Everything i know about gaining followers and continuing to make art.
This started off as responding to someone messaging me about gaining followers and decided to share it with you guys because i dunno? Maybe you might find something useful?
Hi there! So i'm gonna give you a bunch of advice i've learned from experience. While letting you know i am nowhere near as popular as other artists. I'm both pretty obscure and somewhat well known. It's a paradox. It also comes with the knowledge that getting more followers can either take a lot of time or no time at all. It can go either way.
Friendship is powerful
First off the most important piece of advice i can give you is to form friendships/allies within the art community. In my case, I just started off by either striking conversations with other artists, sending fanart to artists i genuinely loved WHILE BEING AWARE THERE IS A BIG CHANCE IT MAY GO UNNOTICED. That is fine. Move on. I was genuine in my interest, respected their boundaries and time. And i cannot absolutely stress this enough "Never ever asked/begged/demanded a reblog/follow/friendship". Because then it becomes "what can YOU do for ME?" and nobody ever responds well to that.
Hell, I still send kind words and art to people i love. It’s how i befriended @timelord2024 @d2071 @the-infamous-man and many more.
Find yourself a community of like minded people whether it be on a forum for art or discord. Maybe none of you are all that popular, but you support one another, cheer for each other, and keep yourself motivated as you continue to grow in both skill and popularity. I owe a lot to my friends. And when @therandomninjakitty was still here regularly, she reblogged some nobody kids art because i drew her and didn’t demand a bunch of stuff from her. And she found my crap entertaining. Our friendship led to a mutual back and forth of arts. And without me knowing it she helped me a lot. And like a pony or a pixar character taught me that friendship is hella important and uplifting.
Be grateful to the people who do like your work
A very minor part, but this is the reason I try not to alienate people on my blog or pick fights. I try to hold office hours when i can to respond to questions or direct messages people send me. If i had more time i’d respond to more comments. But y’know people respond to that interaction. Also builds a reputation which is important. I never did it because i wanted followers. I did it because i love talking with people. I just lucked out in it benefiting me cuz you guys are a fun group y’know?
Make content people want to see and stuff you want to make.
Fan art is a double edged sword. But a necessary one. Original content is important not only for new ideas to grow but also to feed your artists soul. Keep doing OC work you love even if it's not popular. This prevents burnout. It’s my deepest regret that i left OC work behind and now it’s a struggle to get back to that. I love my fanwork deeply. But I also realized that my long buried OC stuff is the reason i wanted to be an artist because no one else will bring it to life.
Fanart however, is how people actually get to know your art. It's how any of you know who i am. However, it's a fickle one. I lucked out by doing content for stuff i love/interested while it also being very popular. I drew the Peter Parker: Foreign Exchange Student comics because it was a comic that i wanted to read.
You can become temporarily popular by following trends but this becomes draining and eventually run the risk of losing the reason why you started making art because now you are single mindedly chasing followers rather than making anything you like. Do you know how much it would suck for me to have to keep up with every goddamn meme or waifu of the month? It’s like becoming a yes-man or a doormat. And then you feel like crap because that pic you made solely for popularity isn’t as popular as you like and now nobody wins.
Be consistent. Keep making stuff on a regular schedule while giving yourself breaks when starting out. Burnout is real. Gaining followers can take time, sometimes moreso for others. Be patient otherwise you'll get angry/sad/discouraged because you aren't instantly popular.
Find the social media that works for you
Find a good platform. It doesn't necessarily mean go where everyone is but that's also a valid strategy. Twitter can be great as it can also be terrible. Almost everyone is there. It’s great precisely because so many people are there you can reach a really wide audience and befriend a lot of artists! Unfortunately, it’s also a constant warzone where doom/gloom/strife and other horsemen of the apocalypse reside. Tumblr is wonderful for art being google friendly due to the tagging system. While smaller in use, it's also niche enough that you can find a small devoted following here to form your bedrock like mine. Deviantart is good for archiving work. Instagram is also good for artists but i’ve barely used it. Use one, use all. It’s up to you.
GIT GUD SCRUB
A very short but important thing. You gotta keep improving in your art and writing. I’m going to be very mean here but look getting better at art means it becomes more appealing to people looking at it. People like looking at pretty and cool stuff. And you have to realize on some level you’re competing against everyone else for attention. I stopped doing grubby poorly scanned pencil art as I taught myself to ink and color. Don’t focus 100% on only being better than others or you’ll go insane and never ever be happy with what you make. Or risk letting a competitive nature blind you to everything. And be humble enough to know, “yeah there’s plenty of people better than me“. It’s okay. Find your voice. Work on your fundamentals. Keep at it. Be inspired. This is where the group of friends/artists comes into play. You learn from them, you cheer other on, you all get better.
In short, i wish all of you the best in whatever you choose to do with your creativity. Whether it’s for fun or profit. Anyhoo, that’s all i got. Thanks for reading.









