For the past few years, social media has become an amazing place for the art community. Millions of people everyday can share their work, engage with others and get constructive feedback on their creations. Most notably, sites such as Instagram have become a place where creative people can gain large followings and potentially get their work noticed by employers.  

Art and illustration have been huge passions of mine since I was young and drawing became a persistent hobby as I grew up. It wasn’t until secondary school that I started to take it more seriously, though. As I’ve developed in my education, I’ve discovered that art is a hobby I really want to turn into a career and I have hopes of becoming a full-time illustrator in the future. So, last year, I decided to create an Instagram account solely for my art and have learnt a few tips along the way.

Top tips for promoting your art on Instagram:

• Popular hashtags

Hashtags are important on all social media, as they’re great ways for like-minded people to find similar interests. On Instagram, it’s one of the best tools for promoting your artwork. Using popular hashtags in your posts can give you the most exposure and help you gain likes and eventually more followers. As an example, I commonly use #illustration (with about 73 million posts everyday) and #digital art - this has about 21 million posts everyday. 

• Composition of photos

Presentation of your work is key on social media, especially Instagram, where the main focus is on visuals. When I create traditional art, I always make sure to take my photos in bright, natural sunlight. I’ve found that this type of lighting really makes colours pop and highlights the details in my work. It can also help to place some of your tools around the art piece, in a dynamic and interesting way, as this makes the photo more engaging.

• Engage with other artists

When I first created my art account I would often post an image and that would be it. I soon realised that this wasn’t the best way of promoting my art, as social media is a two-way street. You’re more likely to gain likes and comments when you start engaging with other artists and interacting with your followers, as this shows your appreciation for them.

• Post regularly

Posting consistently on Instagram is a good way of gaining traction on the site, however, be careful not to overdo it. When I first created my account, I felt that posting very frequently was the best way to do this. Although, from a recent post, I’ve learnt that quality over quantity is often best.

• Take part in challenges

Instagram challenges are when someone sets a theme to a photo with a specific hashtag and challenges others to respond in their own way. Some of these are supposed to be done daily and weekly and I’ve found that they can be great to participate in when suffering from artist block. I also love taking part in these as they’re fun ways of improving your skills and increasing engagement with other accounts.

I hope you found some of these tips useful and if you did, please check out my Instagram at tolu_d3_art!