How do I get exposure as an artist?
So there’s largely 2 primary ways to get exposure:
Mechanically (through a site’s functionality) and organically (through interactions with others).
On sites like Tumblr, I’ve typed up a few guides before on how things like the tagging system works. Tumblr specifically will only read the first 5 tags you use, so make them count, and it doesn’t put reblogs in search. Anything after the first 5 tags, and any tags you use on reblogs are strictly for your personal use and commentary.
So if you draw fanart, you wanna use the best tags for that fanart, not as many as possible. You can quick look up what’s more popular for the name of a ship or the spelling of a character, etc.
Make use of tags, draw trending content, etc. It’s mostly self explanatory.
Organic exposure is getting attention from reblogs/retweets/shares, and followers, etc. This is more a collection of ideas:
make your stuff have a point. The idea behind it can be stupidly simple even, but as long as it’s there, people are more likely to share. “This is my OC in a standard pose facing to the right” isn’t gonna sell as much as “this is my OC and you can see how she’s standing all cocky and knows she’s sexy with her TITS out she’s ready to kill a man.” This is why shoddy comics that are funny often get more notes than polished art form the same artist.
draw giftart for artists you admire. Do this for practice and because you like them. Don’t expect or demand a share however. Nobody is obligated to a following, and drawing for someone will only ever earn you a portion of the attention they have. Do it out of love, not envy.
try taking requests from people. Just don’t feel pressured to do them all the time.
try asking artists around your level or that you’re decent enough friends with to do art trades or collabs.
Again, focus on ideas. Make things that are relatable or know what they want to be. Cultivate your own stories and focus on the way they’re told. You want people to find them engaging, not long-winded or hard to follow.
And, universally, just draw a lot and keep focusing on improving. Exposure comes from progress. It’s a pitfall of every artist pretty much that they expect to garner a following first. Sometimes the following doesn’t come for long after their skills have improved.
Followings are one of those things that you have to not actively seek in order to attain.
