The Art Lore Crisis Destroying The Tiktok Art Community 

*_Happy New Year! say it back!!!_*

I took an art class last semester, and a lot of people in the class were clearly beginners. Watching their growth was amazing. I don't understand how people can look at someone's attempt at creating and feel anything but excited to see them grow and improve.

The art community never fails to disappoint me

At this point it feels like people just can't draw, show their art, or be artists on TikTok anymore without being shit on and bullied, holy shit 💀

As a deaf viewer, can I say how grateful I am that you CC'd your videos? Thank you so much!

I never thought it'd be possible, but it feels like TikTok has even more busybodies and bullies than twitter

Funnily enough, the kids that make "art lore" videos have a long way to become highly skilled artists themselves.. All artists continue to learn and become better over time, there's no 'limit' to how good your art can improve

It's crazy how these art lore people make fun of other artists as if they were never beginner artists 💀💀 The ego and audacity of these people is wild

TikTok trends are doing more damage to artists than AI art ever could, not even joking.

This is why I stick to the RU-vid Art Community. Especially on shorts, I very rarely see people crapping on or roasting beginner artists. Of course there’s outliers, but most of the time it’s just so dang supportive. It always makes me feel good when I come across a short by a beginner artist with maybe 15 likes and 5 comments, all those comments being so positive

13:50 Aside from people forgetting that they can just scroll I don't think we talk enough about curating your own experience on social media by just... Blocking people you find annoying and moving on instead of making entire videos just to punch others down. It's just so baffling to me as a tumblr user lol

U'd think the art community would have stopped bullying children after the "rating/reviewing" OCs/Fanfiction/Fanart/Etc tumblr blogs stopped being popular Ten Years Ago bc everyone realised bullying children is cringe

I think another reason why people bully other artists is because they're jealous of the attention. I remember when i used to use DeviantArt i saw art that i saw as less good get wayy more views and used to be super jealous, but now looking back i realize we were at the exact same skill level, i just wasnt on the platform as long. Luckily i never resorted to bullying.

Something I always hated since I'm in the art community in 2006, is unsolicited "criticism". It did more harm to my process than helped me and held me back for YEARS because the bullying sucked out my confidence in drawing and learning. I quit the art community for the past 4-5 years to concentrate on myself and started from scratch with my art. I'm 35 now and since I'm posting very rarely my art, but still draw a lot (just stoped posting it), I had a HUUUUGE upgrade in. my art, which gave me enough confidence to not give a fuck anymore. It was the best decision, if I hadn't quit, I would have quit art for good.

I THOUGHT ARTLORE WAS THE BACKSTORY BEHIND PEOPLES ART/CHARACTERS HELP???

people when ai "art" started: nooo its gonna destroy our jobs and artists, and demotivate people the art community on tiktok: AI? pffff- , who needs that? we're gonna drive away new artists and people that are not as good, ourselves. How dare they even post art? pffff-

I feel like it's also a case of people thinking that they can't dislike something without a "correct" reason. You can dislike a style and you can complain about seeing it to your friends. You don't need to proclaim how morally reprehensible the style or artist is if they're really not. Art is subjective and your reason to not like something can be "I just don't like how it looks". This may tie into the fact that publically complaining , whether intended to become public or not, instantly gets backlash as well if there's "no reason" to dislike something. Thus, it feels like a requirement to prepare some hard justification to earn the right to complain, which is then interpreted as a call to arms. In short, people need to accept others can enjoy or not enjoy harmless things for harmless reasons without dragging a hundred strangers into it.

I don't even care whether posting art stuff on TikTok will helped get me noticed by employers or whatever, I am *never* joining that septic tank of an app if this is what happens to artists on there.

every month or two a Tik Tok community has to walk up to a chalkboard and repeatedly write down an obvious lesson they should have known (like: don't bully, don't be weird, etc.) that platform is cursed

I think people really need to understand that there is a time and a place for criticism. At uni, I agreed to read and give feedback on a creative writing dissertation. I spent a lot of time and effort doing it, and from the moment I gave it back, she stopped using my name, and started calling me ‘pernickety’ instead, in a mostly joking manner, but I have to admit, there were a LOT of corrections and suggestions for improvement. The important thing here was that she had ASKED for my opinion, and along with the criticisms I made sure to let her know the things that worked well, because it was a brilliant piece of work, and I didn’t want her to feel discouraged. I must have done an okay job, because despite my new nickname, she asked me to look over her final draft too. I hope my suggestions helped her. There is a huge difference between the criticism I provided in the example above, and offering unsolicited discouraging feedback to total strangers. When a stranger posts their writing online, and I think there is room for improvement, I scroll past it saying nothing. Only if someone has specifically asked for critique is it appropriate to provide it. If someone isn’t prepared or interested in your feedback, you will only do harm, even if the intention is good.

"Stay off of tiktok", got the message loud and clear 🙃

Hey! Did not expect to see my own face here 😭 but I completely agree. I feel as though this situation has gotten worse as of a few months ago and it’s really discouraging to see so much hate on TikTok now. I would say now the biggest issue with the TikTok art community is this new “artstyle trend” where we are now grouping peoples works into styles. It completely strips away any individuality from the artist but if anyone decides to hate on that art-style (like jelly or cream soda style) everyone under that category instantly gets ridiculed and ran off the website. It honestly makes me not want to post at all. But thanks for using your platform and bringing this to light!

Art lore sounds like another way for kids to display their sociopathic tendencies holy f

This gives me flashbacks to when I posted a yt short of a drawing I made, and then literally got bullied into changing my artstyle…

I really do not understand how you can actively hate on beginner artists in their video's comment sections. Any beginner artist sharing their art is so brave for doing so. And they should not be randomly insulted or laughed at for not being born a professional artist. Everyone was at a point where their art just wasn't developed as much. So every artist should be able to relate to beginner artists. Motivate them, tell them they are doing a great job. You don't need to lie and say "that anatomy is perfect", but just say something nice if you really want to comment. Their art may not be a master piece in your eyes, but everyone starts somewhere.

Man, imagine if Pablo Picasso was on tiktok. We would have missed the entire cubism movement because he would have been bullied into not making anymore art.

Art styles are like fingerprints or handwriting and most people start somewhere. Social media trends are really ridiculous to me

I dislike a lot of my old art but I always look at it in terms of how far I’ve come. Everyone has rough patches but if you antagonize people about that it dosent help anybody.

The disproportionate and 'ugly' style of that one person actually isn't that bad and it breaks my heart that people were so horrible to them. ESPECIALLY because the guy who did Rugrats, As Told By Ginger and a lot of other shows, had a very similar style and those were very big, very beloved franchises that were loved BECAUSE they were unique and expressive. I hope that person is happy with their current art style, but they should in no way be embarrassed by their old one. It wasn't ugly, it was just different and I wonder how it would have evolved if they were just left alone

People need to leave children/beginners the fuck alone. I've seen things like this in all kinds of communities, but it's especially sad to see in the art community. Art is literally the most subjective and beautiful thing human beings have, how have we stooped so low

i also wanna mention how god awful instagram reels comments sections are for beginner artists. it's so disheartening, especially since its so easy to have a reel blow up on that app.

it's videos like this that make me so grateful that, in my beginner artist phase, i posted my art on a supportive discord server with really kind people and not tiktok

I'm not really on art tiktok but from what ive seen of it people are soooo quick to attack things that are either 'cringe' OR something overly mainstream. i think the way we heavily curate social media with our best content first has definitely given people ridiculously high standards, unlike how it was in the 2000s where you could post your shitty mspaint oc on deviantart in relative peace lmao

0:06 bro people are bullying others for being confident?? I’ve been confident in my skills for so long but getting bullied for it?? Seriously?? Being confident is how I make my art faster bro 😭

It is incredibly sad how this stuff is continuing to progress further and further, I miss the times when artists got along and were able to create wonderful things completely and blissfully unbothered. Its also really sad when it comes to specific fandoms, especially if you are genuinely a good person who just happened to like drawing a specific thing (example being Genshin Impact), but the rest of a fandom ruins it for you, or ruin's their fandom's reputation so much, that you are lumped in with them by default

Step 1: Stay off Tiktok Step 2: See step 1

The special thing about art is that it's not perfect.

I learned pretty quickly to help others improve rather than criticize. When I took my college course for drawing, a lot of people there were beginners and seeing them improve and grow throughout the semester was incredible. They were always willing to accept feedback from those who have been drawing for far longer. It's baffling seeing this kinda shit happen when I'm so used to seeing such a positive community. At least where I lived and went to school.

Don't post your shit for strangers. Post for friends. Your friends will support your art journey every step of the way. Especially if they're artists as well.

As a young and beginner artist ive honestly just given up and showing people my art. I always am afraid people will judge and criticize me. I also think my art looks bad because it dosent stand to the art stereotype. Its the same with doing Gacha, everyone bullies people who post stuff like that especially beginners. Like, its sad. Very very sad. I still do draw just not as much as i used too.

I came across an artist and she was like around 11-13 and she was just showing her art (she was a beginner) she got so much hate and "new art lore dropped" I felt so bad for her

When I was younger, my brother would just tell me everything that is wrong with my art when I wanted to show my parents. I then stopped showing people my art unless it was at school and became super self conscious of my work. It wasn't until recently where people online were telling me they enjoy my style that I started becoming a bit more confident in my work. People just being unnecessarily rude towards usually children will just make these people not want to do art.

this is why im barely active in the art community, i do post but i dont really interact with others and when i do its mostly smaller artists. the art community has always been toxic and probably always will be but i hope people can find their own group witin the community

this video helped me SO MUCH i have a cartoon type style, but then with more realistic shading. i like drawing this way its fun to draw and to look at. but people kept on telling me that i needed to learn anatomy because my art is too simple, then they did similar things that i see done in this video with the "artlore" thank you so so much for bringing this to light, because i've not finished a drawing in 3 years, desperately trying to "fix" my art to their liking and not to mine, it was not fun. but thanks to you i have the courage to have fun in art again thank you :)

Remember when the government gave us false hope and said they were shutting down TikTok. God I wish they went through with it. 😔

i'm actually so glad that i didn't post my art on tiktok.. i feel bad for the other beginner artists (like me) who have been bullied off of the platform. i might never have a tiktok account because of what's happening in the art community

Can there be an “anti-artlore” trend where artist who know what they’re talking about takes the same art image used in an artlore tic tok and make short commending the art/artist then in a nice, tactful way, say something like, “ hey nice attempt here, your stylization is fun and a little weird. If you’d like to level up, here is what you can do.” ?

I think this is a reason why I NEVER post my art on tiktok because the art community is so toxic it doesn't even feel safe for beginner artists. How do you expect one to improve if you bully a beginner because they still haven't grasp the proper skills??? It's messed up!!

Most of the people insulting these artists probably aren’t even artists themselves

I remember when like almost half of the class made fun of me because i was testing artstyles they were say it's weird and ugly but i had good comments but those people who made fun of me couldn't even draw . I was just confused

I remember some bullying going on online back in the early days of the art Internet community, but honestly most of it was irl, like if your art got around to your high school, not inside the actual communities of artists, you know? Like I don't remember kids getting bullied on DVA for drawing neon sparkle dogs, using bases, etc.. I'm sure it did happen (and I certainly do remember some silly gatekeeping/judging going on) but overall the sites or groups in them were safe places for kids/teens to express themselves. And yeah, honestly the use of ' cringe ' has become just another way to bully... it's a word you use for something you look down on, or that makes you uncomfortable, but you otherwise have no reason to hate, and causes no harm to anybody. I feel for any of the weird kids growing up with this kind of environment... It seems like there aren't a lot of art spaces online that haven't changed for the worst (or imploded/died) in that regard.

Kind of reminds me of being in 4th grade and jealous my classmate could draw better than I could. Like I took it as a personal attack but I was also like 9 years old... I hope these are just kids being asses to each other and not whole grown adults displaying this type of behavior. But on TikTok, you never can tell...

TikTok's art community sounds like an out of control kindergarten class. I wanna go in there and use my dad voice to settle them down. Great video, thanks for shining a light on this.

Thank God I left tiktok, not because of how toxic the community is, because how exhausting it is to post videos constantly

you really never know how a style will develop and the more I've seen the original of the "rendering process" one, the more it looks fine, you literally just have to get use to it. Imagine if these people tried to apply "art lore" to Matt Groenings shows or heck, Adventure Time?? they'd lose their minds..

I used to love drawing, and i can say i think i was pretty good. But at the time i was unsatisfied after seeing my level compared to other artists and lost all confidence and destroyed all the work i did. And now years later i'm so out of practice i can't even hold a candle to my old works. Even without being mocked online it's so easy to get frustrated and depressed. Even if i don't like the art i can't imagine putting another artist through what i did to myself

I use ArtTok occasionally if I need inspo or if I’m trying to draw the bane of my existence (hands). The bullying is REAL. It’s awful. Saw a girl getting bullied because she used a slightly too light of a shade on her fanart (it’s not like she can magically color pick it traditionally). It was maybe a shade lighter and you couldn’t really tell, unless they were super closely examined. She was getting so much hate.

I think that featured clip at 4:18 perfectly sums up why this new "ArtLore" BS is... well, BS. "But artlore isn't about bullying new artists, it's about calling out terrible human beings in the art community it's just an add on that their art is bad." Ironically, that quote comes from a TikTokker using a blatantly awful style and chicken scratch. They're also dismissing the inherent bigotry of artlore itself (any human is capable of change, I firmly believe this). Most artists with "bad" art are, indeed, beginners. Most art beginners are literal children who may not know any better than being "terrible human beings" (and what an awful title to force upon CHILDREN). They may have had one point though: Maybe artlore "isn't about bullying new artists"--it's about harassing minors and spreading misinformation and bigotry.

I cant understand how artist mfs can act so wholesome and cutesy in the art community then 5 seconds later be toxic as hell and go witchhunt someone off a platform

I'm not surprised something like this would happen because the art community is full of nice people not good people.

I remember when I was in the animation meme comunity/animatics and wanted to make silly animations so bad and post them online but I was too scared to be called cringe so I just did them and never posted them. That's why I always encourage kids online when they post their art, no one should be ashamed of drawing for fun.

I'm so glad i don't use TikTok

i normally use my art as a way to vent since i have trouble expressing my feelings and i used to hate my art and i still kinda do now but back then i found it hard to draw how i really felt. But because i was given encouragement i was able to improve my art and able to better draw my feelings. And I'm so glad I've never had to deal with these sort of people. I honestly would've probably quit art because of it, i honestly feel so bad for all those who have to with this. Its ridiculous.

Does anybody use the term "pro-shipper" unironically who is mature enough to take seriously as a critic of... anything? The first I encountered it was teenagers getting mad about the age gap in the ship between the over-30-year-old leads of a show about a cannibal serial killer. But seriously, everybody should just get off Tiktok, nothing good comes of trying to build a community on a site that happily surfaces stuff to you based on how many people like you got mad at it.

Say it with me, everybody! Critique is not always necessary and can be harmful if done incorrectly or in the wrong setting! Just because it's public doesn't mean you need to make a public comment on it!

I literally stopped art for the longest time because of all the criticism for artists online. I've recently started drawing again (thank you Mohammed for the inspiration) and I'm slowly regaining my skill and learning more. Seeing just how horrible the tiktok art community is through a lense like this does help me feel more confident in my art

Seeing stuff like this makes me even more glad that I don't bother with TikTok at all. It's too easy for people to be a-holes online and get away with it. Love your points, btw! You always provide the human perspective. Your channel is comforting.

I despise how much of a trend this trashy behaviour has become, I literally cant grow as an artist due to this behaviour being so normalised and hurting artists such as myself. Instagram is also so rude about this stuff. Twitter has its issues but atleast had a bit of support there

hey man not to be creepy but have you ever tried asmr your voice is really soothing, and I feel like it could make a good side hustle for u. Happy new year btw!!!!

I find that not having Tiktok makes my life a lot easier.

this is why posting your art on RU-vid or Pinterest is way better

At this point I'm not sure why Tiktok even still has an art community. Just seems like such a terrible experience being on there, and it's damaging to the well-being of young and growing artists. I feel people go on tiktok solely to bully others and find enjoyment in that, which is sad.

The art community has always been toxic (even the old masters fought like crazy and art critics were cruel) but social media has given people who don’t have anything kind to say an even bigger platform. When can the art community just be artists complimenting and helping out other artists?

Something everyone should know and remember: *One man's trash is another man's treasure and not everyone has the same preference.*

Note to self: never post art on TikTok Never interact with those brain dead children artist who are on tiktok

TikTok''s art community by far is the most toxic one I have seen. Specially to beginner artists who are TRYING to improve but instead get called names, slurs, bullied, or even accused of being something awful just because their art style "Looks" like something Use the "Proshipper" art style issue as an example for that So many young artists ended up quitting due to how toxic the art community on that site is.

Thank you for talking about this.

Agree 100% I think there should be some sort of unspoken or spoken rule for us artists that unless someone is being actually problematic and hurtful, we should just be kind to each other and have some empathy, especially towards beginner artists. We should rather praise each other for trying to make something instead of breaking each other down. Love your vids, Mohammed!

Never heard of art lore.........this is weird........i feel old. I was literally bullied to tears recently. Now it makes sense......

Your channel has brought me a lot of comfort, you put emphases on art being unique and your own, what I previously saw as flaws because it isn't like most art I am now learning to see as my style. I no longer wish to live up to what's online but I just wanna be happy with my own art.

We all know the phrase “Rome wasn’t built in a day” nor were professional artists. So my question is.. why are there full grown adults who are out here bullying children, children who have had *half* the experience they have. And if a child posts one of their artworks, it’s obvious that they would have been pretty proud of it, otherwise.. why would they have posted it? So if people are going to make fun of children’s artwork and get views from them literally bullying a minor, I just think that’s really messed up.

1:09 i was about to send this video to my friend because she always makes weird drawings and then gives me a loredump for an hour about it

I’ve been waiting for this so long 👹👹👹

I didnt need another reason to avoid tik tok like the black plague but thats for reaffirming what I already knew, that the site is a cess pool of just the most awful people you can find on the internet

I’m glad I grew up with deviantart, but i still didn’t post my art all that much because I didn’t think it was good enough. I stopped drawing for years, and now I’m not even sure I care about art anymore. I can’t imagine being 13 right now, or even 33 starting to draw for the first time, and seeing this crap online from other artists, especially artists one idolizes.

Great video! I know you use it all the time but can't help but point out how funny it is that you used Bully sountrack in this video lmao

Never heared of art lore but NICE VIDEO KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK ! AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

hello there im a 15 yr old beginner and i ve been watching your vids i must say they are really helpful and you just earnedd a SUBB !!! yours truly a young persorn ;)

I feel that ppl nowadays thought their opinion is... important to be shared. And by this is including their opinion and right to mocking other. Back in my days (lol) the 'don't like don't read' was ingrained in our bones. (In most case. Fandom drama always happen lol). We knew this and that we like this we follow we dislike that we ignore/block. I think the common sense to respect each other is weird thing to these loud ppl. And tbh with how TIkTok made, I personally think any community should never use TIkTok. Also Genshin Impact attract more ppl outside the 'fandom'. Half of them are young (usually) westerner who have no idea about eastern fandom culture. I always baffled how these kind of ppl (and sometimes younger easterner) think their opinion is super important and have no ability to digest context whatsoever. That's why Genshin fandom was seen as toxic. Loud ppl is loud you know.

In the early 2010s there existed tumblr blogs that would make fun of OCs/art made by (usually) children. I got on a homestuck cringe blog once, lol. This reminds me of that but in a different form.

As a complete outsider looking in only via your channels great videos, this feels cyclical. At this point I think social media as a whole is doomed for posting art. I feel like the only feasible way the art community could get past this is if there was a heavily moderated place on social media where artists could feel free to post their work without receiving unwanted criticism.

This reminds me of the drawer trend on yt shorts, they are really annoying, take a compliment and there’s no need to hate on people for a simple compliment

You just give more reasons to stay away of TikTok. Thank you!

This is making me happy I don’t have TikTok, it’s so sad how people put down others instead of lifting them up even though they started out like that too

Once I thought about sharing my art on tiktok but after hearing all the things that go on in there remind me of the clique of kids and sometimes adult groups from our deviantArt meetings back in like 2008 would treat us like we were garbage for not knowing anatomy. It created a shame when sharing art with one another and that builds and creates a lot of trauma in relation to art. Multiplying it by a thousand on a platform where people dogpile on you has to be so much worse cause at least I remember the faces of the people who would do that and avoided them in my day to day. There's a lot of actual research and digging that has to be done in terms of what censorship by bullying is bringing to the table in the last year or so tho (a much bigger conversation). With social media we opened a macro cosmos of people dogpiling on each other cause a lot have forgotten that ignoring and moving on when it's not hurting anybody is an option.

Good video! I have some points about, for example: TikTok shouldn't be valued as a platform for artists, it doesn't offer much besides the option to monetize videos. Children shouldn't be on social media either. Finally, when posting, we should be aware of the bad things that could be said. I don't sympathize in any way with the way the TikTok community behaves, but there are simple attitudes that could solve this problem, which doesn't work because it's the internet after all.

Literally unless someone's art is somehow harmful, there is no reason to bash on them 😭 Luckily I haven't run into the art side of tiktok yet when I've been posting, but it's probably only a matter of time ... could be I'm just not using the hashtag, which in that case I might just keep it that way. I may have been drawing for 14 years, but I am not a professional and I still need to use references a lot for poses and ideas.

I really love your perspective, you take a nice calm perspective, and you really meter how you treat a lot of these people. Theyre kids, most of the time, and you really bring your maturity oto the table. However, can I beg you to grab a pop filter for your mic ; O; Just helps dampen the "puffy" sounds in B and P sounds. Your voice is lovely!!! And your opinions are pretty straight on, and Im happy youre bringing a calm, "adult" pov to the art comm.

Art lore is so sad 😭

Why is everyone so chronically online? You can block or delete comments, you know? or just ignore it...