I have the UGLY! /ᐠ≗ᆽ≗ᐟ \

[TheFireDragon]

So, an interesting topic has caught my eye.
It's been debated that having good looks is one of the only ways to get a following. Now, I'm not sure about the ONLY way, but it does leave me to question. Almost every notable person I've seen looks attractive in some way (at least compared to me), so I can't deny that it's a factor.

I'm really not the most attractive person in the world, and I'm fine with that. I'm comfortable with just showing my art and writing and nothing else if that's what it takes.
Just as well, I'm fine with showing my face if the situation demands it. But I'm not willing to wear layers and layers of make-up or practice in unhealthy activities to please an audience.

I was just curious to see what your thoughts were on the matter. Would you show your face if you had the ugly, or would it be too risky?
(Note: I refer to the internet and social media in general, not really a specific place.)

[skicoak]

Probably depends on what the person considers their brand.

Usually, the attractive ones, they don't want to be defined by it ...but are comfortable using it to their advantage. They're easy to spot though...

I used physical traits that some would label as "ugly" to my advantage in other fields of entertainment so I'm not throwing stones. I guess it doesn't come up much in this field because no ones worked out how to gain an advantage from it yet.

[dawgofdawgness]

Ach.. I hide my face on social media not because it might reduce my following but because I'm basically just insecure about my looks also that's one of the reasons why I like being an artist..You don't have to show your face

[SamuelCharcot]

I think that a visual artist should have a kind of anonymity, because the most important thing that should be criticized is the art itself.

[silverraven0]

I never liked my body and looks. And I never liked to taking pictures of myself, not to mention I never really like to reveal my gender online, so no, I never put my picture on the internet and like my anonymosity.
(Plus because I live in an pretty much (?) conservative country and my choice of genre/topics I choose to create might brings trouble irl later, I choose to remain hidden)

But if i think it is time to shows myself in the world/internet one day, I'll be just doing so.

But since my creation is more important than my actual self, there's really no point in showing my face around the internet.

[Samuraiflame]

I don't think most people have high expectations when it comes to real life artist appearances? Most people just assume artists are kinda nerdy looking or hipsters in general. Unless you're a youtuber/livestreamer/vlogger/instagram model/cosplayer or something, there's no real need to show your face to create your online persona.

Heck, you're an artist, just draw a cute cartoony version of yourself, and that'll be what people attribute as your appearance. Or y'know, commission one from the thousands of artists around you.

I've never hidden my face on social media. It's not something I plaster on my art accounts but people only care about how attractive I draw my characters anyways lol

[ar-ninetysix]

I'm in a weird spot with this tbh! I absolutely hate taking pictures with friends, but selfies and videos are fine so long as I go through dozens of them to post the one that I feel okay with. I wouldn't say I'm ashamed of how I look, but given the opportunity, I'd probably rather hide myself. I dunno, I'm immensely self-conscious of my looks, but I wouldn't legitimately say that I'm ugly, you know? I just don't find the physical parts about me as interesting enough to share online, and honestly, I don't ever want it to.

If I had to put it so bluntly, I'd rather not have a physical body at all, but I'm stuck with what I got so..

Sure, I'll show my face every few months and then, but I don't change my looks often enough to feel like it's warranted enough to share lol or even do like some artsy version of me, I can vibe with that. Of all the things I wanna accomplish, my appearance has nothing to do with any of them. Be it art, music, writing, voice acting, or whatever, my looks don't matter in those contexts. The content I end up creating takes full focus, and really, that's all I wanna be known for if I get to a point where my work is recognizable enough~

[amortelito]

Let me see...I consider myself okay and I'm for the most part comfortable, I don't post many pictures because don't feel I need to. I always thought people considered me very ugly because I don't have the "dollface" standard features, but I discovered they think I'm okay. But overall I don't think I need to be "the face" (literally) of my brand no matter how ugly or pretty is not about me is about the art.

But certainly, at some point, I need to meet people and go to conventions, so yeah, they are going to see my face XD.
But that's okay. I struggled a lot with my looks when I was a teen, now that I'm more comfortable with myself, I see that all my past speech about " inner beauty" was just me thinking I was a lost cause, and was too afraid to make the effort to look better. I don't consider that is a bad thing to improve myself by putting some makeup on, or find pretty clothes I like. Even If I was truly the ugliest person alive, it doesn't hurt to take time to take care.

That's it, I like it when my exterior matches my inner self. I don't do it for the society or to reach a beauty standard I like looking how I like looking. I thought about making clothing hauls in my social media of clothes I designed myself. I'm not sure if it is a good idea or not.

[unknown_user]

Ugh... it's complicated question, especially because your appearance and, more importantly, your perception of yourself can change with time. And different people, of course, can have different opinions on what ugliness is, so some people can think that you are ugly, but some don't.
When I was a child and a teen, my classmates called me names, related to my appearance, so I thought that I'm very ugly. So, when I reached access to the internet, I didn't show my face anywhere.
But since growing up and going to the university and to the work, I had more nice surrounding. Most people say that my face is nice, and I myself started believe in it. Well, actually I have a huge problem with my teeth - I had more than 32 of them (if you believe). Also they of course grew mishaped and in inconsistent way. But when I don't show them, I think that my face looks ok (Moreover I still believe that sooner or later I will have enough money for bite correction which is very expensive in my complicated case, sorry for offtopic) Of course, I cannot be sure for 100% (I suppose that at least sometimes people say good things about your appearance just because they are polite or because they want to cheer you up).
So, in general, my opinion is: yes, showing your face is risky - not necessarily bad, but risky - if you are not sure that it meets contemporary beauty standards. But it can be ok if you make good photo which shows you in attractive way (it can be reached not only with make-up).
And the less warm feelings people have to you already, the worse effect will be there if they will not like your face. I myself don't like to take a photos, but still have best of them in social networks - catching a good shot from video, or making a very accurate selfie to be sure to hide imperfections works ok for me.

[beta1042]

I'm probably average considering my age and such. But I still have no desire to share my photo all over the internet. I really want to keep my real life separate from my comic life. So no photos for me.

[Zin_Trollborn]

I think it's kind of sad to be followed just because you look good and not for your skills.

I mostly hide my face online not because I'm uncomfortable with myself but because I like to be an anonymous person, I don't really understand the need to be the center of attention...(but that's just the introvert in me talking xD)
Also attractive people to me are not necessarly "visually beautiful". People that are confident, able to make you at ease, passionate and clearly happy to talk to you are the attractive ones.

[monotone_ink]

I look like the result of an infant camel thrown into a garbage truck grinder.

But regardless of that, I avoid showing my face when regarding social media, especially when relating to my art accounts - I want to retain some semblance of anonymity, so that people don't associate a certain type of face with my work.

As mentioned by Yoko Taro, on why he doesn't wear his mask:

Imagine that you were reading an erotic novel and were enjoying it to the highest degree, only to find out through an image that the author is a strange looking middle-aged man. Wouldn't that just be awful?

[unknown_user]

Guys, you've inspired me to draw self-portrait somehow for the first time since childhood. I even liked it cause it's totally better than me IRL, but nevertheless conveys a bit of my personality.
Don't ask how it works, I dunno. And sorry if there are too much of me in this thread.
I've just found it funny.

You know, it looks a really kind of solution somehow... with self-sketch you can give people a clue how do you look like but without all these irregularities, pimples and pouches under the eyes. Yeah.

[R.E.G]

You're hot tho. At least according to your drawings.

Hi!

[skicoak]

with self-sketch you can give people a clue how do you look like but without all these irregularities, pimples and pouches under the eyes. Yeah

Yeah, I've had a self sketch in my profile since the get go.

Looks like you got a John Oliver vibe going on, Good on you.

[LittleMissDevil]

I really think a face is not important to good art. Most webcomic artists I know have cartoon stand ins and the like to represent them. I also have no idea what the people making my Green Lantern comics look like. I am here for the great art, not to see if the creator looks great or not. I mean, I don't mind to see pictures of creators, but I also like when the creation speaks for itself. ^^

I had the opposite problem for a time. When I was still forming my artistic identity I would upload anything to my deviantart, including "model photos". I consider myself somewhat good looking, have a lot of lovely gothic dresses and taking pictures with friends, putting on crazy make up... it was fun. But when I uploaded them to my pages, I would attract a lot of people, who weren't interested in my art at all. I am still thankful that many people consider me pretty, but I really wanna be recognized more for my art as that is what I work hard on. I do a little bit for my looks, but it's mostly luck. Nothing I worked for

So I mostly stopped uploading pictures of me to public sites and started using a cartoon stand in as well.

[inkythoughts]

I don't think it's necessary at all to show your face as a writer or artist because in more cases than not, your art form can be enjoyed without your immediate presence (musicians would get difficulties with this for live performances, same with dancers or actors.) I'm an artist, not an insta model, so I want people to follow me for my art and not for the bone-structure of my face. I didn't hone my skills for nothing!
Mini-mes are much more common than bombarding everyone with your real face, at least as artist.

Once in a blue moon I post a selfie on twitter because of art friends I know online for years now, we even send Christmas cards each year, and it's more like "I'm alive, I'm doing fine" or "look who I met today" when I actually meet up with online friends. My other social media are never graced with these except for my private instagram, but again, that's entirely private and only accessible to irl friends and online friends I've been really close with since forever. I also felt really awkward when I put an actual photo of myself on my (still WIP) portfolio page.
I consider myself as "average" - like no feature on my face would be considered downright ugly by western beauty standarts, but I'm also not stunning to write home about. I usually had issues with my body, though. (And my skin.)

I don't know, to be honest, social media were the first where I actually got the impression that I could be beautiful after I actually posted some selfies and people commented in a positive way (given that I usually wear make-up in these and more often than not use some sort of filters.)
And even if you are not exactly model type beautiful, most people don't expect that from artists. I think most people know how run-down art students look like from their deadlines, living off of only coffee and good will, so if an artist shows themselves as sloppy, untidy, not dressed up, without any make-up, it's widely accepted. Artists are wanted for their beautiful minds, not their beautiful faces, so I always found it more unusual when artists actually happened to look drop-dead gorgeous.
I actually enjoy the insta stories from artists where they are in their weekend slob and just cuddle with their cat because cat > beautiful face. (On a second thought, maybe invest in a pet?? xD)

[amortelito]

jajaja thanks, my drawing is pretty accurate, even the clothes.

[spicy_sweets]

I've shown my face before, but more on discord than anywhere else
I tend to get hit on on campus by strangers so I guess I'm pretty? As someone who never wears make up I think I'm pretty average but eh
I don't feel the need to make who I look like the main topic now, but when I get traditionally published I won't hesitate then xD

[BobbyjoeX]

ok, first off, the title reminds me of that one Spongebob episode

as for having good looks, its not really a requirement.

to put it lighter and less aggressive than that one comment i've seen, i personally don't bother with ppl doing face reveals cause as long as they are a good person and doing what they love, who should care what they look like

personally, i believe i'm pretty ugly, i have been harassed on the street cause of my weight but i wont let that stop my comic