queer-for-science:
cetitan:
cetitan:
I get so angry-sad at people that put banners like this on their art. I don’t think you putting so much emotional stock into audience engagement is the artist empowerment move you think it is
I’m nearing 4 thousand followers soon and the engagement my art gets given my follower count is rather low, and there are many times I’ve spent hours on something only for it to get a mid to high number of double digit notes. But what a clinical and strange way to analyze the worth of what you create. If you’re making the art you want to see and that your friends want to see, why do you give a shit about the appraisal of strangers? Why view liking art as something diminutive to be discouraged? This mindset is so alien to me. I hate ever sounding like I’m up on my high horse but if you get this bummed out about posting art online then I don’t think you should. You should be having fun first
I definitely see what you’re saying, but a lot of times artists may post this kind of thing because they’re trying to make an income from their art and the primary way they will get exposure and awareness as an artist is through reblogs. Hitting like doesn’t show it to more people. It’s just a little note of approval for the poster. Artists who want to make a living doing what they love need people to know that they’re there and show off their skills and in order to do that, they need their content circulated.
In short, asking for reblogs most often isn’t about getting more approval. It’s about spreading word that the artist exists, is active, and looking for commisioners/projects/customers. A lot of artists can’t afford to spend the time necessary to make quality art if they’re not getting paid for it at least sometimes.
hey, I’m one of the people who makes a living off of commissions. setting aside the misinformation on likes not doing anything on this website, being completely blunt: sharing my art does very little to get me clients. I’ve got the metrics data, even if I stick a commissions info link in the caption people rarely click through on artwork. And honestly ime including the link too prominently negatively impacts how well the post spreads. People don’t like being advertised to, so if your art goes from piece to advert, it changes how ppl interact with it.
I’ve a little story for you: over on mastodon, there’s an account that asks webcomic artists questions every week and a little while ago they did a commissions themed week—one of them was of course, do you take commissions. I saw this one person saying that they do but they don’t get any clients “probably because I’m too expensive” and I was like well I doubt that’s why, and went to take a look at their information to find out how much they charge… and after visiting all their websites and looking through all their links, I could not find anything that so much as indicated that they take commissions never mind prices for them.
Their assumption was that their art would speak for itself and people would ask about their commission info because of this.
In reality, if you don’t make it very clear that you take commissions, the take away will be that you don’t offer them, and they definitely won’t think about commissioning you unless you specifically prompt that thought first.
So then, if your art won’t speak for itself and including the link negatively impacts the post’s performance, what do you do?
You put the link clearly in your bio and pinned post, and you make a dedicated post specifically about your commission info and politely ask people to share that one. People will share dedicated info posts (as long as you dont guilt trip), I think it’s an honesty thing—posting art with a thinly disguised ad at the bottom feels dishonest and like you’re using people, plainly posting your information and just asking if ppl could boost it doesn’t.
And to be completely honest, tumblr is ass for finding clients. this is not the website people with money hang out this is the broke bitch website, you’re better on any other socials for that. dedicated commission platforms like vgen and artconomy are the wisest places to go though.
