The Problems of Social Media for Artists

The art community on social media is a wide and diverse group of people who share their love for art. Since I first became engaged with the Instagram art community about two and a half years back, I’ve seen artwork by artists of different ages and from various regions around the world.

Sometimes I read English captions, while other times I have to rely on Instagram’s auto-translations. Some artists are on social media to make a living off of their art, using their Instagram as a portfolio and opening commissions or displaying their careers as animators in their Instagram bios. Others are on social media to display a beloved hobby, and to perhaps open commissions on the side as well.

However, the largest reason millions of artists share their art on social media is to meet other artists and showcase their artwork to others. It’s a way to discover more about their own art, gain constructive criticism and encouraging feedback, and be able to give the same support they hope to receive.

Since it picked up in 2010, Deviantart has been a major platform for artists. Although it lost older users, Deviantart has more than 250 million submissions. Today, Twitter and Instagram have become an artist’s main platform, primarily for networking. Pinterest is also an artist favorite, although it’s generally used for showcasing because it’s unsuitable for networking.

But this is exactly where the issue lies. Deviantart is still popular although many artists call it “dead”, but it’s not an artist focus anymore. Pinterest doesn’t work well with networking, and Twitter and Instagram were not created for artists, even if they are dominated by a large art community.

Specifically with Twitter and Instagram, a lot of their updates and algorithm changes, especially those of recent, are detrimental to thousands of artists. There are tons of tips to “beat the algorithm”, like asking viewers to save their posts or comment on posts instead of just leaving a like, or being smarter with tags so posts show up on feeds frequently. These tips can be helpful, but these are not solutions. Oftentimes, they don’t work out.

In a world where the number of likes and comments seems to dictate the worth of a social media account, it’s important to understand that although we all know we shouldn’t pay attention to such things, they are unavoidable. They also don’t escape the eyes of the algorithm, which has been deemed to be “an artist’s worst enemy” in the community. 

The algorithms of these two major platforms hinder an artist’s reach. On Instagram, the algorithm doesn’t show posts in chronological order and can also hide posts from accounts a user follows. It also promotes posts of art following trends and in this process of displaying selective posts, tramples small artists. This means less people see an artist’s posts, which means less likes, few comments, and barely any new followers. The artist becomes chained to their reach.

This chain is not just clamped around the ankles of small artists but also around the ankles of popular artists. Even artists massing more than thousands of followers are experiencing fluctuations with their reach and follower engagement. Now with the focus on reels, the Instagram algorithm prioritizes them over regular posts. If artists want to surf with the flow of the algorithm, they would need to change their surfboards. Artists would need to create videos for reels, post art memes or “relatable” cartoons, draw trending art, and do other things in the hopes of expanding their reach.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. But regardless of the result, it builds a semi-toxic environment for artists who want to draw what they are interested in without being subjugated by a ruthless algorithm. In essence, although an artist could be standing in a field of flowers or an illuminated city, it could be called an illusion because there’s still a metal chain and ball preventing them from exploring.

In the process of this, the art community on social media becomes stressful and draining. Artists need engagement to grow their reach, but with a restricted reach due to a constantly changing yet selective  algorithm, their engagement drops.

It feels awful to see artists become prisoners to algorithms on social media, and even more so when I see social media take a toll on them emotionally. I see artists work hard on new types of art or on something meaningful to them, only to have the algorithm crush their reach. No amount of asking for saves and shares can really trump the algorithm.

What the Art Community Needs

Then about a few months ago, the art community began to buzz about a new app being developed. 

Artfol, an app developed by a small team of two artists, promotes themselves as an app specifically made for other artists. This project began back in December of 2019.

When I heard about this new app a few months ago, I became curious. I followed the app’s Instagram account (@artfolapp) and joined their Discord. At the time, the app was still in beta testing, so it wasn’t available to all of the public yet. Since then, I’ve been receiving updates about new features and bug fixes the app developers have been working on. Over time, many artists began to get excited, as they heard good things about the app from beta testing artists.

Finally, after months of waiting, two weeks ago the app was released on the App Store for iOS and the Google Play Store for Android. However, it wasn’t showing up on the App Store, so the app developers sent out a notice at the time that the app was released and currently they were waiting on a reply from Apple about the app not showing up.

So last weekend, Artfol finally hit the App Store. As soon as I heard, I downloaded it and signed up.

The first thing Artfol asks you when signing up is whether you are an artist or not. This can be changed after you make the account, so it’s not set in stone.

Now, I had already seen glimpses of the app through the updates I had been receiving, but it was extremely exciting to actually experience them.

The app is wonderfully aesthetic and nicely organized. Anyone looking at it from a glance can tell it was designed by artists and tailored for artists. From the small icons to the way they organized the app, it’s clear it was made as a mix of Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms. But the developers didn’t just take the best features from these platforms; they incorporated the best features they could use as artists on these platforms.

For instance, the sections at the top for challenges, character art, fanart, and others are a bit similar to Pinterest. The way the different faces of the app, like the home page and the explore page, are similar to Instagram. This is a good tactic because many artists are already familiar with these features, and it allows for the developers to add their own unique touch to these common features.

The way an artist can organize their profile is also unrestrictive. Users can choose between a gallery view (like on Pinterest, where posts can come in different sizes of rectangles on your account) and a regular square view (like on Instagram, where all posts look like squares on your account). Users can also choose a background color, so it isn’t just white, and also have a background image, like YouTube has for their channels.

Artfol seems to have taken into account all types of artists and art. There are places for landscape art, character design, fan art, portraits, as well as challenges that include DTIYS (“Draw This in Your Style”). There are options if the artist wants to open commissions for themselves, and ALL links work in captions and comments. In comparison, Instagram restricts users to only one link on their bio. Links do not work on post captions or comments; it just shows up as text. In addition, you can only link sites on your stories if you reach a certain number of followers.

Currently, Artfol only lets you post one picture per post. Videos, gifs, and multiple images can’t be posted. However, because of this ability to link websites, users can link the video on YouTube to the post’s caption or the actual Instagram post back on Instagram.

Another thing that stuck out to me was the community on Artfol itself. There are many encouraging comments on posts, and many artists have been saying it was easier to make mutuals and friends on Artfol than it was on their home platforms. It’s an open and kind community.

The ironic thing is that everyone on the app are all the same people! These artists are also on other social media platforms, yet Artfol doesn’t seem intimidating at all.

There are many things I can go on and on about what’s working and is in the right direction with this app. It’s a very new app, so many things are a work in progress. In fact, the app was very slow last weekend (and will likely continue to be slow for a while) because many users began hopping onto the app and signing up. The app even shut down for a few hours for maintenance over the past few days due to this. Other than that, everything else seems to be positive for artists. As the app continues to grow, there will be even more new features to look forward to.

Although there will be ups and downs from here on out, Artfol artists are willing to be patient and continue to support the app on its journey to accommodate all artists and become the perfect platform for artists to truly enjoy.

Artfol’s official website can be found on https://artfol.co/. Artfol is now available on iOS and Android phones, and a PC version is currently being worked on.

 

written by Saanvi Gutta

edited by Keerthi Selvam and Tryphena Pilli

 

Image Credits:

All images have been taken by the author. However, there is artwork by other people in these images. The author does not claim ownership of these artworks.

The artwork on the image of the Sign-In page belongs to @nayu_illust (Instagram).

The first two full artworks on the image of the Trending category in the Browse section belong to @instaria (Artfol/Instagram) and @nriinu/@shwqart (Artfol/Instagram).