The official home of the KNKL Show on Imzy!
Is DeviantArt Dying/Dead? Places for your art to get exposure
So, Kienan always says that the best way to get exposure for your art (besides conventions) is forums and posting online, contests and the like. Sure, when you're specifically interested in Overwatch or League, the Riot Games or Blizzard forums are better for you, but for general stuff most people use DeviantArt, or Newgrounds, or some brave souls have mastered Tumblr. But having been on deviantArt for 6 years, I feel it's somehow dying? The communities are so much less active and its really difficult to communicate with anyone. Is it just me? I'm having a really hard time striking up conversations and getting commissions when two years ago I had plenty. I don't think it's my own ability for that reason so much as my approach. Does anyone have any advice? Keep trying to use dA? Try other sites like Instagram or paigeeworld?




Great question!!! Answered on today's Question catapults: https://youtu.be/JeluYdgfltY?t=24m7s
So, I mostly agree with your sentiments about Deviantart being a bad place to get exposure and Artstation being better in that regard. However, Artstation is, and markets itself as a platform for professionals. People looking to build portfolios and find work. Whereas, Deviantart has always been better for the more casual community oriented artist.
It is one of the few sites with somewhat decent community features, which is necessary for younger, casual, or inexperienced artists. It simply does a subpar job of filling a niche for artist that desperately needs to be filled, with no one really stepping up to the plate to do it better. We have sites for professionals, sites for selling tutorials & the like, and dime a dozen exposure sites.
But, no websites where people can talk about art, their current projects, find like minded people, and post art all in the same place. With a modern, easy to navigate UI, everything you need frontloaded and easy to notice (social, browse, etc), and useful features not locked behind a paywall.
But basically I'm trying to say, yes, Deviantart is dead. But, It won't be going away and it is still decent if you make a lot of art. Just don't go there if you are looking to become a professional which is the market where Artstation shines. However, Deviantart is the better community experience. It does a bad job, but it does better than every other website. Which is sad seeing as how it is such an important kind of space for young or casual artists.
I personally use DA and Pixiv. For Me Pixiv is way more better. maybe because I do mostly anime and hentai stuff. And only sometimes I draw in different style like my avatar and post them only on DA. Maybe this is the reson why I don't see that he dies (I mean deviant).
I have an account on every single site you've mentioned except newgrounds not sure what that is. Tumblr, Instagram, paigeeworld all have the hashtag system approach. It's hard to get noticed on those sites now. I guess paigeeworld to me is more garnered towards a younger audience like 5-10 year olds. They do have fun contests which do get you noticed at the cost of your submission art belongs to them now. I do also find it very hard to take paigeeworld seriously as a platform because it is so much smaller than tumblr, Instagram and deviantart itself but also because of their users. They have a more elementary school positivity environment.
Instagram you have to upload everyday there. I'd suggest you post only art stuff on there it doesn't really mix in well with food and etc. Unless you're really popular like artgerm and other artists they post family pictures. Tumblr similar to Instagram in format tags for me. I wouldn't trust hashtags alone however i'd say go out there and comment but most important of all make fanart and join contests. Instagram's art community have these things called shout outs where now you can either pay or join an event to get noticed by other people. It's very hit or miss sometimes I doubt loyalty. Since you can end up with mostly ghost followers easily.
There is this new app however called minds is dedicated to getting your message out there boosted to your followers and to others. I have an account of there right now and it's pretty nice from what I can see. They are a platform which is dedicated to getting your message out there to your followers more of a free speech platform. But art, music, gaming everything is accepted!
I'd say honestly to you get an account on these sites and try it out! See if you like them or not . Obviously Instagram is a big one I'd suggest to you. My opinion on Art station is more like it's just a professional portfolio site. Something I'd give my boss. I do have a twitter but so far I don't think I'm sure what I'm doing with it. This reply is quite a lot to take in but I hope you find it helpful! I think minds has great potential in the future you should check it out ;)
Thank you for such a detailed reply! I agree with you about Paigeeworld. I have some stuff up there but it seems like it's all very PG and no one really does things like commissions and stuff. As far as I saw there wasn't any sort of private messaging available? The hashtags is something which I find extremely unreliable and it's very easy for any post to get completely lost when they're populated tags like #art or whatever. I don't want to use instagram for social reasons so for now I do only post art and sketches. I'll try to keep up with the daily thing like you suggested. I didn't really consider the possibility of contests on tumblr tbh, I didn't think the interphase lent itself to something like that but I'll look for some! Thanks again!!
Your welcome! I think that's my problem with paigeeworld too. It's more just there as another way to generate attention. I don't think paigeeworld has DMs last time I checked as well. Tbh I do think there are contests on tumblr but contests in general are a great way to check yourself out there. You might not win first place but you have chance at getting noticed in general if you do join. Most important thing is have fun with it! ^^
I set up an artstation page myself not too long ago Generally it's a lot more professional space and not flooded with bad fetish art like deviantart
It's a little harder to get noticed but a lot more [good]content heavy
Yeah that's whats really intimidating about it. I don't really draw stuff bad enough to get noticed on THAT side of dA but I don't think I'm at the level that'd do too well on art station.
I feel exactly the same about Artstation orz that's why I haven't tried it yet. Although I keep telling myself that the earlier I make it the more time I have to do well, and the worst possible outcome is that I'm just as invisible as I was without the account but...maybe you'll follow my advice better than I do lol.
I've personally noticed that I got more attention on Instagram in a few weeks than I had on dA in several years. (Likely because it's more general/accessible.) Artstation is also quite good, from what I've heard, but I've yet to try it personally.
Instagram is a hit or miss with me. You have to upload everyday it's a tiring process to me. I do have an art station rn so far idk how it honestly works. I just posted a piece and I guess people find it and comment through tags.
yeah Instagram has been real slow going for me. I get about as many likes as I do faves on DA but I've been fluctuating between 30 and 40 followers for the past few months and it doesn't seem like a good way to get any attention for commissions at all. Do you have any specific tips? I've glanced around artstation and it seems like something else that'll be a huge time investment and if I want to try insta, I don't want to spread myself too thin
Personally have yet to try advertising commissions on Instagram, but I've seen people have a nice, short image (ex. <your name here>, commissions <price range here>, details below, on a background of one or a montage of your pictures).