any discord server that has any artists, it often get's ignored by someone who's much farther along with drawing than I am and often get praise while I'm stuck in the dark. It's been an issue (or more like I treat it as an issue because haha I want attention) which has caused me to nearly quit trying many times. And I've come to understand that trying to draw to get praise will always end up backfiring. As of writing this, I've met a few special people that consistently tell me that I need to draw to make myself happy, not to impress others. I may never get a large following or many likes on any piece in my life compared to other artists out there, but that shouldn't matter. What matters is if I'm happy doing it for myself.
Not even my parents nor any of my own folks showed much interest in my artworks, which is why at some point in the past-and at some points NOW-I was obsessed with getting "recognition" for my works to give me some sort of moral boost to make more... I've learned a few things since, knowing that there's always room for me to improve and try to make something groundbreaking...but the recognition would be nice, don't get me wrong.
been uploading for like a decade or so ? And I never took off, now part of it is that my art kinda was bad ngl. However years after I started (two years ago or something) it didnt improve much while I would see people that I think were at an earlier stage in their art life that would draw way more people and apparently it's because I didnt communicate (tbh people didnt either and being a shy person even online I just saw no reason to do so). Also I dont often draw about popular things so yeah. But I think the biggest one imo is just algorithms not liking me, I don't like rushing and pooping out content every day and i'm not super consistent admittedly which I feel imo is one of the biggest problem with social media they push constant content uploads but idk, that's not how human works.
I'm very novice at art still, and what helps me is just to not post anything besides in group chats and stuff because I really just wanna draw to have fun. For the longest time i've only ever gotten frustration out of drawing and only recently have i been able to just enjoy making the stuff and not be mad over the final product.
I can understand how this is to be honest, as someone who's been drawing for most of my life my art barely even got attention at all, even online. I've always thought that I was trying too hard to have fans by finding them myself but that sudden realization all those years was actually a serious problem that was going on with my life for a long time
A solid vid as always! I do have to admit, I very much used 'House of Amill' going as far back as my late high school years - business cards and all. Although it was less a cry for professionalism and more a barrier put up to get folks to quit asking me for free art all the time. The "Perks" of being like the one artist folks knew, apparently. -.- Also... yeah. Your skills are at that point where even "Purposely Bad Art" will still look good. You've hit the "Professional Actor playing an Amateur Actor" stage of your professional life. There is no way to shut those skills off beyond drawing with your non-dominant hand or something. There is a non-zero chance I'll end up doing fanart of Grulbus at some point in the future.
@@CharacterDesignForge Well... the reason it's 'House of Amill' is because of Marvel Comics. At least, it's because of their nickname - the "House of Ideas". If there's one thing I've always been, it's a comic geek who wanted to be in the biz. I figured "House of Amill" was equal parts Geeky Deep Cut & funny enough to work as a joke on its own (It sounds like a take-out restaurant). It was very much "A Choice" at the time but one that seems to work well enough nowadays. = )
It's funny, honestly. This video sorta gives closure as to why it took me so long to get an audience worth a damn, even after getting that audience and being recognized when I step into new communities. It kinda also explains why the account I started to try and show off a completely different set of art never went anywhere. It was like starting from scratch all over again.
Yes, this includes the "drawing experience" part. I'm good at what I _normally_ do, but trying to draw things with half-decent anatomy is an absolute chore, and it kinda shows. Add in the fact that I can't bring myself to draw much more than doodles for my main, and you have a whirlpool of reasons to be disinterested in that secondary venture.
True ive been making comics of my characters for one year now and it barely gets any views but honestly its ok cause i can experiment and improve my own art skills and style. Drawing for myself actually made me try some new things for a new character and i like it. Views or not i enjoy my art journey!
You may also be filling an already filled niche. I do Wings of Fire content, but there’s an army of Wings of Fire creators out there, so little reason to go to my content specifically. Then I got into a niche cartoon from the 90s that’s well loved but has had almost nothing new since 1995. (Gargoyles reboot when?!! You’re killing me Disney!!!) I started making content for that and it WAY outperformed my Wings of Fire content, since I’m filling a new niche. Edit: fixed an autocorrect error
I hate that I was indeed going to comment how I am deeply invested in the green dude that I have already forgotten the name of and his love of bowling.
Great video! I've been posting my art online for over 20 years and I'm still lucky if I get more than 3 or 4 likes on my art. It does get frustrating sometimes when I spend hours or days on something and it feels like no one cares, but oh well.
You went for the throat and hit the nail on the head. But in a nice way! Ive been trying to find a way to say this nicely for years. Now ill just link this video
I’m not that popular at the moment, because my channel is still sort of new, but I do try to comment on other beginners videos and stuff because I know it means a lot to them and I’m there as well. I’ve been doing art for a long time now, around 4-5 years I would say. I started my channel more recently.
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm by no means a beginner, have drawn since I could hold a crayon and digitally for 15+ years. My art has gotten thousands of upvotes on Reddit and on my old Tumblr. But Instagram? I'm lucky to get maybe 16 likes. And I've had my art reposted (without permission) by bigger accounts and seen the difference in like ratio based off their following vs my own.
Algorithm plays a huge part in the recognition your work gets, regardless of how good your art really is, and I think we're too hard on ourselves for something that's quite frankly beyond our control.
There's a persistent theme in internet q&a that essentially goes "Wondering why your art isn't getting noticed? It's because you're not good enough. Get good and the results will magically start coming" which seems a bit simplistic and can be discouraging. It's something that's probably true to an extent, but isn't the only factor like some make it out to be.
instagram sucks, I'm stuck at 3 likes per post and they're all from friends... I've made 47 posts up to now. Sometimes I get strangers to come, but they are rare.
Very good point that platform fit is a huge factor- some people get traction different places! I typically just use Instagram as an example to keep things simple.
Instagram isn't a platform that favors anyone. I know there are huge users in the platform, with millions of followers, but I've never interacted nor seen their content
be it voluntarily or forced by the algorithm, only when you're new to the platform such thing happens, but once you've tailored your feed to your liking, all you get is
content that you genuinely like, unless you're the kind of person that throws likes at every post you see or barely use the Save and Like function, in said case the APP
is still trying to figure out WHO you are and WHAT you like. Twitter and RUclips work the same way.
If at some point you don't seem to be getting new content, or rather content that you like, is because the platform can't find any for the moment, so they either show
you stuff you've already seen, or new stuff that you "might" like (you probably won't, as there is no way for them to really know what you might like just based on what
you liked before if there isn't more of that content, so they just try to match what other people with your taste also liked or interacted with).
Growing on instagram relies on either knowing people, or already having a following outside of it (that also uses instagram, if your twitter followers don't use it, then
no matter how much you advertise your instagram, it won't grow much). That's why RUclips videos recommend you to "get good", so other artists start to look your
way and interact with your work. If you happen to also get to talk with them, you will accomplish another thing that RUclips videos recommend; "make connections".
Connections won't just help you emotionally, but also to grow your platforms and potentially get you a job in the industry (if you want one).
It's obviously easier said that done because, well; you first need to have something to show to be able to show something. If you don't work on your art, then no one is
going to do it for you, and that often times is the hardest task; knowing what to work on. If you don't have a clear direction, then you can only walk until you either tire
yourself out, get lost or reach what seems to be the goal even though doesn't look like it because there's no one to congratulate you for it (if not even you knew that you
were walking towards that goal, then most likely nobody else knew either).
Figure out your goals and aspirations, work towards them without making any excuses nor skipping anything, and you will eventually find yourself in a comfortable place.
My biggest problem with Instagram is indeed the algorithm. If you're not following tags, you will miss 1000 posts, even by people you follow. It sucks.
I occasionally get a person who likes my fandom stuff but when it comes to OCs, well, that's a different story. Because no one will be actively look for specific tags for OCs.
Grulbus is actually really adorable
I want a Grulbus plush.
He looks like the sheep from Amanda the adventurer💀
@@IPutFishInAWashingMachinethat doesnt even look like wooly.. AT ALL
True
I'm 5 seconds in and I love Grulbus
I can absolutely understand the frustration people feel by not being noticed especially when you put out more work then other. My mindset is “improve because you want to no because you have to” last thing you don’t want to do is make drawing a chore.
It's truly crippling when art becomes a chore. Last year I was still a tattoo apprentice and as it was my first time taking a leap at being a working artist, it became a real stumbling block and I burnt out really bad 😅. Glad I went through it for the experience, but it was not my passion, concept art is, and it's so essential to me now that I remember to pace myself and I'm doing this because I love making art more than anything else in this world, and that's why I'm pursuing such a hard career path.
Right!!! I literally have an INPRNT account, and the Instagram algorithm is changing, though drawing the things that most people like like drawing characters, faces, portraits, facial features, eyes, mouths, the categories of the popularity spectrum, is what frustrates artists most of the time. You can help but create what matters to you and not what just matters to everyone else.
Ngl I love discovering old ass art when scrolling backwards on the Instagram accounts of artists I follow and seeing where they used to be. Sometimes it's just minor tweaks and improvements that made the art go from okayish to legitimately great. So even if your beginner art gets zero engagement now, it might be inspiring to other beginner artists at some point down the line.
I adore beginner art. I love all art in general. Being able to create anything is wonderful! Even if the outcome isn't the best (for both pro or beginner artists), you still created something, and that is awsome in itself!
we should all be innovaters. BITE ME
Ew one of those
People like you are a blessing keeping so many beginner artists afloat :)
@@Leo-mu8kn what? In this society we need innovaters. Everybody wants to be entertainers and see innovaters and "bORiNgg'. I hate that
Thank you for vouching for all beginner artists! As an animator who is still getting used to it, I think I speak for all of beginner artist community when I say TYSM! :D
My time with Insta and Twitter didn't go too smoothly when I was a beginner artist years ago. Me looking up towards artists having better skill in art than me and expecting them to give the same in return towards me was the STUPIDEST move I ever made. I was SOOOOO hooked on likes (that and my work being in beginner level and feeling frustrated everytime a skilled artsit didn't like it back) much to the point where it wrecked my mental health and I had to leave social media entirely.
I hope this is a lesson why you shouldn't prioritize your work WAY too much towards other people and focus on impoving stuff on your own.
Ive definitely been there myself!
Why it so important to make things you like and not what you think other people will like
@@zellafae because in the long run it won't be sustainable- you'll be making things essentially for the wrong reasons and burning yourself out on it
@@zellafae you'll be chasing all the other content that people like instead of just settling for what you specifically want, plus you'll probably be happier
Allright, I've came back to making a social media account and I want to say, I has been a mixed bag lately. I'm feeling a *little* better by taking breaks, but in ways, I still feel like I've been treated small and like a Beginner artist there. Despite me taking life drawings this and last year. 🤧
This was a very welcome and, admittedly, difficult video. As someone who has worked hard at building up a world and characters and spent years working on my art and writing skills, it can feel absolutely deflating to share something that means the world to you but just gets a 'meh' from everyone else. I often have to remind myself that people don't hate the character or the world, they simply just don't *know* it yet and a foundation needs to be built in order to help people care.
Still, it can be really hard to get that foundation going. Publishers tend to not bite onto ideas that aren't proven, and it's hard to test what does or doesn't work for an audience when that audience is still so small. It can make it feel like you're screaming into a dark room when you're trying to get something creative off the ground.
There are some excellent tips in this video! Even with my years of working on things, I still need to improve at that all-important skill factor. That feels like a never-ending journey.
I'm not an artist in any way shape or form, but here's how I see the art "industry" if you could call it that:
- Y'all work your ASS off for what you love, all of you. In software development we get some people who've been programming since they were twelve and have a deep love for it as a hobby, in the visual arts pretty much everyone's like that, or at least it's closer to a lifestyle than just a job.
- Any industry like that is, of course, competitive as all hell. And on top of that, it's not like most where there's a numbers game revolving around how many artists big companies need, at least not to the same degree. You're basically freelancers, and an oversaturated market of freelancers has got to be the most "competitive" in the world.
- ... And yeah, you're sort of just fighting for people's attention. It's easy to be desensitized by all the wonderful stuff people create because there's just _so much_ of it. I try to take a personal interest in things that catch my eye a bit... probably once a week? Just to be like, yo, this is cool. But it still kinda seems like shouting from the void the other way around.
so relatable...
I've been building a world and story it's been 6 years now
I love drawing the characters from the book, building the ambience, and I really like the story, I've shown it to some people and they liked it too!
I hope one day I'll be able to do an animation about my book and people will actually enjoy watching it...
the chances I fail are high ig since I've been drawing for 7+ years and my art is not even good, but I still have a chance to try so I might as well just do it
I don't care if I'll be, idk, 70 when this thing drops, I'll show the world my original story no matter how long it takes!!!
People are usually satisfied with pretty basic stuff. If you make a "mona lisa", chances are you will be the only one appreciating it for a very long time. But make something stupid or even vaguely better than something else and watch how viral it can get. Happens all the time. Just human nature to be easily entertained and distracted. Besides, a lot of us crave for something simple if it's undemanding and enjoyable. Like youtube. Most important is that you're making it because you enjoy it. But sometimes that isn't enough and money gets in the way. Don't cast your pearls before swine, because they will always give a "meh" for something they don't get. That's not a big deal. Keep doing you.
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I personally grew up on Tumblr and was actively interacting with a bunch- and I mean a bunch of artists. I think this was the best possible environment for me starting out because people obviously noticed I was quite young, but they were all very supportive. Never did I have anyone saying my art was bad, but I was given constructive criticism. I met a lot of friends on there.
Sadly it's not really the same as it was in 2017, but I think the point isn't about becoming popular or well seen. I wasn't at first- and even if every new follower made me excited, I drew mostly for fun! I drew every day because I had a good time drawing characters and showing them to people.
I noticed that when my account really picked up I just... didn't want to post art on it anymore. It wasn't fun for me. There comes a pressure to create and impress people.
This has been my thoughts lately about not really caring about my own creations if none of them have surrounding lore or share a universe. I need the story and lore structure to be the basis for designing the characters, so it's all interconnected. Then I can feel like I'm developing an idea of my own rather than an OC with no hints as to how they're relevant
I really like how gentle and straight forward you were at the same time. I’m tired of people saying they’re just being honest, when they’re also obviously being a bit harsh. There’s a way to do this and you did!!! It’s super important for many people to feel encouraged this way.
I’ve often avoided art tips and learning because of how unkind it has often been (at least from what I’ve often seen for the last 10 years). It on,y ever left me feeling like a failure and I couldn’t absorb the actually useful info bc I was distracted by feeling hurt and discouraged :(
It’s such a nice breath of fresh air to see this done so well ❤
Thanks so much! That's what I strive to do on this channel
As someone who's also had a pilot (of sorts) in production for the last 3 years, this also resonates with me deeply. This has been a major mind-game for me as I have put in over 2,000 recorded hours and $6k+ investment. But something that has kept me going is those friendships that I have forged along the way that keep at my side to remind me not to push too hard since I am crazy self-motivated. Without them, I likely would have stopped a long time ago and I feel that I owe it to them to finish what I started now that I know for certain my goal is possible and accomplishable. I hope that you will find that inflection point in your journey where the process is discovered at long last and you have a few seconds of finished animation to look at and enjoy knowing that the hardest part of the project is over and all there is left is to finish. Safe journeys my friend.
Thanks so much! We’re quite a ways along in the animation process, so we’re looking forward to the finishline. All the best to you too!
@@CharacterDesignForge I want to make my own streaming site for animators to host on but have nobody to help me.
Being a beginner in any thing will mostly if not always is going to be Really hard and challenging, And Art is no exception, Beginners always struggles and get confused with if they are doing something wrong or why its not looking like that or why its not being appropriated, And thats fine its not you are wrong no but its You lack knowledge, guidance and experience of what you are doing, and Spending time days after days year after year and not giving up and learning from all the mistakes is THE BEST thing to do, you will be there, take your time, enjoy what you are doing, maybe not everyone appropriate or understand what you are doing now but surely they will eventually,👍never give up.
I LOVE looking at OCs. I love seeing OCs for franchises/fandoms i like. I finally stopped seeing OC x Canon as cringe, too, which is silly but makes learning about fandom OCs even more fun.
And yet I see excellent art and excellent OCs and excellent writing go unnoticed. Not by me, since I seek it out, but in general. Sometimes it’s just… some combo of these things. You’re new to a platform. Your stuff’s still a baby. The algorithm isn’t hitting. People in the Fandom you’re creating for (if you’re creating for one) don’t know your work yet. So many reasons your stuff isn’t getting interaction/gaining traction… and sometimes it’s just genuinely hard for people to care about OCs that aren’t their own.
Just know that SOME folks do like seeing it. Even if it’s 1-10 likes, you’ve got 1-10 people who thought what you made rocks. And giving up due to a lack of interaction on big platforms… would be sad. Maybe find a discord server or smaller community that has people who’d like what you’re doing, original or fandom! I’ve had a lot of encouragement and made new friends and seen tons of OCs I love that way.
Also, you may find that in smaller communities you can get positive and constructive critique to help you level up your skill, too!
8:20 This is something I've recently learned the hard way. In an art class I was attending I say my best piece was a charcoal drawing of a statue we had in the room. I probably spent maybe 30 minutes on it tops. It had more weight, the space was better, less detail but still enough for charcoal. That 30 minute piece turned out way better than the graphite drawing I did of that same statue and spent around 15-16 hours on
Didn't expect the video to go into why original content has a hard to being seen, and a great reminder to just get things out, thank you for your video
I feel like this applies to every kind of creative output (drawing, animating, singing, writing,....) ❤
Also I was way to invested in those microphone holders XD
we should all be innovaters. BITE ME
Point 1 goes hand-in-hand with the "large ocean" that you the artist are a "small fish" in. It's nigh-on impossible to get personally noticed when you are just one search result out of thousands.
Speaking of which, as a hobby artist myself I don't get many notifications, but the flipside is I can review each notification individually when it happens. I often check out the artist's page to see what their gallery is, or (failing that) what _else_ they've faved/liked. Many times I can almost guess their search history....
I'm a hobby artist too
I think there can be an argument made that, using the fish/ocean analogy, your *art* is the fish that could be caught, so you'd want to have more fish out in the water to increase the likelihood of being caught, until people start actively seeking out the kind of fish you're making.
number 8 is definitely the reason because i have everything in place to start but i keep doing fanart or pieces of the characters that don’t build upon the story because they’re easier to do and i don’t have to worry about messing up the story
Hearing all of this is extremely freeing. I've been struggling with a lot of this beginner artist stuff for a while, and haven't been able to pinpoint why I've not enjoyed drawing or sharing my art and stories (even though I've been drawing for a long time up to this point). Thank you so much for making and sharing this video! I have a lot to work on, but now that I know what it is I can work on as an artist, storyteller, and person, I'm excited going forward.
Ok....... But the little Bluey doll he has to hold the microphone 😭💕
I replied to a comment with this and think it belongs here too -
This is why places where everybody is an artist are so much healthier. They know the work you put into making your art, and also give more honest feedback.
You dont commonly get bullied for a mistake like on other social media.
(you have an infinite amount of inspiration too)
Yeah, I do miss flipnote
This really resonates with me. I look up to many artists on social media, seeing the community they create and wishing I could be a part of it, yet I can't get a single like on an animation or drawing I post on Twitter. It sucks, but knowing that this is a common feeling and common hurdle takes some weight off my shoulders, and honestly gives me the relief of, "ok I don't have a giant audience to appeal to or any expectations from anyone." It doesn't change the way I feel about 'being behind' other people or the fear that I may never make it, but this video helps a lot.
Leaving a comment for the algorithm, but also to say that I appreciate the content, and I'm looking forward to that pilot you've been working on for three years.
Hehe thanks so much Azure!
Thank you so much for this video - I especially appreciate how candid yet kind you are with your points.
I stopped drawing when I was in university for a multitude of reasons, but the main art-related one is how frustrated I was at my lack of skills in delivering my own vision. I was so afraid of failing that I decided to just run away.
Recently (last December?) I decided to give art a try again. I am by no means “serious” in the sense that I have my OCs / original world etc, but more of creating fan art with an original spin.
Everyone says fan art is the way to grow your following, but I beg to differ. I found your video precisely at the point where I wonder if it is worth it to continue or should I just stop this hurrah, and your video made me reflect and evaluate my own take on art - with the same honesty and kindness you have demonstrated to all of us.
Even though I'm not exactly a beginner, this video was really insightful as someone experiencing some frustration at trying to garner an audience for original works, but not sure what's that barrier that's stopping the same level of attention as garnered from fanworks. Thank you for posting this!
i admit most of my art is simply self indulgent lol, id like to share my ocs stories with the people that follow me but im not quite sure how. its also a bit of a struggle for me to bring myself to draw anything. but tbh i just draw whatever and post it, ive mostly stopped caring about whether people like my art or not now.
one of my characters i draw quite often was originally a Gravity Falls fan character, but now hes become his own thing separate from Gravity Falls and people seem to like him, i also have other characters that im still currently working on.
i do typically draw fan art for shows i like to fixate on, i often try to replicate the style of shows i watch (which might come in handy if i want to become an animator or an artist on a future show, if thats even possible) one cartoon in particular is Villainous. it has helped me so much with improving my art work and its also in a way helped me improve on my character design skills. i feel like more people like my characters now than they did back then back when my art was more beginner
i honestly like not being a popular or huge artist
I wouldn't really call myself a beginner any longer, I've drawn on and off for at least a decade - if not longer. In the early years I definitely was the "This is my character. Why don't you love them???" person. I would post something I drew, and if I didn't receive a ton of likes and favorites and comments within 15 minutes I got upset that I wasn't good enough and stopped drawing art. It's a horribly toxic mindset I wish I had been able to get through earlier.
Even now, I don't get a lot of engagement with my art. It still sucks, but I've grown to accept that the problem is (mostly) outside my control. There isn't really a website for artists since DA jumped on all these terrible ideas. The other options don't set themselves up for artists in a similar way (Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc). I'm definitely not amazing when it comes to marketing myself or my ideas. But I finally found my niche where I really enjoy drawing what I do, so I find I don't mind as much. Even if I'm still a long way off from my eventual goal of starting my own webcomic... baby steps
I know this video is over a year old but man did I need it. I'm currently participating in my first inktober and although I'm thrilled to be drawing more in the past 10 days than I have in the last 10 years I also feel so incredibly discouraged and untalented. My instagram feed is full of amazingly talented artists getting thousands of likes and tons of engagement, and I by no means think I am deserving of equal engagement, but it's hard not to compare yourself.
This video made me feel much better about where I am on my art journey and was a good reminder that lack of engagement on social media doesn't mean my art is complete shit. And it's nice to hear it from someone that isn't my mom.
Love the bluey mic lol, but yeah it can be hard pouring so much effort into a project knowing not many will ever see it, I just have to remember that I have my family and close friends supporting my endeavors and that is truly something.
As someone who's been isolated from peers as they grew up while I couldn't grow up the same as them, I try so hard to do art that I love and it hurts to see I get darkness, nothing no likes, little views. I will try to keep going and keep drawing even if not everyone likes it, there will be people who will like it.
I am creating art for myself but I realized, its not about myself, it's about people whether they care or not.
That is why I am starting to draw based their interest, and works. I join specific community and create my
own niche where I have in common with the community that I enjoy myself and they also appreciate my art slowly.
I appreciate the level of detail you put into giving Grolbus anime heterochromia
Something I use a lot (especially for hands) is what I like to call "Avoid the problem like an artist" which is basically just not drawing hands, but in a creative way. When I'm just drawing for the sake of drawing, I'll let the story of the art be dictated by what I have the ability to draw. Doing this can show strange and new perspectives, give looks into alternate dimensions, and create brand-new species with colorful characteristics (like scattered eyes showing different emotions). I still learn things from these pieces of art, but at the same time, changing what I want them to be for what they are turns everything into near-perfection,which gives me the motivation to keep going.
@flitefulwantssubs402 I couldn't figure out how to give a character eyes, so I gave them many, all showing different expressions, all over their face. I created an entire species by doing that, plus lore, plus a plot for a story, PLUS it got me to drawing other creatures for this world which I didn't compromise in drawing, so I'd say I learned more by avoiding the problem than by pushing through and solving it. On top of that, I won't look back through my notebook and see the drawing as not-quite-what-I-wanted. :)
Ehh, I’d say this has a place, but is not a good solution long-term. For instance, you can go, “eh, don’t feel like drawing hands today,” but if “today” stretches for too long, you’ll never get better at hands. However, if you’re drawing a piece to relax and you want something easy, that’s ok sometimes.
@flitefulwantssubs402 I partially agree,
I think when you aren't good at something then in compositions not related to it doing that sort of thing is good.
However, it's important to dedicate time specifically to working on it.
In addition to looking stuff up to help with hands as an example.
Doing stuff like working from photo reference, or drawing close up peices which are entirely focused on the hand can be a way to force improvement, It won't be super easy, but so long as you are still tackling it till you do get better than avoiding it in the short term is fine.
More generally as a newer artist, You could always go for a style that lets you just use circles for the hands for awhile.
So you can still practice the general form a gesture, as well has doing face portraits, landscapes, vehicles, etc. anything that you enjoy and helps improve your fundamentals too.
I'm sad too that no one appreciates me, but seeing this vid makes me see the experience of many others of this fate, and appreciate that one day, we'll get there. Love ur oc btw!
A trick : Do a bit of fanart (fanart of things you love of course). It helps and it makes you "understand" a bit of what the creator wanted to share. And people love that, even tho your art is "not at its best". But do it for fun.
I feel like I really needed this video. I've recently been having some rather intense feelings over my art/talking about my passions and feeling like maybe I'm just not Doing It Right because I couldn't get other peoples' interest or i couldn't get the same kind of emotional response i was hoping for and unfortunately it's made me shell up to the point where i dont often talk about or post my art as I used to. I wish I knew when i got so focused on if other people see the message in my work (and i guess in me?) but writing these steps and notes down then going over my own art with them and how i feel about my art really helped
Fan creations for existing IPs often have an easier time finding an audience in comparison to launching your own IP, because there're people already attached to that original IP who're looking for more content about it, and giving them that content is that "giving value to the audience" part.
Yep, that leads to something ive called the Fan Art trap
@@CharacterDesignForge Given that some IP holders allow to monetize fan content (e.g. through Patreon or serving ads), it might not necessarily be a trap, but a launch pad. Them's Fightin' Herds come to mind, or basically everything by Valve.
@@LizardOfOz I'm thinking you aren't familiar with what part of it is a trap in my context- but yes I'm already familiar
Thanks so much for this. ❤️ I feel a lot of positivity after watching this and hopefully it translates to confidence the more I do this drawing thing.
Thanks Alb!!
we should all be innovaters. BITE ME
Great video. I’ve been on a break from visual art for a while and this is the first video I’ve watched as I consider getting back into my hobby. You are always so down to earth.
I relate to feeling frustrated and I knew all those points, deep down but didn’t want to acknowledge them. Skill is the hardest part for me because *self-lead study* is a massive struggle. I learn by filling gaps I already see, which means I need to draw… which means I am going to be awful. Allowing myself to be terrible in private and being selective about what I share publicly has been a help. I find it helpful to maintain a low ratio of public-to-private art-make a lot, don’t share a lot.
I also got frustrated when I started posting in IG in the rat race to be successful. Watching my friends kind of succeed at it was also hard. But art has always been a hobby for me and when I get more concerned about people interacting with my art, I know I’ve wandered away from my path. I need to love what I make first. If my opinion of a piece changes based on others, I need to recenter myself.
Anyway, great thoughts!
I've only seen 1 other artist talk about Value in the way you did in this video and that was Naoiki Saito a Japanese character designer and illustrator going over googles HERO method. Not a lot of artists break down why an audience actually likes art. I can say this as well not everyone can be a teacher even if you're an astounding amazing artist. Some people just know how to do. I think that's why this is talked about ao little. Just get better and have more skill and people will like your work. In this era it's not that simple. The emotional connection the meme of it if you will is quite important. Thanks for making this video! RUclips is usually pretty good at serving me stuff it knows I'll like so yeah I'm subbing and liking and all that jazz
I learned graphic design in polytechnic institute and what I learned is you need to work almost every day to perfect your idea and that includes research, artistic practice, History and social connections on what is popular that suits you and others
I think your green character Grolbus is appealing and well drawn in terms of shapes and linework. I also like the green color a lot.
wish there was actually a way to force myself to believe all this, but whenever I ask popular artists how they got that way and for advice and they say 'oh i just drew exactly what i enjoy and people somehow found me lol' the stuff i like and make looks nothing like the oversaturated market of samey good artstyles I seem to see everywhere, I'm so used to just having 0-2 likes on anything and those are from close friends. I think, for me personally, it needs to be a change into what people like. I've already tried to bounce off of popular creators (on tumblr) and basically leech off their success but I think I need to learn how to emulate exactly the content that people like, and then when there's enough people who consistently care about it, then I can make things I actually like
This is all great advice. I'm running into a different problem though. I started posting my work online a couple months ago, as I'm graduating from art school at the end of the year and wanted to start having some kind of online presence. But none of the platforms show my work to anyone. I'm lucky to get maybe 10 views. No, not likes, just views. I've tried different hashtags and everything, but IG recently made those useless. And of course twitter is on fire and places like deviant art are just AI platforms at this point. I dont really care about the likes or anything, I just want to get my name out as an artist so I can start getting some freelance work. But that seems basically impossible now. Outside of randomly cold calling people, but that's pretty difficult these days too.
Grulbus is so adorbs!
I'm glad I watched this, right when I noticed getting a little bit too sensitive that the last drawing I posted - which I feel is my best yet and meant a lot to me- has gotten literally no responses (usually I get a few). I'm still in the early stages of sharing so I have a following that's in the 2 digits and I was fine with it but it really started to get on my nerves lately. Thankfully I realize now I should just focus on making my games/stories first, and not worry too much that I'm not getting heard for now. Thanks for the wake-up call :')
Absolutely love your videos!
Thank you so much for explaining these points for why someone may not care about a beginner’s art.
Yeah, I’ve definitely got these big ideas for things that I’ve never followed through with 😅 I’ve gotten to a point where I’ve realized that, like you said, my skills need improvement if I’m going to communicate something people care about.
Thank you for the great video Brookes, can’t wait to see more from you!
Grulbus looks like hes aspiring to be a champion of bowling and I´m going to fully support him.
PD: Please don't send him to the forgotten OCs vault😢, he deserves to be loved and can be a prime proof that all OCs just need a bit of LOVE to be great!!!
THE BLUEY CLIP ON THE MIC 😭💕💕💕 Love this video but I kept having to rewind to actually LISTEN to what you were saying because I kept staring at and getting distracted by the tiny little bluey in hand. Grulbus is adorable btw and I AM invested in the character 😤
I'm working to get better at 3D animation, and though I'm not yet at a point where I see it worth publicly putting out there I thought this was a great video. I especially love the way you talked about point 3, skill, and how you said "we" and not "you". Made you and the points you made in the video seem much more down to earth.
I Appreciate this video, I wouldn't consider myself a beginner artist more so intermediate I've have been drawing traditionally my whole life I recently got into digital art in a few months ago because I've always enjoyed seeing digital art but it always frustrated me because I never liked anything I made and felt like having to relearn everything all over again, it was embarrassing and extremely discouraging at times for me to even try because I would spend literal days on a drawing only to post it for nobody to see or care or one of my "friends" trolling me under my post which made me feel bad about my work.
But within these last few months I learned a lot of things, surround yourself with people around your skill level and share a similar interest as you do, it not only grows great bonds and new friends, but you have fans for your work because your friends were there with you during the creative process, you are all here to grow and that's important.
Celebrate your growths and personal milestones, I was so happy and proud of my last drawing because I cut the time I took draw it in half instead of taking a week it was two days, a dynamic i had learned to make, and I learned how to make my own brush.
when posting drawings of your own oc's it's important to remember that your own work may not be recognized as much as fanart, regardless of skill level people are more likely like a drawing of mario than they are a drawing of your own oc. A well established IP is more easily able to be more recognized compared to someone you just created from your head, you have to build them up to that point first.
I really appreciate the message at the end and I hope in future you could do a video on helping encorage artist with trying a new medium.
i normally dont mind being an small artist because i do art for myself and doing art for those who can appreciate my art
the only thing that somewhat disapoints me is when there is an "big" following but little interaction that gives off an disappointing feeling
I just had a mental breakdown and posted a story on instagram stating I won't put much effort anymore into creating content because it's never paid off after more than 10 years of doing so, and I don't know if to apologize or to spend my time in something else and abandon the platform. The thing is that I enjoy doing art, but creating content is something extra you have to do and spend time with as well and that's not fun at all, specially if you are stuck with your same audience for years that supports you less and less, I'm just a very tired artist and honestly idk what I'll do.
9:00 I was listening in the background when that Napoleon Dynamite reference stopped me in my tracks and put me straight into SHOW LOVE MODE ❤💝
😂 then saw you had the visual too- so funny - this is every beginners transition into becoming an artist moment no matter what age you start for real.
Technically speaking, I am not a true beginner, I've been drawing for 4-5ish years, but I am new to posting my stuff on RUclips. Every time I post I 1) take 18 years to convince myself I won't be bashed into the ground for posting this and 2) once I finally post it I repeatedly check on the views for the first couple hours or days or so until I decide 'yeah another flop' and stop until I post something new. Yeah, 2 of my videos did pretty well, view wise, and that got me to want to post more! And then I did, and I'm back to struggling for views again, except this time I was actually really proud of what I made, and also really scared to post it because it was a gift for an artist/writer I really like and do comment on her works regularly with responses, she just hasn't seen it, which is understandable because I only have 5 videos and 11 subscribers. But as a person with anxiety and a very serious problem of hating everything I make and thinking everyone else will too, it gets really hard to keep going. Especially when I don't really have a lot of social medias for posting stuff, besides a TikTok (that's private anyway) and a Tumblr (that I'm too scared to post anything on). I'm not too sure how this video got into my recommended, since I've seen nothing of this channel before, but I'm glad it did because while it didn't get rid of my inferiority complex and I'm probably the only person who can get rid of that, it does talk about things that help boost that confidence, even if it's only a little. I and many other beginners (relatively speaking) will have a hard time finding traction on and platform just because we're new, and I'm sure everyone goes through a phase like I am where they're desperately trying to be acknowledged just because they don't acknowledge themselves. But I've seen my own friend go from a very small, relatively unseen RUclipsr to something bigger, and I'm proud of her. I know I can do the same thing, in time. So, thank you for posting this video. It means a lot, as an artist struggling to find her feet.
What I definitely understood from reading the comments under this video is that topics like this (especially if they come up in the video) can serve as a kind of rallying point for us. I, like many commentators, also work on my universe, characters, etc. We could support each other in our endeavors, learning about each other's world, following what really hooked us.
(I used a translator, sorry if that.)
“…in the woods, it’s usually bundled up, very bundled up, or… There’s one trick to flush out nail fungus almost overnight.”
Perfect time for an ad.
Anyway, I loved this video!
On #8; it’s a default of mine to huddle up and not show what I’m doing until it’s ready for an audience. People around me always tell me to share my WIPs and learning-work, but the internet is so full of people fighting for getting their voice heard. I want my work to actually have a reason to exist and not exist for the sake of the work itself.
And yea, showing the ten paragraphs is like showing a sketch, it should only exist for the sake of taking it to finish as a framework, but it’s also kinda cool if it turns out to be a byproduct itself. People usually get the preliminary “art of” books *after* they enjoy the finished product (ignore that there’s a HTTYD art of book staring at me right now even though I haven’t seen the series).
Thanks for providing videos like this; I really enjoy being surrounded by discussions like this, and it’s clear your experience makes for valuable information. :)
It's hard growing into what's now an algorithm plagued social media space, something that's starting to dictate almost everything someone posts. I know there's other factors to apply in order for art to get traction and I'm glad to know that there's a method to the madness and I'm just not going insane, but I hate how it's all really a gamble, some pieces would blow up, some would pathetically shrivel up. I'm baffled time and time again how small doodles blow up in likes compared to other artist's astonishing high quality work, It's all that luck that goes into hoping you're favored by the algorithm
Even though I've been a self-taught digital artist whos been in the works for almost 2 years now, I still consider myself a beginner since there's still so much to learn. I've learned a lot from this video, if there's a major thing I can take away from this, it's to show and not tell. I've made countless OCs and characters that all mingle in these stories and concepts that reference media and ideas I like but the stories they're in are always lightly hinted at in a small paragraph below the description that nobody really bothers to read or engage in. The character designs themselves as of right now are still in their first iteration in concept but it's far from what I truly desire they look like. A quote I've heard that unfortunately rings true "If you want your art to get attention, just make the characters sexy" It's something that I've tested and it worked almost like magic, but the dilemma is that the characters themselves in that way of design don't match the true design I desire them to have, something that matches the description, a scene that can tell a story instead of just showcasing a concept. It's not that I hate drawing like that, I've learned a lot simply from practicing this type of style. It's just that it feels dirty that this is what I have to do to be part of the "relevancy club".
I'm looking towards making more complicated scenes and possibly pieces that display key moments in the story to hook viewers in, it's true that viewers would love to see art on display than words on display. My plan is to reach a status where I'm buddy buddy with the system and then usher in the art that best reflects the stories and concepts I want to tell. This video helped clear out a lot of questions I've had and I'm motivated even more to keep improving, something I'll reference to during my journey
I can't speak for anyone else, but myself. So that's what I'll do.
I started out before Social media was a thing. The most I could do was uoad my art to sites like Renderosity and then DeviantArt. And it was great. Folks were liking and giving feedback. Doing what they could to help me improve. I even got to personally know some, now, very popular artists as a result. Then came MySpace and that only increased my popularity, this landing me freelance jobs. Mostly in the gaming world. It was a great time to be a artist.
But not a great time to be a creator. No one ever cared about my original creations. All they wanted to see was more fan art. And so I continued to provide. When Markiplier started to hit it big, I created the "Slenderplier" character. Which was just Slenderman with a pink mustache. And it blew up on DeviantArt and took a life of it's own. Even Mark took notice and featured my at the end of one of his videos. I took that opportunity to use my bean characters to create a parody of Markiplier and Slenderman. Then it blew up! Mark featured that piece twice!
But just as quickly the fame came, it left even faster. No one cared about the non-fan art in my gallery. So they moved on. And they've not returned since.
I have skills, and I know that. But I'm sooooo incredibly burned out on creating art based on already established IPs. Any artist can do that. I moved to creating parody art and that became successful and allowed me to make a little income. But companies like Nintendo and Disney do not care about Fair Use laws and will send DMCA claims because they know they are too large to fight. Shoot. Back when Zootopia came out, I created a God Father parody of the rat in the Dismal Disney film. In fact, it's still on my TeePublic store. But Disney literally lifted my design, made minor changes and used it for the intro to one of their Disney Plus shorts! They literally made a parody of a parody, by using my design!
I'm now done with fan art and parodies. And I'm struggling to make any sales, let alone commissions. But I refuse to give up. I'm switching gears a bit and working on a children's project that uses my original characters. It may sale, or it may not. But I MUST TRY. I can't keep relying on someone else's IPs. I can't get anywhere doing that anyway. And I'm sick of it anyway.
0:03 Bold of you to assume I don’t love him already. He’s a friend-shaped bean that happens to like my favorite sport. I wanna pick him up and squeeze him right now!
You brought up really interesting points! It definitely takes to make a whole story or comic or animation, but it's a definitely fun way to share your characters with people and it's easier to relate to characters that way too
I tend to draw things i like, mainly dragons and reptiles and stuff, i don’t really share the things i draw anymore mainly because an experience i had, i was told by a friend that i should try to draw something else, so i chose to try and draw a person and… man it was not good but i was still sorta proud of it, so i shared it with some people… and immediately got made fun of for it lol. For that reason now i don’t really like sharing art anymore, however this experience still hasn’t stopped me from drawing! Even if people don’t like the things you make, as long as you enjoy what you’re doing you should keep going!
Though im an intermediate artist i havent started on taking my art to social media. I'll take note of your words once i start
The attention craving is something I had to drag myself out of and have been dropping on the heads of smaller/younger artists that tend to flock around me in group chats (if I had a nickel for every time I became Art Chat Auntie I'd have two nickels) because I see the pattern and try to assure and correct it. But recently it got very obvious and very bad because unfortunately someone that I was trying to help to recognize and then get out of the "I need constant validation on every stage of my art and if no one comments on it I'm going to delete it" funk they're in because it's going to be bad for them long term, they ended up being the kind who don't hear anything that isn't pure praise or acknowledgement and any criticism of themselves or their art is taken so deeply they default to "I just suck I should leave, I want to die, I'm a mistake" and realizing they don't care or want or aren't ready (despite being over 20, not a teen) for that talk is extremely disheartening.
As of now, I've gotten so tired of the cycle of "no one commented, I don't want to finish this" and me not being willing to snap at them when they have the emotional integrity of a wet napkin that I've left the group entirely. A lesson learned on my own about my compulsive desire to help and be the guidepost I wish I had at their age when they clearly don't want one.
Oh well, I still have the ones who appreciate the Helpful Adult Guidance desire this.
I'm not a beginner artist, but comments and video hits me close to home: I onlgy get attention when I draw fanart of a popular charatcer within the fandom.I get 10+ or 28-30 bookmarks/faves at best on Pixiv and DA respectively.
I want to draw an my fave obscure characters/ my own characters, except they're more interesting to look at.
I look forward to seeing Gulbus in Storm Chasers.
Though this is mainly directed to beginner artists I think artists on other levels can take from this video and apply it to their work as well
I really resonate with this video. Im actually holding off completely on posting on my Instagram because it's just a distraction at this point. My skills are probably medium at this point, but I have watched enough concept artist pros to know that skill-wise I don't have all my tools. It's been very liberating to just focus on practicing so I can clearly create my character ideas the way I envision them. Just keep your eye on the prize, it will happen.
This was very good for me to watch. I'd come to a similar conclusion about my work but in a more negative light: no one cares because my art isn't good enough to care about. Your video helped me reframe that thought and focus more on skill development.
Awesome video as always Brookes!!
I consider myself a somewhat experienced artist but I also constantly feel like a baby lol. These are good points to keep in mind even as I am not super active on social media as to why ppl may not respond to OCs as much even when they're my favorite
I say this as someone who's been back burner developing a comic for almost 10 yea--
Loooool I have a stop motion planned since the beginning of my channel, I felt that 3 years of not making something yet to my core 😅 Happy to subscribe, great content.
part of me envies yall that are still new artists and got that spark of hope, but also just gonna put this out there as a cautionary tale
ive been trying since 2019 to make a name for myself, i dont even begin to know how many hours ive put into it all, ive improved SO much since i started posting publicly. but everytime i do something that "works" it only ever works once, doesnt matter how soon i try it again, doesnt matter if i make something that i would say is even better. i ended up privating most of my work because i thought that was the problem, people were seeing my older things and thought i just wasn't as good as i actually am. and now it just kind of feels like im being drowned out by all this ai stuff, where people are more into the novelty of some new toy and not as worried with "oh well that was just made by a normal human, seen it already a hundred times" idk i just kind of have to wonder if its worth it to put even more years into something that has very little shot at actually succeeding. even with the fact that with a bigger audience comes more critics, man im already gay i hear it to my face near daily. i would rather have hundreds of people yelling about why my art is bad than sit there for weeks waiting for even one like that isn't just my parents
Usually when I see an Underrated artist on like tiktok or something, I like their post just because I understand how it feels to have no likes on a post your really proud of
I think Grulbus is very cute and well designed! ☺️💚
I am not even a beginner artist, and I get zero notice
The problem is never the artist. Is just a weird game we have to play if we want to be noticed
I've seen so many amazing but criminally obscure artists
I feel like there’s some nuance there, I wouldnt agree that it’s NEVER the artist, but social media is definitely it’s own game with a lot of factors for sure
Me too, you are not alone! It all comes down to luck honestly - whether or not the right people notice you at the right time..
That's all true and well put, but let's not forget that instagram just randomly punishes you for say using similar hashtags over again or using a different hashtag suddenly. My posts were getting stright into shadowban area after Inktober (lol, right?). I'm so dead inside (tm) now that I just draw my stuff and webcomic offline and never show it to anyone untill it's done (and than it will the problem for a future me). I recently finished a big project offline, currently in a process of printing it. And only my close friends saw it. I wonder, is this my life now? I used to live for the views (in a good way) sharing my art and drawing requests and gifting art has always been my way of communication. Social media killed my will to share so much. And I'm not quite the beginner, I honestly think my art is catchy.
OOF i hear you on all this, you have great work! Honestly more of a packaging/marketing shift id take in your case
@@CharacterDesignForge Oh, thank you! I did not expect you'd actually take a look, when I was venting my spleen here 😅That meens a lot, thank you. I'm kinda no clue how to do this kind of marketing right. I bougth instagram ad once or twice (for sciense! xd), like $10 promotion and it showed some results (the post was actually seen by more people), but I'm not sure that paying for views is the way to go. Especially when I'm not making money as an artist ._.
I am new to this channel and unfortunately despite having no connection to you or hour work I find Grulbus to be fine, maybe even decent. Also despite the fact that I am at the "practice how to draw basic lines and shapes" stage of learning art this video was surprisingly useful.
Bluey mic made me subscribe, but stayed for the banger video
Nice advice! And i actually tought that lil green caracter was pretty cute ^^
As someone who has been stuck in this since I started doing art as an actual child, I appreciate this
I think I really needed to hear this today. Thank you.
It seems I'm pretty late to discovering this video lol.
But I'm an amateur artist, really no interest in turning it a career and I do have trouble being consistant (drawing like mad for a week than being burnt out for a month or two). Anyway, I've spent quite a while posting art on stuff like twitter, deviantart, instagram, even furaffinity, but barely get's any attention. If I post something on any discord server that has any artists, it often get's ignored by someone who's much farther along with drawing than I am and often get praise while I'm stuck in the dark. It's been an issue (or more like I treat it as an issue because haha I want attention) which has caused me to nearly quit trying many times. And I've come to understand that trying to draw to get praise will always end up backfiring. As of writing this, I've met a few special people that consistently tell me that I need to draw to make myself happy, not to impress others. I may never get a large following or many likes on any piece in my life compared to other artists out there, but that shouldn't matter. What matters is if I'm happy doing it for myself.
Not even my parents nor any of my own folks showed much interest in my artworks, which is why at some point in the past-and at some points NOW-I was obsessed with getting "recognition" for my works to give me some sort of moral boost to make more... I've learned a few things since, knowing that there's always room for me to improve and try to make something groundbreaking...but the recognition would be nice, don't get me wrong.
I really needed this, thank you so much! (P.S.: will you include Grulbus in Stormfellers at some point?)
Forget Grolbus, I'm protecting sweet budding artist egg with my life.
been uploading for like a decade or so ? And I never took off, now part of it is that my art kinda was bad ngl. However years after I started (two years ago or something) it didnt improve much while I would see people that I think were at an earlier stage in their art life that would draw way more people and apparently it's because I didnt communicate (tbh people didnt either and being a shy person even online I just saw no reason to do so). Also I dont often draw about popular things so yeah.
But I think the biggest one imo is just algorithms not liking me, I don't like rushing and pooping out content every day and i'm not super consistent admittedly which I feel imo is one of the biggest problem with social media they push constant content uploads but idk, that's not how human works.
I'm very novice at art still, and what helps me is just to not post anything besides in group chats and stuff because I really just wanna draw to have fun. For the longest time i've only ever gotten frustration out of drawing and only recently have i been able to just enjoy making the stuff and not be mad over the final product.
I can understand how this is to be honest, as someone who's been drawing for most of my life my art barely even got attention at all, even online. I've always thought that I was trying too hard to have fans by finding them myself but that sudden realization all those years was actually a serious problem that was going on with my life for a long time
The edting slaps on this one, great video
A solid vid as always! I do have to admit, I very much used 'House of Amill' going as far back as my late high school years - business cards and all. Although it was less a cry for professionalism and more a barrier put up to get folks to quit asking me for free art all the time. The "Perks" of being like the one artist folks knew, apparently. -.-
Also... yeah. Your skills are at that point where even "Purposely Bad Art" will still look good. You've hit the "Professional Actor playing an Amateur Actor" stage of your professional life. There is no way to shut those skills off beyond drawing with your non-dominant hand or something.
There is a non-zero chance I'll end up doing fanart of Grulbus at some point in the future.
Hehe you’re too hard on yourself, I’ve always thought House of Amil was a cool name, doesnt ring of fronting imho
@@CharacterDesignForge Well... the reason it's 'House of Amill' is because of Marvel Comics. At least, it's because of their nickname - the "House of Ideas". If there's one thing I've always been, it's a comic geek who wanted to be in the biz. I figured "House of Amill" was equal parts Geeky Deep Cut & funny enough to work as a joke on its own (It sounds like a take-out restaurant). It was very much "A Choice" at the time but one that seems to work well enough nowadays. = )
It's funny, honestly. This video sorta gives closure as to why it took me so long to get an audience worth a damn, even after getting that audience and being recognized when I step into new communities.
It kinda also explains why the account I started to try and show off a completely different set of art never went anywhere. It was like starting from scratch all over again.
Yes, this includes the "drawing experience" part. I'm good at what I _normally_ do, but trying to draw things with half-decent anatomy is an absolute chore, and it kinda shows. Add in the fact that I can't bring myself to draw much more than doodles for my main, and you have a whirlpool of reasons to be disinterested in that secondary venture.
11:58 and i accidentally did the opposite(with a video, not a character)
-(It Makes Sense In Context)-
True ive been making comics of my characters for one year now and it barely gets any views but honestly its ok cause i can experiment and improve my own art skills and style. Drawing for myself actually made me try some new things for a new character and i like it. Views or not i enjoy my art journey!
You may also be filling an already filled niche. I do Wings of Fire content, but there’s an army of Wings of Fire creators out there, so little reason to go to my content specifically.
Then I got into a niche cartoon from the 90s that’s well loved but has had almost nothing new since 1995. (Gargoyles reboot when?!! You’re killing me Disney!!!)
I started making content for that and it WAY outperformed my Wings of Fire content, since I’m filling a new niche.
Edit: fixed an autocorrect error
I hate that I was indeed going to comment how I am deeply invested in the green dude that I have already forgotten the name of and his love of bowling.
Great video! I've been posting my art online for over 20 years and I'm still lucky if I get more than 3 or 4 likes on my art. It does get frustrating sometimes when I spend hours or days on something and it feels like no one cares, but oh well.
your profile picture looks great, is it something you drew? Where do you post art?
Thanks, this was really helpful. I make public domain characters for anyone to use... Because I don't know what to do with them myself.
You went for the throat and hit the nail on the head. But in a nice way! Ive been trying to find a way to say this nicely for years. Now ill just link this video
I’m not that popular at the moment, because my channel is still sort of new, but I do try to comment on other beginners videos and stuff because I know it means a lot to them and I’m there as well. I’ve been doing art for a long time now, around 4-5 years I would say. I started my channel more recently.
is unusual but note worthy