#ALSO: twitter is absolutely the new hub for discourse and drama

[delicourse]

do you have any tips for someone just starting to post their art? what platform do you prefer?

this is hard to answer since i started out a while ago when these platforms worked a bit different! it also depends on what you want as an online artist. community? commission opportunities? different sites will have different things to offer there. since i’ve been on tumblr for the longest time, and only started with twitter once tumblr goofed up, those are the only sites i can compare for now.

so a quick summary; tumblr being dead is kinda true. i have well over 17k followers but you wouldn’t be able to tell based on post engagement. but! if you do manage to get some traction here i find it to be the best site to just chill on. people are very open and unfiltered with art comments through tags, and asks are also common if you seem open to them! tumblr used to be THE site for fanartists imho, both for fun social hangout and for earning money. while things dont “trend” anymore, i do think people still sometimes go through tags of fandoms they care about. no clue how one would manage as an original content artist though.

twitter is where i get new audiences and actually grow. majority of my commission inquiries are from there too. overall its a great place where using trending tags work well! tags relevant to who u are(there are specific tags for promoting minority artists for example!) tend to actually get a lot of likes/retweets/follows from other artists! i rarely ever partake (i should but i always feel so embarrassed lol), but based on the few times i have gotten in with the hip trends, they DO work. also the comments and social interaction feel WAY more public - GREAT if you like feeling like a PR agent! - but kinda stressful if you’re socially anxious(cringe) like me. also other artists tend to be way more likely to interact with you too, so building connections is easier! (even i’ve had artists in my DMs on twitter, an impressive feat considering that im extremely unsociable online. it makes me blush!!!)

the general advice most people give is to get artist friends/connections and support them and be supported in return and grow together. seems great and also healthy probably, the whole “social community” thing! but i never talk to people ever so i just posted real hard and it worked, it just takes some time. also be prepared; nobody blows up in a month. be patient and have fun, post art for the hell of it. be consistent! i grow most when i post daily or weekly! also; post art on many sites. really. there isnt anything to lose honestly. i limit myself to two only because if i see another notification im gonna lose it❤️

anyway good luck!!

#notmyart #process #long post #sorry for being long i shortened it as much as possible #hope the whole ‘building connections’ thing doesnt sound ghoulish lmao. making a good friend literally counts as building connections!! #ALSO: twitter is absolutely the new hub for discourse and drama #it never affected me because im built different and got thru 2015 tumblr without a hitch #despite literally having ‘course’ in my url making me look like a discourse blog apparently and actually posting v*ltr*n art LMAO #its all about what circles you engage in and what following you cultivate #another difference is follower engagement. tumblr followers rarely unfollow #they just stop interacting with ur posts. so u will eventually end up with a huge chunk of inactive followers #but twt followers? one pic that isnt an exact copy of the last artwork u posted and 10 followers are gone immediately. expect and accept it #dont take unfollows personally ever. people curate their online experiences to fit their own specific taste and thats okay! #also no clue why but i noticed ppl on twitter are mad thirstier. extremely so. it can be good or bad depending on what u want tbh! #instagram is also an art post site u can use. i just despise it since its a repost haven and people seem kinda rude #portfolio sites tend to be for those who are actually trying to make it in a real industry so i cant relate bc im not a gamer #deviantart exists too but its probably an incredibly niche site by now. i remember posting there when i was 14. it was mlp fanart 💕 #i got like 800 followers and felt so so so cool