I don't want to make this a tumblr thread or shameless self-promoting bullshit, but how do you increase traffic on your website?
I have a place and seems like no one gives a fuck. I don't draw badly I just don't know what to do to put myself out there. Is instagram a good alternative? What's the best place to post your artwork, and if you may add, what kind of work have you found by posting in said area?
Thanks in advance
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>>1861131
Post in a lot of different websites, keep your work linked and update all profiles regularly. If you're really good people should just notice you over time, but if you're average interact more with whatever communities you're using and give other people feedback. Post in forums and get noticed.
Also make sure to tag your art properly, I know of a couple amazing artists who have been around for years but never get seen because they don't tag their work so people can find it or submit to groups.
>>1861131
if it's a tumblr you have and nobody's following you or anything yet, be patient. just keep posting until you have a decently-sized gallery of work to show someone, then do one of the following:
1. find someone popular and follow them. find a few. one of them might notice and follow you back/like one or two of your posts, which in turn will get it seen by all the thousand whatever people who watch them, one of whom is bound to also like it and cause the same thing to happen. then it will show up on a few dashboards of the people who follow THAT person, and... yeah, you get the idea.
2. draw fan art of some popular shit. this is similar to the first option. the good thing about tumblr is that whatever you draw doesn't need to be something whorish or that will crush your dignity as an artist, like some popular anime girl character or some shit, because there are SO many devoted fan groups to almost any cartoon/video game/comic book that ever existed on there. on my first blog i had a bunch of original drawings/ideas that i thought were pretty good (and i worked hard on) but rarely even broke two digits in notes (most of which were from people i knew anyway). then one day i decided to drawa character from an old playstation game and got nearly 100 notes and at least 20 new followers. it wasn't any kind of generic drawing or shameless furbait either. in fact it was quite reminiscent of the style i had already developed. but because it had that tag, my notes skyrocketed. it's that simple.
3 (most challenging). keep doing what you're doing and develop an original idea of your own that BECOMES the thing that people draw fan art of. spend years drawing, filling up your blog (or whatever it is) and being sure to only show your best work, and work yourself to a point where it's not as hard to make a drawing that doesn't look like shit. then you can spend more time on the actual idea. try (if this is within your goals) to get into real industries, studios, etc.
>>1861188
(cont'd)
the primary component of all of those (but especially the last one) is perseverance. i'm sure you have some perception of the value of hard work, but to really put it into perspective, think of the artists you aspire to and really try to consider what their path was. achieving a goal like this is really something that requires you to get realistic and will possibly even develop your character. how far you get is indeed partially contingent on your natural skill, but also on how badly you want this. take comfort in the fact that you have a clean slate and nobody knows who you are yet. they have nothing but your now small collection of works to judge you by. make it matter. and don't forget you're only human.
>>1861131
It helps if you draw what ever the current fad is. Something like on going television shows. Otherwise you can dedicate your whole life to furry porn.
>>1861184
Thanks for the advice, I'll take note of it. Do you know any good communities or forum to share artwork with?
>>1861188
Thanks for the list man, I've heard these before but never in such depth. I have tried to draw stuff most people on tumblr like (it's not hard, they all like the hip stuff like retro gaming or funny series which we all relate to) but I don't get any followers, just likes. and not many.
I'm also pre-med so I doubt I can update regularly or as you said, persevere. It's not that I don't care about building up followers, It's just that I don't have that much time to begin with.
>>1861198
>I don't have that much time to begin with
like i said, patience. most of us don't have a lot of time. but you can still put the hours in, and there's no rule that says one piece you make needs a certain amount of work put into it in one sitting.
another thing to understand is that you are in a big boat. unless you've already made it and are animating at disney or something, every artist for the most part is still a normal person in real life, having the same responsibilities that everyone does. have you ever read a webcomic you like? there's a few i like to read and i can pretty much guarantee you more than a few of the people who make those who weren't already making art by profession are living off of cheap food they pay for with a part-time job. but do their viewers need to know that? no. they (the good ones) just work their ass off, hoping it will pay off one day.
along with the struggles of being a starving artist comes also a tremendous freedom of expression. you don't work for any company yet, and you don't make films/storyboards for some director whose ideas don't resonate with you. take all the time you have and make your mark out there. it's hard, but you're still in the position to accomplish everything. it's not about pumping out kickass drawings right now as soon and often as possible, it's about setting yourself up for success using the cards you're dealt.
just keep at it, man. it's extremely tempting to be a part of the whole world of art right now as soon as you can, but keep working at pace that works for you and is conducive to productivity for you. balancing it all out with real life responsibilities is tough, but when you're finally sitting pretty with your gallery of work and loads of devoted fans, you'll realize that anyone else who managed to succeed went through the same thing.
>>1861204
thanks man. You have any work you'd like to share?
>>1861184
What kind of tags should I be using? I never know what to tag a simple drawing with.
>>1861131
Fan art, and skill.
People will swarm to you if you catter to their tastes, even more if you are a good artist.
So basically, make art of something popular (maybe even porn lel), and never stop improving.
I just broke 2000 active, reblogging followers on Tumblr yesterday, after being on it for a few months.
As others have said - fan art is without a doubt the best way to get more attention. I do a lot of gaming related fan art, and it's been amazing the amount of online visibility I've received because of it. However, even with making fan art you can't just expect people to find your shit. You need to constantly put your work in front of people through good promotional efforts. Submit your work to larger blogs and link it back to your own site. If you don't have a large following to promote to, then find a larger blog that does.
Promoting yourself is a skill just like learning the fundamentals, and you'll get better with practice. My own personal gains from my efforts include getting commissions from major publishers & franchises that have jump started my freelance illustration career. I can't believe that they came to me of all people (I'm not even that good), but it's always because one of their art directors stumbled upon some bullshit fan art that I made.
The shit works.
If you have some personal ego problems about how drawing fan art is degrading and not respectable, then you're only making things harder for yourself. If you're trying to get into commercial art, then draw commercial stuff.
>>1861748
So can you talk a bit about how to actually become good at promoting yourself.
This is relevant to me after I lost my studio job and realised I have basically zero online presence
>>1861263
Any tag you can think of really. Especially if the tags aren't visible like dA. The media/tools used, subject matter, style, etc. Along with the basics like 'art, drawing, painting, acrylic, etc.'
The more tags the easier it is to find. Just descriptive words work even. Also submit to relevant groups on any website that has them.
Your trying to promote yourself, it's extremely important to be known if you want to succeed in the art world, be obnoxious if you have to but avoid being overly annoying and gaining dislike.
>>1861748
Not in any way a challenge, but could you post some art? If you're worried about being recognized a WIP or sketch would work. I'm just curious and have a need to compare myself to others. I'm also terrible at self marketing.
>>1862138
here's a sketch, my finished stuff is a lot better
A little off topic... but a lot of my friends are in art schools, lots of online work and draw like -in my opinion- total shit.
they will dead ass look at my stuff and brush it off since I'm not in an art school and therefore not worthy of anything.
They all have insane online presence however, because they live in angouleme (which I'm sure the more hipster of you have heard of), and have an annual blog contest. While hanging out with them I actually found out a lot of the girls who apply to be in the contest just fuck the guys who are organizing, and a lot of the guys try to buy them off with parties and favors.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that, I don't know anyone, don't want to suck dick for exposure and have no idea where to post my work. Even when people say forums, what forums are you supposed to visit? I don't even draw nice sketches like all of you, I just draw retarded doodles that seem funny to me
>>1861215
>>1862138
this is the fan art drawing i mentioned in >>1861188 this post. the blog doesn't exist anymore but anything else on there was of equal or lower quality (i posted a lot of sketches and was in a learning phase for the year or so that i had it up; took it down for personal reasons)
>>1862138
>have a need to compare myself to others. I'm also terrible at self marketing.
This. I can't for the love of satan, put things online. All I keep seeing things are off/could be done better. And I'm afraid that bad shit is gonna stick to my name. So should I just put my shitty shit online or wait?
>>1861131
draw fanart. try out inktober and sketch dailies
maybe do a redraw for of those terribly drawn comic pages they feature on eschergirls(even if you don't submit, this is fun for figure draw practice)
given that a lot of tumblr is also artists, 'artist problem' type comics are popular. if you have an idea for a good one you might as well post it
>>1861263
only the first five tags show up in the search list. the rest will only work on your blog. so make the first five count.
consider what you do when you search for a tag on tumblr. do you often search 'art' or do you search the name of your favorite new discussion topic?
>>1862170
deviantart, tumblr, twitter
your sketches might resonate with someone if they have appeal/are relatable. there's a guy who just does little watercolour portraits of film characters in a sort of adventure time/reddit user 'shittywatercolour' kinda style and he has tons of followers and got a book deal.
Make a sketchbook thread in CA, permanoobs, and/or crimson daggers.
>>1862678
Those are all husks of what forums once were. You won't get much traction on any of those sites unfortunately.
>>1862694
Yeah, Permanoobs didn't even seem to take off. I still post stuff there and get views, but almost no c&c.
>>1862678
You'll benefit a lot more from focusing your promotions towards the general population than other artists.
Stick with Tumblr.
So, what's hip with the kids these days?
I'm not really into animu/videogames/comics so I don't even know what kind of fanart I should do.
>>1862781
dragons and spacemarines
>>1862781
Why cater to kids from today? What did you enjoy as a kid? There are people on the internet older than 14, you know
>>1862781
>I'm not really into animu/videogames/comics so I don't even know what kind of fanart I should do.
Assassins Creed, Battlefield, Carl of Duty, Destiny, any MMO, 80's stuff is now "retro" so you can actually draw fan art of Terminator, Aliens, Predator, Robocop etc. and it can be popular.
>>1862229
Ohh okay cool, thanks man.
>>1862237
I'd put it online. At least you're gaining views and followers, and you can always take it down/put it in storage (on dA at least) if you move beyond it. It's hard to start from absolute scratch even if you're an excellent artist. I personally wouldn't worry about shit sticking to your name unless it's something like porn that can ruin your rep.
Look at people like Tehmeh, we've all seen their shitty stuff, all it does is show how much they improved.
