Where you promote your art...that actually works? (Not comics- 2021)

[ble]

I don't make comics anymore, but after a long hiatus, i re-started making art, and post it on Instagram.

The thing is i see artists with thousands of likes per post, my stuff only gets single-digit likes there (i don't think anything i ever made even got to 20 likes there).

I don't know if they are just loved by the algorithm by default or they promote to somewhere else to direct people to their instagram. I know some are the big digital artists who got a big fanbase from somewhere and already have a big name behind them, but if you're like me starting with no fanbase or name, what you do?

Reddit, Instagram, DeviantArt, other sites? what works in 2021?

Anyway, feel free to put your latest art and your link.

link: https://www.instagram.com/kazbotsoup/

[CursedBeasts]

I think it's part luck, part the fact that these artists likely have been around for a while, part the subject matter of the art, and part tagging. A good idea is also to engage with other artists, leaving likes and comments on the art you like.

There are guides online on how to best tag stuff and when to post (usually evening in american timezones), but beyond that it's anyone's guess.

most social media didn't work out for me, though. I just post on Tumblr these days, and mostly get under 10 likes \ reblogs because I draw obscure stuff no one is really interested in lol.

Reddit has been nice for me, I think I got some hits on my comic when I posted a link to it on Reddit, and I get much more engagement there usually.

[VibrantFox]

sites i've seen people used depends a lot and i know insta has't been the best even for some (keyword some) bigger folks due to a lot of the algorithm changes and whatnot so there's all this demand from the site to stay consistently engaged and active (posting near daily, sharing stories and reels, etc)

cursedbeats nails it on the head about luck though because even when using certain tags or keywords you can still get screwed over by whatevers in the code. like on twitter there's whole swaths of words you can't use otherwise the site essentially eats your post, and the same goes for number of hashtags and other little details. it's obviously a pain but i guess one useful thing is that when those kinds of changes happen there's someone who'll share updated tips or threads on what may help

but as for sites other than those you've mentioned the only ones that come to mind are Pillowfort, Sheezy.art, ArtStreet, FurAffinity, Artfol (which is mobile app only afaik), and Mastodon

as for my own links they're here:

in a world of pure imagination

[BLTX]

These are two pictures I made a while back I'd initilaly posted to Twitter. The set up?

It's Kirby VS BLTX! Who will win?!

Summary

I should've picked a better arena.

[CursedBeasts]

Twitter also at least used to treat people from certain countries as malicious traffic. Not sure what the situation is now, but it killed any desire I had to even try posting my art on there.

I also like Weasyl, but it doesn't have many ppl on it tbh. Pillowfort has the same problem but I still like both sites. (not to self promo but i'm Cursed on pillowfort haha)

[VibrantFox]

i actually wasn't aware of the whole twitter sussing out certain countries but it seems right up their alley given the periods of time where certain content types or tweet topics were being buried on the site so it's unfortunate but unsurprising

haven't heard of weasyl but i wound up deleting my pillowfort account after hearing some stuff about it/it's creators that didn't set right with me

[CursedBeasts]

This is just my experience + stuff I found in my home country's segment of the internet later on but basically at the time twitter kinda treated people from my home country with more strictness than an average user. I wanted to post some art, and like, i think it was obviously not spam, but twitter locked my account for no reason at all. and it happened like 3 times in a row and then I just gave up and left, only to return months later to delete my account.

Weasyl is kinda, if deviantart and furaffinity had a child and that child was surprisingly functional but kina obscure? I personally use it as an archive of my art. I do have a FA account too where I'm slowly uploading my art, but its slow and I am terrified of looking outside of my account haha.

[euphisa]

I use instagram. I use lots of tags. With tags, i usually get around 13-23 likes. Just keep posting regularly and yll get some followers. Engage with other artists too, they may follow back.

[crowstories]

I do illustrations for my novel, because it's more manageable/results in better art than when I was trying to make a comic.

My art hasn't gained much traction on social media, so I'm not really sure what the trick is... apparently doing fan art is a good way to get attention but I don't have the time/interest in doing that.

Chaos Dog | Tapas

[Tanidreams]

Hi! I know the struggles all too well. Art isn't easy and there is SO MUCH undiscovered talent, especially here. But hey, you have a GREAT style that's very beautiful, please keep going

I have had a few sparks of success here and there on YouTube and Instagram. It depends on the subject you're doing it on. Usually my pieces over something like Hazbin Hotel, Invader Zim, or Sonic are the ones that get more attention, but aren't exactly things I'm completely passionate about, which is the frustrating part. You have to look at what people are searching for and what's trending if you want more views. I have had one art tutorial that I was REALLY proud of that finally got over 1000 views on my channel after almost a year. Not sure how it happened, but it really shows that patience will pay off!

Anyways, here's the latest traditional piece I've made:

[Kelheor]

This October I randomly decided to do fan art month, and well, it does help with getting subscribers. It wasn't my initial idea really (I was struggling with enjoying drawing and, well, drawing flying heads of favorite characters makes me feel nice), but I published it on Insta, Twitter and Reddit and people started to come. Twitter got barely any traffic though, but Insta and Reddit worked, especially since people from Reddit come to Insta.
Unfortunately, you can't predict which picture would make it big (and if they even will) or which will barely gain anything, I was surprised how a couple of pics I would never expect to gain any traffic made it huge. I try to publish at the time which is good according to some sites analytics (don't know if they are realistic though).
Now, since I am doing it for my own mental health I am just drawing favorite characters, but no one stops you from drawing whatever is trending right now, maybe it will make your chances of being seen better too ^^

[jahnavi0222]

Here is mine

a poster of Ariana Grande's album thank u next

[R.n.P]

deviantart

phenomenom9 - Hobbyist, Traditional Artist | DeviantArt

[fulanochronicles]

I'm trying to do a kind of slide animation to reach more people with the reels/shorts on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Still no results, I guess it's because I started to publish recently. I hope with being consistent, I will soon begin to bear its fruits