The most effective way for me is through groups. Featuring your work in to group galleries is time-consuming. But if you want to gain views, watchers and favorites then it's very much worth the effort.
Absolutely! I love the groups feature and it definitely gets your artwork in front of the best audience that appreciates it. What kind of artwork do you make?
@@TheArtMentor that's great. I'm only self taught when it comes to sculpture so I'm gonna stay tuned to learn more from you. I hope the channel continues to grow and inspire even more aspiring artists from all over the globe.
This information is invaluable! I'm so surprised such a quality and well-made series exists for deviantArt on RU-vid! Thank you very much! (Time to binge the other episodes!)
Thanks I appreciate your feedback! I’m glad you enjoyed it so much. There really isn’t enough good content about DA, am I right?? How long have you been on DA?
Really great tips! Lots of stuff I didn't know about the platform and I've been a member for several years. This was very helpful, I'm excited to try out some of these tips and tricks
Thank you so much for this video, you're a real life saver, I've been depressed from DeviantArt for the last 3 years, now this video has really opened my eyes, I don't know how I should thank you, it's a really big favor
@@TheArtMentor well I could say I have many aspects about the website that would just confuse me, mainly because I'm using the mobile version of the website plus I mainly draw on my 6" smartphone It's just that DeviantArt is very huge an ancient that puting Modern app extensions to this dinosaur wouldn't be sufficient to get you through the right way of building your online status, So concluding from my previous expression, what frustrated me is that I wouldn't know where my artwork piece would go on the DeviantArt mainpage blender and how are these photos selected, and it's just confusing how you'd see someone's small sloppy sketch(and I'm not trying to be offensive here, I'm just stating the visual fact) get over 200 views In less than a day while the drawing that I spent 3 hours perfecting would get a max of 50 views after a month.
That’s what I think a lot of us DA users have felt with little guidance on how this works. That’s exactly why I made this video after discovering this formula. Let me know if you ever have any other DA questions!
@@TheArtMentor thank you alot, yeah I'll make sure to email you if possible, Right now I'm busy with preparations for my engineering tests so I'll need a while until I get back into drawing
Honestly after two years of being back on DA (and posting for about 1 year) I have realized that the secret to growth as an artist is engagement. You have to spread the joy of your works and works you like. Even though I have only done about 15 deviations and they are very unfinished and the 3D equivalent of a sketch, but across said posts ive accrued 10K views and many llamas. And most of the llamas i got was when I began interacting with other people.
@@TheArtMentor yes they do. Thats why I think a big emphasis should be made on proper tags and groups as well, so you hit your target community and Demographics.
Favoriting works and commenting on profiles or deviations also can generate buzz quickly. I got 500% more views for about 2 months just by talking to people alone, no new posts. It's amazing. So mix that in with consistently posting high quality content and you'll go far
This vid definitely needs more views as there pandemonium going on twitter and people are migrating. I've talked to artists, and they act like DeviantArt is the plague/is a dead site and never advice going back. And it's nice hearing this guide as it seems like there are still many active communities on the platform. Thanks very much for the advice!
That’s funny you say that bc that’s what the general consensus about DA seems to be, isn’t it? DA definitely gets a bad wrap right? Have you seen my other video about the lies about DA?
@@TheArtMentor I do a lot of character design, fashion, and am working on learning landscapes! I feel like connecting with other artists again will improve my craft. :3
I'm one of the bigger guys on deviantart with over 5k watchers. Ever since last June I suddenly decreased in viewership. I used to get 20k 30k per deviantart submission, and now I get 1-5k everytime I submit.
I try my hands on groups as well but I dont seem to get much traction there. Found out from a friend of mine that certain groups are "dead" or inactive. I also do DND character art. Is there any groups that are still active for that kind of thing?
That’s a good point, and yes absolutely check to see if groups are inactive. You can usually tell by the landing page for the group and check to see when the last update was. For DnD groups, yes there are quite a few! Check out the groups on my DA page for some ideas, as I just cleaned out all my dead groups
I never got many faves in deviantart since since I joined in my early teenage years. Now I’m getting even less faves in my art since the update. I’m usually not confident about my art at all so maybe that’s one reason. I’m hoping one day this will work. Thanks for the tips !
maybe what to draw/ post in order to get more views in the beginning? I wanted to say tips on making adoptables but I felt you weren't really into that community
That’s a great topic! Thanks for the idea. Hey if you found this helpful, it’s be great if you could help share it to help other people 👍 thanks and I hope you’ll keep watching my future content
Hey Sean! Just discovered your channel and I'm so glad to see these videos about DA! I want to push it this year and start getting commissions for real. DA will be my first place to invest time and effort since I've been there for 14 years already. I stayed so many years off the platform then got back and forth a few times since Eclipse happened, but I wanna change things this year. Thanks for your videos! I've watched a couple of them and have another 5 opened in queue haha
@@TheArtMentor Thanks! :D .. I'm planning to start with character commissions! Cartoons, fanarts and OCs at first but I'll begin my journey in medieval fantasy too. I thought it would be good while I work on my lack of fundamentals (even have a study scheme to face this year too and grind those skills). Recently I finished a commission sheet and find it so funny when you said it was not a good approach lol But when I made it I wrote very clearly that those were starting prices and such, so I guess it can be used for now
I've been posting hundreds of drawings from my sketchbooks in chronological order. I've been suddenly growing a lot of favorites and watches within the past 2 days, (at least it feels like it, since I've got a hundred favorites after all), I hope this video gets me to understand if I'm doing well or not. And if not, thanks for the advice on how to fix that!
@@TheArtMentor I thought of that already, and just reposted my original ones, (but that was before I found this video though, so it looks like I'll have to quickly make some edits in all of the tags and such, which I have been doing for about half of what's up so far).
That’s great to hear! Keep it up going forward and I promise it will help! Also, just keep growing your art bc that’s always the guarantee to get more eyes on it okay? 😁
The thumb share was really inteeasting to me and I will use more groups, bc I already tag the heck out of my art and I do pretty well with that alone but I think I wanna go harder with this tbh
@@TheArtMentor i have 402 and currently I was on the road to getting a ton more during the summer but stopped posting to focus more on making my art better, deviantart is where I get the most recognition and likes for my art and I really value that since Twitter and instagram can be a little more slower, when I post I at least gain 5 followers out of my posts
I've been using DA for years and ever since the update of Eclipse, I've lost so many veiws and potential watches and favorites. I get like the same 6 people faving my art which is nice, but I'm not really seen anymore, just lost out in the dark pits of DA.
I was the same way before I started using these simple tips. Just like you, I rarely ever had any attention on my art. Now, it’s a ton easier. Eclipse just changed some inconvenient aspects. Have you tried all of these?
Can you recommend some groups that are good for getting noticed? There's thousands of dead groups since the Eclipse rollout and it's only gotten worse since DA embraced AI generated art theft. For every active group it seems like there's 3 dead ones. And many of those groups get flooded and push your works down or are super niche or fetishy (not that I have an issue with NSFW/fetish content but I don't really feel comfy submitting artwork on main to folders overrun with porn)
Great video! Ive learned so much things in this video! Also how can I improve my deviant art account? So I make my little pony art on deviantart for a year now. My account has been growing a little. I want to improve more and more. What do you suggest for me to improve? And what tags do you suggest I should put?
For improvement, what’s your practice look like? Are you practicing from reference and experimenting with new lighting, color, etc? For your tags, I would say use all of the tips in this video and try to copy which ones work the best for you and paste them into each proceeding artwork. How does that sound?
DA is a huge supporter of AI art (which alone is criminal, but also supports neo nazi art, hate crime art and porn of all sorts, even child pornography, which has become a huge thing in the last two years because it's all made via AI.
All too true to a degree, and I won’t defend the platform’s endorsement of AI. Especially if you’ve seen my other videos on that topic lol. However, it still has a thriving community for artists with a lot of support for you. Have you filtered out ai images from your log in? It’s a really helpful feature to bring only real artists to your attention
I started to develop my deviantART and ArtStation accounts around the same time. My ArtStation took off pretty well, but my deviantART account was just lagging behind. For a while, I went out of my way to participate in the Thumbshare, to add my work to groups and also just be active and post on other artist's work. I invested way more time into deviantART than ArtStation, but gaining traction on deviantART was like pulling teeth for me. I get ten times the amount of traction on ArtStation with much less exhausting input. After a while, I just completely gave up on deviantART. The only reason I started posting there again recently, is because they added the NFT theft alerts (I got an alert for one of my pieces in my e-mail, which is how I found out they even added that feature). I haven't gone back to trying to grind for attention, though. The amount of effort vs. the payoff just doesn't seem worth it.
@@TheArtMentor I think honestly, it might be the age of the platforms and the time I got into them. There is a pattern with social media sites in general that people who sign up with the platform early on, are able to build a following quickly. Once they have a solid footing, they can pretty easily continue to grow over time. However, once a platform is much older, and you sign up as a new user, it's near impossible to get a foothold. There is just too much traffic and you get drowned in the noise, while the veteran members dominate the trending wall. I didn't get into deviantART early, but I got into ArtStation when it was only a year old. Each social media platform is said to have had an ideal time to get into them. In the case of RU-vid, I heard it was around 2011-2014. I don't know about deviantART, but I'm sure it was something like 20 years ago. XD
Well if you want to sent me a note on DA I’d be happy to check out your profile and give you a couple pointers. However, I think you’re getting DA confused with the likes of other social media sites like Twitter or Instagram, which do require too much time and attention. DA’s algorithm is actually pretty easy to work, much easier than those platforms. As for time on the platform, I’m not an employee or sponsored, but I don’t think that’s the case at all. I’ve been on the site for 17 years, but I’ve gathered my entire current following in the last 2 years and just attained Seniority a couple weeks ago. I can’t speak for other platforms, but I’ve known a lot of people that’ve grown their accounts a lot using these tips. Send me a note and I’m happy to check out your account versus your ArtStation and I’ll give you some tips 👍
Your channel is just the best. Noone else is sharing that amount of information how to prize our work, and how to attract clients. Do you have by any chanse some advice in one of yours videos how to recognize a scam when someone's introducing himself as some company employee? Just not to work without payment up front or maby you've got other ways?
That’s absolutely correct. Those artists are amongst the megastars on the platform that the algorithm doesn’t effect because of their enormous fan base. In fact, I would suggest that the algorithm works in their favor with every posting rather than what happens for the average user
sorry but the groups on DA are AWFUL, they do not work at all, they are not as simple as you make them seem, most of the time you have to request your artwork to a group and await for their approval and most of the time it just goes ignored, it rarely works, and then there's the fact that these groups tend to have way too many subfolders and a lot of the time these folders are over their size limit so it becomes a waste of time. Groups are just really ineffective and they don't seem to benefit me at all with the amount of times I have managed to submit something in their groups. Categories sound like a much better system.
Are you checking those groups to make sure they’re still active though? That should be a regular practice and it makes the whole process easy. I can literally submit a single artwork to 40+ groups in this way in 5-10 minutes, which will get you tons more exposure than just hoping for the algorithm to pick it up. Also, if you’re submitting artwork to a group that has all full folders, ignores your submissions, or isn’t active, wouldn’t you just leave it and focus on the ones that work? For me, that’s a semi-regular practice to vet the ones worth submitting to
@@TheArtMentor well that depends on the group itself, all the groups I'm in seem pretty active to me, for the most part I'm only in like 10 groups so far(ive only been on DA for 2 months) and all but 2 of them require approval to post, so I already ignore the rest and have been submiting my work to those 2 groups. But if you're in +40 groups and have no problem then I guess I'm doing something wrong. I may as well take your word for it.
Yeah it’s a slightly annoying matter, but vetting groups is necessary as you continue on DA. I would recommend keeping a log of what you submit (your notifications do this anyways) of what groups aren’t admitting your artworks. If for example I have three artworks that expire from a group submission, I leave that group and assume it’s dead or dying. Try that and let me know if that’s going better! Also, you’re very new on the platform, so just keep it up and build momentum, okay? 😁
Even if I done the most of the tips I didn't get any attention. I am so sad and frustrated...I was thinking to even quit drawing. Why am I pushing myself, when it goes to nowhere? :( I will be still ignored...
So I see two concerns worth addressing, starting off with two questions: 1) how long have you been doing these practices consistently, and 2) which strategies did you not use? The larger issue being: why does social media exposure impact your joy of creating? That may point to some larger concerns that aren’t art related, my friend 😅 remember that it’s near impossible to build something others will like if you don’t in the first place or if you rely on others for validation, okay?
Hi. What topic does Hand-Drawn art go into? I like drawing cartoons, alot. In fact, most of my artwork is very cartoony. Other times I paint. That's Traditional Artwork, right? I do requests and suggestions, but not that often. I also love to watch and learn from DA drawing tutorials for fun. How do earn points on DA?
Also, yes, paintings would be traditional artwork, but see if you fit into fan art, abstract, or anything similar as well! As far as points go, can I ask what you need them for? My answer varies depending on your response
Thanks so much! That was a nice comment you wrote. Out of curiosity, what did you want to know about points for on DA? I have different answers depending on what you need then for
@@TheArtMentor Well, to be frank, the main reason is that there are these bases I wanna use. I can use them unless I give points. That's probably not a good answer.
On asking questions in the description: if people DM you in response to asking what characters they’d like to see, do you take the requests as inspiration for new personal pieces, or do you attempt to convert those into paid commissions? It seems disingenuous to invite suggestions only to ask for money when they DM you, but it also seems counterintuitive to getting commissions if you satisfy those requests for free, so I’m interested in any insights you have here. Keep it up, man, love these videos!
So my tactic for asking questions in the descriptions is simply to get comments. I do always put in there to DM me for projects, which would be only for commissions. I don’t believe in taking requests unless it’s for a very intended purpose. Are you looking to start taking requests or commissions?
@@TheArtMentor Definitely prefer to be paid for my time and effort. I guess I’m just wondering if people are generally understanding in your experience, or if you waste time with lots of mooches when you invite DMs without specifying that it’s for paid commissions.
Sure, you’ll get some people wanting free art or offer exposure dollars for your services, but generally, only really invested people will actually take the time to message you. That’s why I advocate for it. It weeds out the scammers and wishy-washy clients. How’s that sound?
@@TheArtMentor The part wen you explaing about the tags and what I was looking for: how to add a deviation to a group. So simple and I didn't see it until you say it 🤦♀️
Oh yeah everybody misses that! Pretty much every time I look at a DA account where the user complains they aren’t growing, that’s always what I see them not doing 😅
Ibteresting video woth some good advises @TheArtMentor. I took your advise on choisong the tags and topics and it did work for me tho i only got a few more new deviants. How does "Commission" work on the other hand?
Tricky answer since DA doesn’t offer in depth analytics to answer that, but I would say give it a try a few times! Also, worth noting this strategy only works for NEW deviations, and isn’t very effective for past ones
IDK, since the Infamous Eclipse thingie, I believe DA’s community is the most introverted site ever on par with Tumblr especially many features change pretty fast. Doesn’t help with that Help Welcome New Deviants thing that’ll pop up in notification every two secs. And then theres these fill-In-memes getting more attention than doodles.
There isn’t any best website for artists per se, but this video will teach you how to use DA to gain favor and guarantee more exposure. All sites like Instagram and Twitter are purely algorithm based, and DA does have ways to get your work in front of an audience that no other platform does right now. Try it out for a while and see what happens 👍
Allows you to sell your artwork to make videos you can Create subscriptions for your watchers And you can use the points that goes with it for like to buy exclusive stuff on there too
I usually do my artwork every day but I lost a lot of ideas but now that I decide to just do the coronavirus ship now I'm gonna have to just come up with some good ideas some impressions on illustrations all that good stuff
Now the core membership's however it varies a depending on what you get so like there is the regular core for like 3 something where you get very minimum which could go up to which where you can sell your artwork up to $100 there is the core plus it is the core plus where you can sell it up to $1000 then Core proand Core pro plus get you can allow you to sell your artwork up to $10000 however Core pro plus is a much latest update that the community has set up for all the users and that goes up to The exact price as a Core pro was which used to be the exact price $15 but now they lowered it to like $9
Honestly, my biggest problem is that, no matter how hard I try, no one ever seems to even view my art... 99.9% of my art is drawings of my own superhero characters I've created, but no one ever views them... unless I make it near NSFW type of styled art... It's kind of annoying. No one wants to see decent art of heroes, just half-naked women. It's stupid...
@@TheArtMentor Well, I usually update the art after a year of it being there. I use Ibispaintx to draw, so I just redownload my old art and trace it in a better more detailed fashion. Typically I'll draw on a piece of paper and take a picture of it and trace that drawing on my app... I could probably give you my account name if you wanna see, I don't really know how to explain it 😅 I do all my drawings in solid digital art (digital being on my phone)... I don't typically draw anything else other than my own characters. I'm trying to improvey detailing for my work, which is why after 8-12 months of my art being on there, I'll take it down, update it with new details and slightly new style and repost it as a fresh new art... And I don't really price my art that high either... Typically $4-10
@Duncanstudios2000 have you considered that maybe you can just focus on enjoying your art and being a part of a community on DA then? The other consideration would be what if you invested into some new hardware like a tablet to help increase the quality of your artwork? Not saying it’s bad, but you could think of it as an investment into yourself and your future👍
@@TheArtMentor Thanks, right now I'm broke, so that invrsuwill have to wait XD But, I will enjoy my art... It's not like I'm trying to make a living off it. My main goal in life is to make movies...
@@TheArtMentor I did and everything you advised me worked, man ! Thank you so much ! God Bless you and your life and all that you do ! You're a truly good person !!! I am so grateful to have met you !
In your experience, has audience engagement and growth been better, the same, or worse since the eclipse update? I'm interested in utilizing this platform more but idk how the community is. Thanks!
Honestly, I was there way before and after eclipse, and the difference is marginal depending on the user. I had the same amount of followers on DA pre-eclipse and then after implementing this strategy, I grew much faster and started getting a lot more attention. Typically, my finished works get over 100 likes now, as opposed to a tenth of that prior to eclipse. I think there are more factors involved there, but there’s plenty of success to be found on DA. How long have you been on DA for?
@@TheArtMentor I've been on DA for about 7 yrs now but I haven't been super active post eclipse. I'm debating whether to get back into it. I noticed my most recent posts get about 4 likes haha XD.
Ok i will try out these tips i write literature on deviant for the last 2 months i have been putting out a new story almost every day i am not sure if its the best place for it but i have been lurking on the site for over 15 years i usually get between 1 to 2 k views and only between 2 to 6 favourites and i rarely get any comments but when i do get a comment its usually positive the only criticism i get are for grammar mistakes that then i edit out i also noticed that i story i wrote recently is getting like no views i think its because i uploaded it to the scraps folder first in a unfinished state and then about 1 hour later i fixed it up and i put it in the main gallery but i don't think my watchers can see it or its buried below newer stuff but this does not make sense because some of my first stories got a huge boost in views and likes suddenly also i put everything on mature for obvious reasons so that may affect my stories success too but i notice that writers who make similar content to me either get way more views or the same amount of views as me but a lot more likes and comments and i don't know why maybe its just because they have been around longer or because they are using your tricks also something
@@TheArtMentor Ok i added some of my stories to a few groups that have my interest and they quickly get a lot more favs and followers but not a lot of views but most groups only allow me to post 1 thing every day and a lot did not accept me probably because they only want pictures not literature but even the handful of groups i can post my art in have given me a huge boost and it has only been 1 day since i started doing it the category thing i don't really get i changed one of the tags into literature but i don't think it had much of a effect when i look at the topics section on deviant art its just a endless wall of popular stuff from all niches and there is no way to filter it or search it so i doubt anyone found my story with that and adding questions in the description has so far done nothing but it has only been one day.
That’s great to hear you’re getting more eyes on your pieces! A few notes on this system I use: 1) updated tags on older pieces won’t usually enhance them much. It’s a best practice for going forward more than editing 2) these practices work best for each piece you submit from now on, so use this as a method to utilize moving forward 👍 3) keep up your efforts and proving questions on your posts to help elicit audience engagement. It will help over time I wish you lots of luck with this! Let me know if you have any further questions
Great video & nice tips! Does anybody know why whenever I attempt to upload a post onto Deviantart, why it is coming out so blurry with low quality?? I've tried doing it from my phone, tablet, turning off mature content, changing the file size, and its still blurry! Super frustrating.
So stash is just DA’s cloud storage for unpublished stuff, which is limited. However, your art submissions are unlimited. Anything else I can help with?
Hey can someone please make a video on how to drag and drop on a mobile phone. I've been searching and I can't even change over to my laptop because the screen disconnected from it.
The app is rather limited in what it can do, so you would probably have to do it on a computer. Otherwise, you can edit each deviation and select folders for them
I think it’s just luck. My art is consistent and I can either get close to 1000 likes, or less than 5 or 10 likes. Then I see people with mediocre art doing none of the things in this video and they consistently get thousands. It’s so random
Sure, that can happen, but why submit to that mindset? Have you tried all of these tactics as well? I can personally attest to them still working to this day
Hi again, I have the feeling that these monster 10,000+ groups are a fallacy. You are hopelessly lost in the masses. 50-500 you are seen much more and the submission remains much longer on the page. Right?
I see that logic, however, the idea is more exposure than standing out. Consider that a group with 10k members doesn’t mean they have that many active users, or especially ones that post regularly. Does that make sense? The idea to utilize groups is to get your art pushed out to as many unfamiliar users as possible. Then, you’ll grow 👍 how does that sound now?
To users that aren’t familiar with you on the platform. Submitting your art to groups, regardless of the size of it, guarantees that it will be sent out to everyone in the group. So for bigger groups, it gets pushed out to more people. It’s all algorithm free, so see how that helps? The only people it won’t get pushed out to is anyone that turned off notifications for the group, which is a small percentage of people in them
@@TheArtMentor Maybe I didn't express myself properly. I have the feeling that with very large groups, the deviation doesn't stay on the main page and in each watcher's personal feed for very long because many others are adding new deviations. In the case of (very) small groups, the deviation remains visible on the start page (and possibly in the feed of the observers) for much longer. At least, when I upload my works in small groups, I get significantly more new stars, watchers, etc. than in large groups. (Thanks again for the dialogue!)
Well on that front, many clients aren’t aware of what AI is or how it works, were you aware of that? Bc if they did, do you think they would pay anyone to generate an image they could do themselves?
@@TheArtMentor and most AI need a subscription if decent workflow and image quality is needed. Also, often there is work on top to be done. I am looking for other information, basically in image size, promps, and AI comparison. Do you plan some video on any of these topics?
I’ve never done that, yet I’ve quintupled my audience since implementing these strategies. Not only that, but I’ve also used this to gain many clients and new customers. How long have you been implementing these strategies to be so certain of that?
So I think most of my advice applies to you, but since I’m not posting writing to DA, could you tell me how your submission process differs from art? Can you use hashtags and submit your stuff on groups as well?
In that case, definitely seek out groups on DA where those artists and fellow writers hang out to get more exposure. Also, focus on creating really clickable titles for your writings so that people want to click on it, so you don’t have anything inherently visual
