Ok this post has showed up way too much for me to not give input. Basically you gotta sell your soul. Get into one niche. Become obsessed, do it everyday. You're an artist AND a marketer. It's a little luck but more knowing how to work the apps/audience. You need a "thing," cats is mine. You need a unique username, you need it to stand out and be memorable, this is your brand! No ones gonna remember xxCatsandCupcakes27 but they're gonna remember Catwheezie.
You post every day and you need to network. I would send my art to big cat accounts in hopes of reposts. I was probably really annoying, but it worked. I made connections and friends.
You need to also be realistic... Are you talented enough? Are you presenting something that an audience is going to want?
You don't have to be super skilled at art if your what you can give to the audience/marketing skills are good. Sometimes you don't need any marketing skills if your art is good enough.
It's like a full time job. You gotta be on top of comments, new algo updates and trends and all. Don't repost your own interests on your art account, save that for your personal account. Keep your art account only you're art and closely related topics to keep your media tab clean.
Once you get momentum you're good and it's gonna get easier. First 10k is the hardest then you seem more like a "trustworthy" person to follow. Keep in mind you're gonna be good periods of growth followed by frustrated low points of stagnation.
You want to give people a reason to follow you. I started drawing cats with the goal of making 100 cat illustrations in 100 days. People followed because they wanted to see if I could do it. I did it and noticed a slight drop in followers because my thing was over, but 90 percent stayed because they liked my content.
So anyways, you sold your soul to get here and it's finally run you dry and you're going to crash out into a firey blaze and hit 4 layers beyond rock bottom. People lose interest overtime. You're gonna lose interest over time...
And this is where the "drawing for yourself thing comes in". I was fortunate to already be passionate about cats when I started doing all this but even that passion wasn't enough to prevent my major years long burn out.
I think if you're serious about wanting to group yours account it can be done no matter who you are. But you need to put in the work. There are a lot of sacrifices you need to make. And you need to know that there are a lot of downsides to it all.
Social media is addicting and evil and I myself am addicted to the high of a hit post. Once you hit big on social media it's like all this sudden attention and awesome, especially when it's positive and praise for your work. But it dies and it's so stressful when stuff stops hitting.
I've said a lot of stuff. I'm worried I'm coming across as brazen. I've had a lot of experience with social media. I started on Instagram in 2011 and over the years I've created several very popular accounts across many platforms. So I guess that's my credentials.
And I don't know if any of this is making sense. I'm not going back to read it, it's all stream or consciousness.
Having a popular art account is weird. You give so much of yourself to complete strangers. When you post something you need to be prepared for it to no longer be yours. You've sent something off into the world and someone might use it in ways you don't like and you need to be prepared for that too. Everything is just weird. You'll be happier with a small close group of followers than anything major, trust me. Everything just gets weird eventually.
-cw
might just dump all the portrait paintings ive been making.. I kinda havent been feeling good about posting them- but thats doing a disservice to myself hmph
Shes in constant awaken state; Her mental block was destroyed- when she feels intense emotions she starts to break down. Her pink aura dims having more of a human skin color 👀