The “Create For Yourself” Fallacy

Weeeeeell, I have not looked at my subscriber or views stats in months. My projects were not made with the intention of building auidences. I wanted to contribute the library of free-to-use content available to other writers, and that is what I did. Honestly, there was a period of being somewhat grumpy about a lack of readership, but I got over that. I kept reminding myself of my specific original goal, and I outgrew the emotional need for a digital audience. Now, I appreciate that every eyeball on my page is one less eyeball on the pages of fellow community members; attention is a finite resource that I simply do not need. I also stopped using Facebook altogether around the same time, and that helped.

I believe this to be true for me. It's pretty straight-forward. I mean, I do create a lot for myself, but if I share it then I do want a response of some kind.
Though, I am somewhat ok with not getting much of response after sharing. It's annoying and can let me down a bit for a while, but even if I did get nothing by sharing, I did get something by creating, and most of the time that something is enough to keep me happy. Which means that... ultimately, I do create for myself, and anything else is a nice bonus. And I care little about what others may think about that.

I have a lot of art that I keep for myself. When I cook or come up with new recipes I don’t post them online, when I do make up for costumes or otherwise, I don’t post that online. When I draw on physical paper, I usually don’t share those or half the things I draw on my Zen board. I don’t share my crochet projects online.

But I do share my digital art and comic online, because I want others to enjoy it, and it’s nice to get feedback so you know people are enjoying it. Since most webcomic artist aren’t paid and it takes a large amount of effort to keep such a large project going while also working full time, a little attention is not to much to ask for.
Sadly art and artist are undervalued today. There is no shame in asking for a “payoff” be it attention or money. Anyone’s time is valuable, even if you enjoy what you do, you deserve payment in some form.

I think you meant- you have a right to ASK for attention.
And if your work is worthy enough, there should be an expectation of (positive?) feedback from those that have come across it. If that's what you meant, then - that sounds reasonable.

If it reads the way it's written, then the word deserve needs explaining.
And I would ask an open question, why does anyone deserve anything- in regards to art?

Warning: This is all stuff artists hate to hear.
Art is created by an artist. By ART, I mean the dictionary definition of art.
An artist is 3 things. Or, you can argue, 3 things are needed to be an artist.

1) (Enough) technical skill so the idea of limitations is removed from your work.
2) A keen judgement (or eye [it's called 'an ear' in music] or taste)
3) The ability to work = or great desire to create.

Art at its highest level is purely generated from those three things.
When someone suggests you create art for yourself, they mean stick to those three things.
To deviate is to bring in OUTSIDE CONCERNS and that usually dilutes your art.

The focus on being a successful artist leads to seeking glory and reward.
And in many cases compromises those 3 in an attempt to achieve greater exposure or acceptance.

Thinking about dumb-ing it down to be more popular? (kills #1)
Thinking about doing what everyone else is doing or what is popular (kills #2)
Comparing yourself to someone else and their greater success (kills #3)

I did a video or two about this kind of stuff.

There's a lot of downsides to social media and forums, as a whole, but that's another story for another day.

I could certainly live happily without being Van Gogh.

Not true at all. You should EXPECT, you should 'count on' you should be planning for....deserve....never....
And the word you want is COMPENSATED, not paid.
It's a hard concept to explain, but the idea is that ....
You get paid to do art. As opposed to ' you do art and THEN look to get paid for it/ from it.
That twist makes all the difference.

No assumptions, let's look at the OP then. They said:

I share it one my social media.

(no one owes you attention in any way shape or form.) Many of you (sorry to level this rude charge) think your ART is ABOVE any reader or viewer. You are a servant to them, your arts' [partial value] is determined by THEM, not you. You LOVE IT, buy THEY give it value. It's valuable to YOU, but it's value is decided by those who judge it or use it.

We've all looked at work from other popular artists and wondered why they get hundred of notes and we're getting none, right?

That is aspect #3 being broken. Which has almost NOTHING to do with your art. That is the heart-breaker! Hobbyist artists believe that MORE and BETTER art is the way to gain greater success. It is not. Take the test yourself. If you can name one thing that is successful and 'popular' but you (and your peoples) think it's trash, then #2 (your judgement) does NOT decide the value of that art. If you can name something that you LOVE, but it got mass attention and then passes over (A flop) then again, your judgement does not determine value. If you find a "great" piece of art in the world and no one is paying attention to it - then just making 'great art' is not a guarantee for exposure or mass feedback...or payment.

But when I get frustrated by the lack of
And that's where they should be -- frustrated- they deserve to be frustrated and that's about it.

Frustration is a FEELING. That is why they were getting advice about their FEELINGS.
Do art for art's sake or do art for the love - is how you counter that EMOTION.
Go back to the 1, 2 and 3 - points that I dropped.

Now, if you want to talk about PRO level- thinking we can do that, but THAT has nothing to do with this.
And has, almost nothing in common with this thread so far.
Even though you somehow compared having a degree and searching for work being close to doing art and deserving attention and support.

"Of course I am assume that the artist in theory did indeed go to school, and is attempting to make a profession of their craft, and is taking it seriously, and it’s not just a hobby for them."

This disclaimer doesn't get around that feeling or point of view. You are now assuming someone in that position STILL thinks like a hobbyist. To turn your hobby into a business or career or even any kind of money-making enterprise requires a massive mind-set change. Most can't or won't do it.

Understanding this video is an early step towards that.

I'll go further, but I already know this is forbidden talk. lol
Let me know.

Ah, but in today’s world social media has become a part of being a “professional” artist.
Unfortunately, that is also misunderstood. Being active on social media is part of your overall plan (and many times even that is outsourced), I say PART of your plan, not THE plan.

And the advice of
"get active on social media" is just as bad as do art for yourself. Well, bad or good depending on what your understanding of the advice is....

I agree! That's because they are almost polar opposites in goals and methodology.
Very hard to balance the two.

It's like getting dating advice. We love to hear it, but never follow it. lol

I just remembered something. This topic was discussed as a TED Talk recently.
TED Talks Daily | How craving attention makes you less creative | Joseph Gordon-Levitt

I've pretty much given trying to create for a target market. My previous comic was an attempt to be "more accessible" than the prog-rock furry porn fantasy I stopped working on when I broke up with the writer. It ended up being a twisty mess of overlapping multiple storylines, out-of-order chapters, and oblique Phillip K. Dick realityfuck shenanigans. Now I'm working on something that started as a cartoon show pitch and blossomed into a sprawling cartoon animal space opera with a "good guy" and "bad guy" version of every character's design, and conflicting unreliable narrators.

I've quit wondering why Popular Artists are Popular. There's a bunch of reasons. They've been doing it for longer than it looks, they've been producing a lot of stuff for a booming fandom at the right time and take a chunk of that audience to their own thing, they've sunk some time and effort into advertising, or into SEO tricks that convince social media sorting algorithms into thinking their stuff is Popular and Relevant and should get bubbled to the top of everyone's timeline, or... whatever. There's usually been some degree of serious focus on broadening their fanbase in a way I personally can never really be bothered to do.

There's enough people who've discovered my work over the years and like it enough to sponsor me on Patreon for me to pay most of my rent doing this. Add in the occasional commission and some savings I'm slowly burning through and things are okay. It's been a long road of growing my audience, and honestly it seems like I get a lot fewer comments on my stuff than I used to in general. The internet's just fucking flooded with Content.

I dunno. You do it for yourself and put it online, and you get a slow trickle of people deciding they like it. Eventually there's enough with some spare money and energy for you to make a living with it, maybe even to spread the word suddenly and rapidly. And you just gotta stop caring if anyone likes it after a while.

“Indeed, the great paradox of the writer's life is how much time he spends alone trying to connect with other people.”

Betsey Lerner, The Forest For The Trees

You don't become an artist just so people will notice you.

But at the same time, I do relish every like, share, comment, or retweet.

It's a matter of keeping the two balanced.

Posting on social media and getting little response isn't like showing your friends or handing in an assignment, and being ignored or dismissed. It's more like setting up on an overpass, and not getting random honks from drivers as they speed by in their cars.

"Create for yourself" is really sidestepping the issue of getting no response.

Personally, I find it soul crushing and very demotivating the lack of response I get for my art.

It's weird though, because you'll see the most crap stuff get a lot of response and then some true professionals get very little. Then again some really great artists also get a ton of response.

I think part of it is; marketing art and making art are separate things. I'm personally really bad at marketing my art, but good at making art. Though, my inability to market bleeds into my art making by demotivating me.

So, I'm really trying to work on marketing now.

Get someone else to do it, then.

I usually go by the "95%" rule of thumb. Meaning that only 5% of your audience will engage with your content in some way. So out of 100 who saw your content only 5 will like, only 5 out of 100 liked will comment, only 5 out of 100 commenters will check your patreon, and so on. So each time I get a like or comment it means that my audience is actually rather large, which helps with the getting over the no-response. After all, I myself rarely comment on the stuff I read.

Being complimented on your skills is... offensive? What?