12-04-2023, 11:52 PM
(12-04-2023, 05:58 AM)Lunatique Wrote: Thank you for the kind words. I've had a few artists on Artstation message me and tell me they don't understand why I have so few followers when I should have far more, especially when I was one of the well-known digital artists back in the day. It can be disheartening if you dwell on it or if it's directly tied to your livelihood.
I think partly it's because I took a break from doing art seriously for about ten years to focus on music and writing, and in that time so many upcoming artists established themselves, and just like in all other forms of art, the available of information on the Internet, in books, and in classrooms have grown exponentially, allowing the younger artists to learn and grow very effectively and surpass many of the artists of the previous generation. Also, trends change and I don't work in the trendy styles popular now--I just do what I'm interested in, which is kind of niche. But even within that narrow scope, there are artists who are much more well-known with impressive number of followers. I guess that's just how life is. The world is full of creatives who once led their field, then became obscure. I'm glad I at least had my day in the sun back then, and the truth is, I never really cared that much, not even back then, because how I feel about my own work was the most important thing, and I was never satisfied with my own work. Some people were vocal back then about how among the well-known digital artists,Ｉwas one of the least talented/proficient, and maybe they were right. Ultimately how we feel about our own work is what matters the most, and I continue to work to fulfill my aspirations
That's a very good attitude to have; the only one to have, really.
The whole gettin' popular thing is an odd subject now because it's a lot less meritocratic than you would think. A lot of artists that are massively popular right now (e.g. Loish, Artgerm) are so partially because they've been posting constantly since the days when there were a lot less people on the Internet and the average level of engagement was higher. You really only needed to be better than the bottom 50% of deviantart to start building a following. Now Caravaggio could make a post and it would just be another drop in the ocean that might be seen by 1 person.
I agree that the average level of skill among younger artists seems to be higher than it used to be thanks to the great availability of learning materials, but their works mostly have a derivative look that makes it seem like they all watched the same tutorials. I remember the art that I saw 10+ years ago as being mostly crappier but more memorable, and the ones who were good had much more distinctive styles and techniques on average. But maybe making derivative work is part of being young and I'm just being an asshole.
I'm guessing your 10 year break happened right when the transition to a mostly social media focused Internet was just about complete. From what other artists say, getting popular now seems to be a matter of either getting lucky and/or slowly building a following by doing commissions and/or being highly active on social media. I applaud people who can do that and still enjoy drawing; I couldn't.
Also, I completely forgot about that princess meme. No wonder that painting stuck out in my memory so much, LOL.
Yeah, this forum is all we've got. There aren't any other options I know of for people who prefer the older style of forums. One of the main things about Discord that bothers me is the fact that it's supplanted forums on all kinds of niche topics. When everyone was posting on forums, there was a lot more interesting information that could be publicly searched and read. You're not gonna easily find an enlightening Discord discussion thread on some obscure topic, even if the chatroom is public. Reddit serves this purpose somewhat, but it's just not as pleasant or as readable as the old forum format, and professionals (in art, at least) seem to prefer having private discord chatrooms. Professionals and noobs on the same website really seems to have been a one-off thing of the early-late 2000s.
At least one can still read parts of old forums on the wayback machine.