/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

>>3254967
Your method of self promotion and what you should be doing depends wildly on what your end goals are. What are you trying to achieve by promoting your art and having a "successful online presence? What is a "successful online presence"? Be specific. Trying to sell originals? Trying to grow a large audience to sell prints to? Trying to land commissioned jobs from high-profile clients / art directors? Trying to land commissions from regular old folks for smaller, private commissions? Trying to just share your art to feel good about yourself?

>>3255281
That's a very good point. I personally want to get to the point where I can live off prints comfortably, although doing commissions/freelance is not a terrible alternative.

>>3255304
For sure - making a reliable income from prints (and other goodies, shirts, mugs, etc.) is a really great goal to shoot for. I cover all my living expenses (US-based) selling prints and such online. There's 2 approaches to it:
1. The passive, print-on-demand approach. This is what I do. The involves uploading your work to Socitey6, Redbubble, etc. and passively collecting royalties when your products sell. I focus on making sales from mooching off these sites already established traffic, and I never really market them via social media as it's not that necessary, but it might help.

2. The more involved, hands-on approach. This involves managing the entire sales operation (from printing, to shipping, to customer service, etc.), and relies a bit more on you building a large following and cohesive brand. When I see artists successfully selling prints like this, they tend to create prints as more of a collectors item, and will do limited print runs with finite amount of prints created.

Approach #2 works very well with social media, as you build a large audience and you are able to direct fans of your work to prints. #2 also goes hand-in-hand with art fairs, conventions, etc. where you can physically sell your work. I did that once and it was profitable, but a lot of work that is only worth it if you regularly sell at them.

Additionally, I also do a lot of freelance work. I personally believe social media to be vastly overrated in it's importance and necessity to getting freelance work (at least for well-paying business clients). It can be helpful, but there are better, faster ways to land those jobs. If you want to get more freelance jobs, considering skipping efforts trying to get lucky & 'discovered' on social media, and just reach out to art directors directly. A good portfolio and a simple, well-crafted email can go a long, long way.

Hope that helps!

>>3255413
Thank you so much for the detailed response. I actually didn't know how relatively unimportant having a strong social media presence is because all I see is artists trying to get those big follower counts. Not that I won't keep trying to make myself more visible, but at the very least I can stop stressing as much about not growing that big of an audience.

If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are some good places to look for freelance jobs? I've heard horror stories from sites like Upwork, although I feel like that website is more for programmers/graphics design. I live in the US if that helps.

>>3255442
Oh, and sorry for the noob questions, I'm very new to the art business scene.

>>3254967
>For those of you who were able to set up a successful online presence
That's the same as directly addressing those who draw porn

>>3255448
Sure, artists of all kinds are welcome to contribute to this thread.

>>3255442
>>3255442
For sure - happy to help!

Big follower counts look great, but they don't necessarily translate to financial well-being. A decent sized social media account (I recommend Instagram for most people) definitely has its use, but I would avoid putting all your eggs in that one basket, so to speak. In regards to freelancing, they can be beneficial, as it can help make give potential clients a better impression of you, but I think it's more of a bonus that should be supplemental to your main portfolio page.

Regarding Upwork - there was a thread a while ago where I helped some folks out with describing the site from an artists perspective. I was able to find an archived version of it on Google, which you can find here: https://boards.fireden.net/ic/thread/3160382/ . Ton of good info there to read through - I think one person in the thread actually landed a job after reading through. Worth combing through the whole thing, but the TL;DR is this:
It's filled with garbage jobs (from low paying & inexperienced clients), and low-skilled artists (tons of competition, but many just aren't very good). However, there are definitely occasional job listings that are well-paying and worth it, listed by people (often businesses) that are professional and a pleasure to work with. If you've got good, relevant artwork to the job listings and you're attentive/professional in your communications, then you can definitely make some income off Upwork.

The fact that you live in the US is a big bonus, as you can apply for US-only jobs (which in my experience, have been the most professional clients & best paying jobs which usually led to regular work from repeat clients.)

>>3255494
God dang, you're a godsend. I'll save everything you've written to a special place and keep doing art stuff. Time to read through the entire thread.

>>3255494
>>3255507

Regarding Upwork, I used to recommend them as a platform in spite of all the low-skilled people and low-balling clients, but I had a pretty shit experience with the platform itself recently and wrote an article about it: https://hackernoon.com/if-youre-freelancing-on-upwork-this-might-make-you-reconsider-82f68039786c

>>3255518
What kind of low skilled people we talking about?

Is it okay to post pictures of work someone commissioned you for? im not popular at all and dont have a following (im a hermit), so its my first one but i wanna add to my porfolio and i really like the way this project came out

i mean is that rude since it was made for them? or is it cool cause, well, i made it?

>>3255535
Usually artists post their commissions on their social media unless the commissioner specifies otherwise. This should've been something that's listed in your ToS but feel free to check with your commissioner if it's okay. If it's your portfolio it's honestly free game.

>>3255530
Your competition will be primarily composed of people from India, Thailand, etc. and can charge way less than anyone form the 1st World. The issue? Clients don't care about quality as much there.

Create an ecosystem of websites, but make them all point to your 'main' website.

For example, if you run a Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr page, make sure every art post mentions your Patreon, or your .com.

I'm not OP but I would be encouraged just to have people who would actually look forward to the stuff I put out, mostly as I improve on what I want to accomplish. Instagram seems to favour oversaturated filtered pictures of scribbles in sketchbook pages and reposts of other popular artist's stuff. I'm mortified by the idea of trying to use tumblr, but I would like a network or audience.

Is pixiv a good consideration even if I'm not fully Japanese? Is there anywhere else for an amateur to interact/present for others? I've thought about Twitter also. I'm grateful for any advice on how to garner support aside from the obvious "get better at art". I'm motivated by my recent improvement but also discouraged by how much more in stride everyone else seems to take things.

>>3255530
>What kind of low skilled people we talking about?
I searched 'illustrators' in the search bar and took an example from 2 of the most top-rated illustrators that showed up. There are a lot of other artists (your competition) on Upwork but a vast majority of them make work similar to pic related. If you can do better than this, AND you can communicate in a friendly & professional fashion, then you can win jobs fairly easily.

There's also this: >>3255557
>Your competition will be primarily composed of people from India, Thailand, etc. and can charge way less than anyone form the 1st World. The issue? Clients don't care about quality as much there.

It's true that there are a lot of folks from less developed countries like South East Asia on the platform. There is a certain type of client who uses Upwork to target these 'budget' freelancers and try and get cheap (laughably cheap), fast visuals for whatever they're working on. These types of jobs are probably the majority of listings on the site, and should be avoided at all cost. There are definitely good, well paying clients who care about the quality of their freelancer, but they are much more rare and competition really picks up for the jobs they post.

>>3255535
There should be no problem in asking them if they're comfortable with you sharing the work on your website + social media channels.

>r is it cool cause, well, i made it?
Generally speaking, a commissioned piece is no longer yours, so you can't justify doing whatever you want just because 'you made it'. Though it's generally widely accepted that the artist sharing the work on their site is totally fine.

>>3255709
So - your goals are to start a social media page because you want a positive response from people to help motivate you to continue. With that in mind...

>Instagram seems to favour oversaturated filtered pictures of scribbles in sketchbook pages
These are popular on Instagram, but people create successful followings posting all sorts of stuff.

> reposts of other popular artist's stuff
> I'm mortified by the idea of trying to use tumblr, but I would like a network or audience.

Reposts are not nearly as common on Instagram as they are on Tumblr, because Instagram doesn't have a simple way to reblog peoples work while Tumblr does. Regardless, people reblogging other artists work is a good thing, because hopefully they will be reblogging your work. Tumblr is very good for this.

There's no need to be mortified. The likelihood of people reacting negatively to your work is low. People aren't nearly as cruel as they are on /ic/. What's much more likely is that your work won't resonate with folks and your social media page will go nowhere, in which case you're back where you started. Think of it as being an endeavor where you have nothing to lose.

>Is pixiv a good consideration even if I'm not fully Japanese?
Assuming you're drawing weeb stuff, I don't know how well posting on this would work. Language barrier will obviously be an issue.

>Is there anywhere else for an amateur to interact/present for others?
For your needs, I'd start with Tumblr first, and maybe Instagram if you have the time. Tumblr in my experience was always the easiest to grow. There are next to no comments on your posts, but you can get tons of likes and reblogs which may make you feel better about your work.

>discouraged by how much more in stride everyone else seems to take things.
Remember that everyone started exactly where you were. You can only go up from here.

>>3255413
>>3255494
>>3256671
S-STOP POSTING HERE! YOU'RE TOO GOOD FOR /IC/

>>3255518
Whoa hey ryuno! This is anony michael jackson. I didn’t know you visited ic! Small world

>>3256842
hey there, are you ok?
just bought a tablet, so this is my first stop towards cute anime girls

>>3256890
Excited to see what you make! Good luck and perseverance on your art journey

>>3256671
Instagram IS rolling out a repost button, I don't think its out yet?

>>3257676
>Instagram IS rolling out a repost button
News to me. Do you have a source on that? After a brief search online I haven't been able to find anything mentioning upcoming plans to add reposting / sharing features directly into Instagram.

>>3256671
Thanks a lot for taking the time to give so much advice

Does anyone know how long it takes for posts on a new tumblr account to show up to others? Apparently to prevent bots they wait until you've had some activity to show you in tags

Simon Sinek
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4ZoJKF_VuA
Gary Vee
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5jiifErFEE
Chris Do
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX7m03XsGGI
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYxILzVu35A
Austin Kleon
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NUuidxfink

>>3257960
Absolutely fantastic, thanks anon.

>>3256671
>Remember that everyone started exactly where you were. You can only go up from here.
or you could regress. go lazy or into mental depression.
if you were an artist, you'd know that.
there are a bit of tumblr artists who simply disappeared.

>>3257969 >>3254967

NP, also I have been saving blogs and other quotes/texts over the past few months related to social media, marketing and PoD advice etc. (I'm a little more interested in selling t-shirts)

here's a few of them, i think its worth reading some of them

>https://pastebin.com/3EqR2DN2

>>3257981
>not knowing reaching mental instability is the highest form of art

>>3257960
God damn I hate this shit, they're always trying to make their talks "appealing" by scattering half-baked jokes and uninspired references throughout the talk. I don't care if they literally give some trade secret to unlocking thousands of followers overnight, I cannot stand listening to more than 30 seconds of that drivel before I have to close my browser before I vomit.

>>3257960
>Gary Vee

gud thred

May as well ask here. I see people who post from instagram to tumblr automatically. Do your tags come across too?

Instagram always feels like a pain in the ass because I need to throw my shit onto my phone and then upload/tag it from my phone (or is there a work-around for this? I haven't tried in a while), but I'll bite the bullet if I can kill two birds with one stone and post to both sites.

>>3260881
>Do your tags come across too?
Not to my knowledge, no.

> is there a work-around for this?
Here's what I do for Instagram:

>Save the .jpg on desktop to Google Drive (or other easily accessible folder on your phone).
>Download image on phone
>Post to Instagram
>Copy/paste a predetermined list of hashtags in the first comment.

Takes about a minute tops, including captioning the post. Real easy. I just keep an email draft open of different hashtag loadouts I use depending on the content of the post, and copy/paste them immediately after posting. If you format it like:

.
.
.
.
.
[block of up to 30 hashtags]

If you copy/paste that in the first comment, then it will be hidden from view (unless you click to expand the comment) and won't clog up people's feeds or look weird.