Observations on Sharing Art Online
Feb. 6th, 2025 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elyusionBefore I get into what I wanted to write about... what's up? It's been a while. I check DW every few days, but for various reasons I didn't write anything. I really want to remain active though. I don't want this place to die. Every time I look through LJ communities or journals I think I don't want this place to die, and hope that maybe one day this site feels really and truly alive (for people like me, who don't looove live-action series) so that I can experience a little bit what the people whose two decade-old entries I'm reading experienced. Please... I'm kinda over Discord... can everyone I care about return to forums besides Reddit and communities pleeeease
Anyways.
In my pursuit of sharing the things I draw online in a way that causes me the least anxiety, I've created a system. First, anything I draw that pleases me goes on my website. If I draw something that I think is so nice it's a shame to leave it on a site where barely no one will ever see it, I post it on Sheezy.art. If it gets a certain amount of likes on Sheezy - and it's not a high number, since Sheezy is kind of sleepy right now - I post it on Tumblr. After a certain amount of notes, I put in on Bluesky. And this hasn't happened yet, and I don't really know what number to make it anyways since it seems most fandom people decided to stay on Twitter despite everything, but if something got sufficient numbers on Bluesky I'd put it on Pixiv.
There's a reason for all this. When I remade my Tumblr, my original purpose for it was to use it casually and microblog and post doodles and art and stuff, while also reblogging any pretty picture I like. The pretty picture part is the problem... Tumblr, in theory, is the perfect LJ successor. In the beginning it was probably used a lot like it. But as time passed, Tumblr began to feel more and more like... Pinterest? Like, your entire blog is a board, and with a single large board you define yourself. When people follow you, they likely follow you for the images you share. At least, that's what it feels like to me. And since people follow me for nice images, I feel awful assaulting their eyes with ugly images. You can see why I can't just share art willy-nilly - or blog casually - there anymore. I don't feel like they followed for me, I feel like they followed for my aesthetic sense, basically. But if people on Sheezy like what I made, and keep in mind none of my fandoms are huge (except FE16?), I can assume it has worth to Tumblr users too.
The gap between "sufficient likes on Sheezy" and "sufficient notes on Tumblr" is huge, not just because I know Tumblr has way more active users, but because after Tumblr is Bluesky, and on Bluesky I have actual good artists as mutuals, and I don't want to embarrass myself badly by posting fail art. Oddly enough I can imagine posting doodles there, maybe (because no one expects aesthetic blogging from me there, see?), but posting anything that makes it obvious I put effort into it just to produce hot garbage is a no-go.
And then, this is probably some kind of Orientalism because I've seen plenty of mid-to-bad art on Pixiv, but I don't want to post anything there unless I'm absolutely sure it won't offend Japanese eyes. Not sure if it still has this reputation, but Pixiv was/is(?) known as a place to find really really amazing art, so even though I see that's not true every time I go on there, I still can't feel comfortable sharing anything there unless I'm sure it's really good and there are people who want to see it. I haven't posted a thing on there yet, by the way.
I'm going to compare Bluesky and Tumblr here. So, I swear I've heard that Tumblr sucks for artists. But I don't think that's true at all? Tumblr has a nice tagging system, so nice that people actually check the tags for things they like - in fact, you can follow tags on there. Provided the thing you're posting has any fans on Tumblr, it's easy for your art to find its audience. And once the people who really really like something reblog your art, their followers who like the thing but not enough to stalk the tag will see it too, and it just grows from there. Plus! Tumblr has a queue system and many people use it, so posts have a bit of longevity. You might post something on Monday, and someone who stalks the tags sees it that day and queues it to post on Friday, and then on Friday you'll get a new burst of posts from that person's followers... depending on how many followers they have, the time posted, etc.
Bluesky... does not have all that. Okay, well, it has following tags in a way, but I wonder how many people use the feeds? And then, again, I think many fandom people have chosen to stick to Twitter mostly, so if you draw fanart... yea, your audience is 90% in that other, worse castle. And it doesn't have a queue, and many (all?) feeds delete the posts in it after a while, so kiss any semblance of longevity goodbye. After getting like, 2? likes my post went quiet, and I thought it was over. But! I lucked out! The post was shared by a person with a big big audience, so then for 2 days it got a fair amount of attention. At least, I think it did. By Bluesky standards. I think. I'm judging by another far more beautiful artwork I saw in the same tag and reblogged by the same person, which got a miserable amount of likes/shares compared to what I think it would get on Twitter. And the attention I got really was due to fortunate circumstances - the character I drew was loved by an account big enough that they were able to make a special hashtag for them that people use to share fanart of them. I also think they share everything posted with the hashtag unless it's in bad taste. I don't think that happens for very many characters!! So I expect that if I post art of another character on there, it won't get half as much love unless I'm super mega lucky.
I won't be posting art on Twitter again for the same reasons I didn't want to post on Bluesky willy-nilly (please refer to the mental illness section), plus I'm still pissed that I can't get into my old art account that has my full first name on it and everything, but it has the same problems as Bluesky except it doesn't have feeds (worse), with the plus that sooooooooo so so so many people use it (better... at what cost?). If I had access to my art account I'd be curious to know how it'd do on there, but oh well.
I do not like Instagram. I will not use Instagram. Not even for an experiment. And I don't know how sharing art on TikTok would work, but as someone with attention span issues I'm trying to fix I don't think I should try to start using the short-form video platform.
I'm sharing this information as a "small account" with no friends to support me (they don't use Tumblr or Bluesky). Naturally, having a following helps in getting notes/numbers, so I think what I have to say is worth sharing because it will give people a reference of what posting art is like without the crutch of followers and fans.
However. There's more to it than using the right tags, having a large potential audience, having the post go around for a while, or any of that stuff. That's right. You need skill too. (*lightning strike, scare chord*) Many people moan about their art receiving no attention, and artists make posts or threads on how to get better numbers, waffling around the main point that many of these people just don't draw well. I remember someone did once and they were made to delete it or something because everyone was so mad. And I completely understand why. It hurts to hear. But it's true. Not everyone can draw, but everyone has eyes and has likely seen what you're drawing before. A human, a cat, a car - maybe even specifically a manga-styled human or Disney-style cat or fetish-fueled car. If a drawing looks too awkward, they won't share it or like it.
I've noticed that the set of drawings that's done well are a series of busts. Well, 2 are busts, and 1 is a full-body chibi. Before this I had some art that was able to reach the milestone of being posted on Tumblr, but it didn't quite make the cut for Bluesky. That set of drawings were a knees-up and full body. This tells me that I can draw a face quite well. The way I draw a head appeals to people. And my chibis are cute like chibis should be. But the way I draw bodies... the drawings I shared weren't particularly awkward, so it wasn't a bad anatomy issue. I think they were just boring. They were black and white, which now that I think about it could be a factor in their lesser popularity to an extent, but they also had pretty still poses and no background. If I had pushed the poses more, maybe made the hair crazier to imply force, if I had even added a little patch of background at their feet to give them some sort of environment other than a white void... You can use the numbers you get to learn what you need to work on or keep in mind, but sometimes the attention you get is entirely up to luck and fandom size, so don't get too stuck on it. Use your best judgement as an artist.
Note that I'm mostly a fanartist. If you're an OC artist... well, first of all, what irks me when OC artists complain about no one caring about their characters but then they have nothing to read to learn about them. And I don't mean a profile. Write a story, make some comics, even humorous one-panel comics could help others learn and care about your characters. If you tell a story with them, your skill level matters a lot less. If you don't want to do that, then I'm sorry, but you have to rely entirely on skill (and a much higher level is required than for fan art) or on sex appeal. People who like art will share good art even if they don't know the character. But it has to be REALLY appealing on some level. People will also just share anyone if it appeals to their specific fetishes and tastes. Good luck!
Anyways.
In my pursuit of sharing the things I draw online in a way that causes me the least anxiety, I've created a system. First, anything I draw that pleases me goes on my website. If I draw something that I think is so nice it's a shame to leave it on a site where barely no one will ever see it, I post it on Sheezy.art. If it gets a certain amount of likes on Sheezy - and it's not a high number, since Sheezy is kind of sleepy right now - I post it on Tumblr. After a certain amount of notes, I put in on Bluesky. And this hasn't happened yet, and I don't really know what number to make it anyways since it seems most fandom people decided to stay on Twitter despite everything, but if something got sufficient numbers on Bluesky I'd put it on Pixiv.
There's a reason for all this. When I remade my Tumblr, my original purpose for it was to use it casually and microblog and post doodles and art and stuff, while also reblogging any pretty picture I like. The pretty picture part is the problem... Tumblr, in theory, is the perfect LJ successor. In the beginning it was probably used a lot like it. But as time passed, Tumblr began to feel more and more like... Pinterest? Like, your entire blog is a board, and with a single large board you define yourself. When people follow you, they likely follow you for the images you share. At least, that's what it feels like to me. And since people follow me for nice images, I feel awful assaulting their eyes with ugly images. You can see why I can't just share art willy-nilly - or blog casually - there anymore. I don't feel like they followed for me, I feel like they followed for my aesthetic sense, basically. But if people on Sheezy like what I made, and keep in mind none of my fandoms are huge (except FE16?), I can assume it has worth to Tumblr users too.
The gap between "sufficient likes on Sheezy" and "sufficient notes on Tumblr" is huge, not just because I know Tumblr has way more active users, but because after Tumblr is Bluesky, and on Bluesky I have actual good artists as mutuals, and I don't want to embarrass myself badly by posting fail art. Oddly enough I can imagine posting doodles there, maybe (because no one expects aesthetic blogging from me there, see?), but posting anything that makes it obvious I put effort into it just to produce hot garbage is a no-go.
And then, this is probably some kind of Orientalism because I've seen plenty of mid-to-bad art on Pixiv, but I don't want to post anything there unless I'm absolutely sure it won't offend Japanese eyes. Not sure if it still has this reputation, but Pixiv was/is(?) known as a place to find really really amazing art, so even though I see that's not true every time I go on there, I still can't feel comfortable sharing anything there unless I'm sure it's really good and there are people who want to see it. I haven't posted a thing on there yet, by the way.
I'm going to compare Bluesky and Tumblr here. So, I swear I've heard that Tumblr sucks for artists. But I don't think that's true at all? Tumblr has a nice tagging system, so nice that people actually check the tags for things they like - in fact, you can follow tags on there. Provided the thing you're posting has any fans on Tumblr, it's easy for your art to find its audience. And once the people who really really like something reblog your art, their followers who like the thing but not enough to stalk the tag will see it too, and it just grows from there. Plus! Tumblr has a queue system and many people use it, so posts have a bit of longevity. You might post something on Monday, and someone who stalks the tags sees it that day and queues it to post on Friday, and then on Friday you'll get a new burst of posts from that person's followers... depending on how many followers they have, the time posted, etc.
Bluesky... does not have all that. Okay, well, it has following tags in a way, but I wonder how many people use the feeds? And then, again, I think many fandom people have chosen to stick to Twitter mostly, so if you draw fanart... yea, your audience is 90% in that other, worse castle. And it doesn't have a queue, and many (all?) feeds delete the posts in it after a while, so kiss any semblance of longevity goodbye. After getting like, 2? likes my post went quiet, and I thought it was over. But! I lucked out! The post was shared by a person with a big big audience, so then for 2 days it got a fair amount of attention. At least, I think it did. By Bluesky standards. I think. I'm judging by another far more beautiful artwork I saw in the same tag and reblogged by the same person, which got a miserable amount of likes/shares compared to what I think it would get on Twitter. And the attention I got really was due to fortunate circumstances - the character I drew was loved by an account big enough that they were able to make a special hashtag for them that people use to share fanart of them. I also think they share everything posted with the hashtag unless it's in bad taste. I don't think that happens for very many characters!! So I expect that if I post art of another character on there, it won't get half as much love unless I'm super mega lucky.
I won't be posting art on Twitter again for the same reasons I didn't want to post on Bluesky willy-nilly (please refer to the mental illness section), plus I'm still pissed that I can't get into my old art account that has my full first name on it and everything, but it has the same problems as Bluesky except it doesn't have feeds (worse), with the plus that sooooooooo so so so many people use it (better... at what cost?). If I had access to my art account I'd be curious to know how it'd do on there, but oh well.
I do not like Instagram. I will not use Instagram. Not even for an experiment. And I don't know how sharing art on TikTok would work, but as someone with attention span issues I'm trying to fix I don't think I should try to start using the short-form video platform.
I'm sharing this information as a "small account" with no friends to support me (they don't use Tumblr or Bluesky). Naturally, having a following helps in getting notes/numbers, so I think what I have to say is worth sharing because it will give people a reference of what posting art is like without the crutch of followers and fans.
However. There's more to it than using the right tags, having a large potential audience, having the post go around for a while, or any of that stuff. That's right. You need skill too. (*lightning strike, scare chord*) Many people moan about their art receiving no attention, and artists make posts or threads on how to get better numbers, waffling around the main point that many of these people just don't draw well. I remember someone did once and they were made to delete it or something because everyone was so mad. And I completely understand why. It hurts to hear. But it's true. Not everyone can draw, but everyone has eyes and has likely seen what you're drawing before. A human, a cat, a car - maybe even specifically a manga-styled human or Disney-style cat or fetish-fueled car. If a drawing looks too awkward, they won't share it or like it.
I've noticed that the set of drawings that's done well are a series of busts. Well, 2 are busts, and 1 is a full-body chibi. Before this I had some art that was able to reach the milestone of being posted on Tumblr, but it didn't quite make the cut for Bluesky. That set of drawings were a knees-up and full body. This tells me that I can draw a face quite well. The way I draw a head appeals to people. And my chibis are cute like chibis should be. But the way I draw bodies... the drawings I shared weren't particularly awkward, so it wasn't a bad anatomy issue. I think they were just boring. They were black and white, which now that I think about it could be a factor in their lesser popularity to an extent, but they also had pretty still poses and no background. If I had pushed the poses more, maybe made the hair crazier to imply force, if I had even added a little patch of background at their feet to give them some sort of environment other than a white void... You can use the numbers you get to learn what you need to work on or keep in mind, but sometimes the attention you get is entirely up to luck and fandom size, so don't get too stuck on it. Use your best judgement as an artist.
Note that I'm mostly a fanartist. If you're an OC artist... well, first of all, what irks me when OC artists complain about no one caring about their characters but then they have nothing to read to learn about them. And I don't mean a profile. Write a story, make some comics, even humorous one-panel comics could help others learn and care about your characters. If you tell a story with them, your skill level matters a lot less. If you don't want to do that, then I'm sorry, but you have to rely entirely on skill (and a much higher level is required than for fan art) or on sex appeal. People who like art will share good art even if they don't know the character. But it has to be REALLY appealing on some level. People will also just share anyone if it appeals to their specific fetishes and tastes. Good luck!
And that's that on numbers. By the way, the number of notes I got on Tumblr is the highest amount I've gotten on any drawing in my life. More importantly, I got many people fangenderneutraling (word I made up, please don't steal because it sucks) in the tags, which is the best part of Tumblr. Social media doesn't encourage people to speak up much these days, so it's great how Tumblr has tags that people feel comfortable whispering in. Even on Bluesky I got two (2!!) comments. From complete strangers, mind you. I feel that's unusual, but in a good way. Pretty nice, right?
Yet I just don't feel satisfied. It's not about the numbers. I mean, I hope it's not. Part of what I've learned from Cohost and the small web movement is that I shouldn't care about such things. But what's missing? Is it because none of the compliments are from friends or peers that I don't feel giddy? Because my friends don't like what I like I don't bother sharing my art with them, I don't feel comfortable sharing it in any server I'm in with an art channel, and I'm not an art major so I can't meet other art students, so I just have to take an L there. It could also be because the art wasn't my idea but was the result of people telling me what to draw in my ask box. I have to draw something entirely from my mind with my own inspiration and see how I feel from the audience reaction then. Or maybe it's just because I gained no followers on Bluesky or Tumblr (I did on Sheezy though) from it, so I feel they clearly didn't like the art enough. I just have to make more art so they realize it's better to follow me than hope they happen to come across me a second or third time for more art. Much to think about. I just have to post more and see how my feelings change, I suppose.
I think that's all I had to say on that subject. This is a long entry anyways, haha. I promise I will be using DW for much shorter things too, not just essays all the time.
