In today’s podcast, we are giving you 31 ideas of how to share your art on social media and in real life! It’s not always easy for us to find new ways to share things without being repetitive, but you don’t always just have to share your physical art. There are lots of different ways you can engage your audience.
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Ask your followers for suggestions
So one really good place to start is to ask your followers for suggestions of what to draw/paint next. I think people love to feel like they are part of the process, so allowing them to get involved in some way is a great way of engaging with your audience.
Share where you find your inspiration
Something else you can do, is to share where you find your inspiration – So as an example, I made a short video of me showing the crushed coke can that I almost threw in the bin, but then realised it would be lovely to paint, so I talked about that. But be imaginative. I could share myself polishing off a bottle of wine ‘for research puposes’… People love that stuff!
Photograph your workspace
This could be a distant view or focussing on on some of your materials in your workspace.
Photograph or video yourself working or near your art
You could do this in an over the shoulder type of view or from in front of you. Check out an artist called Carmel Jenkin on Instagram for this, she is brilliant at photos and videos of herself with her work.
I while ago I tried a tip from another artist Andrea Ehrhardt (ep 86) who suggested photographing yourself in front of a plain background holding or next to your art. You can batch do a load at once. If you work the same size you can also photograph yourself with a blank canvas and photoshop your painting in later.
Show close up detail of your work
Show close up detail of your work on Social media and ask your audience to guess what it is. Or you could create a short close up video of you painting a small area. People love guessing games and again, it’s a great way of getting your followers to engage with you.
You could also show your work in progress
I do this a fair bit on my instagram.
Share secrets or tips about your process
for instance I like to use kiddie sponge brushes and I make my background faces by drawing with the dropper bottle top.
Share problems you experience and how you solve them
Talk about your favourite materials
While you’ve got a piece of work on the go, take the opportunity to talk about your favourite art materials, maybe do a little demonstration or review. These things don’t take much time if you’re already working on something, it’s not like you’ve got to set something up.
Ask your audience for feedback
You could even ask your audience for feedback – Is it finished?
Create a time-lapse of your process, from start to finish
This is something I pretty much always do now. As well as being good for social media, it’s also useful to look back and see how you achieved an effect. I started off filming all my timelapses horizontal (or I tried to shoot vertical and horizontal at the same time)but have now switched to vertical as I am finding that works better for instagram and is fine for Twitter and Facebook too.
Ask your audience—What’s the story behind this piece… Or, what’s the caption?
Eva Falck-Wall Simpson does this sometimes. She creates a drawing of people which starts off as random lines and then asks people to come up with a story
You could ask for ideas for a title for your latest piece
I mean I wouldn’t do this personally, because I love coming up with titles but I know there are a lot of artists out there that don’t enjoy that.
Ask your audience to vote on a frame
Ask your audience to vote on a frame, using one of those mock-up apps. And those apps are a brilliant way to show your audience how your art might look framed on a wall.
Create a simple tutorial
This could be as simple as showing the material in your hand with a bit of text and then showing how you use it.
Share throw-backs
There is something called Throwback Thursday on Instagram and this is a great time to show off some of your older artwork that you like.
Post the same piece of art in interesting ways
Post the same piece of art in interesting ways. It doesn’t always have to be a boring face on cropped shot… I’ve seen some lovely examples of this on instagram… You could show your work on it’s easel or with your art tools… You could show it propped on a dressed surface… maybe with a plant, a cup of coffee and some fairy lights… You could be holding the piece… be creative!
Share how best to hang and display art in your home
Another thing you could do is share how best to hang and display art in your home…. It’s always great if you can show your piece displayed in a real environment.
Talk about your favourite book
You could video yourself flicking through some pages or photograph a few pages of your favourite art book and talk over the top.
Talk about the artists who inspire you
You could make a post talking about the artists who inspire you. Perhaps you could share some of their art and tag them in the post
Share your own favourite piece and talk about why you like it
Maybe there’s a story behind it you could share.
Share what you do when you are not creating
It doesn’t always have to be about the art. People like to get to know the artist too. Maybe a clip of you walking your dog and taking a break from the easel.. I recently made a video of myself cleaning my art studio!
Do a Facebook Live Q & A
Now I am not quite sure if I am brave enough for this yet, what about you Sandra?
I do like something that Anna Zubarev does which is to talk art with another artist live on Instagram while they are both making art.
Collect testimonials
Collect testimonials about your art and share them to Social Media
Share you packing process
You could share you packing process… something I wish I had done when I was packing my painting to send to London.
You could offer advice on how to care for an artwork
You could share studio tips
How you clean your brushes, for example.
Be vulnerable about your process and your life as an artist
You could talk about the things that have gone wrong or how you are feeling if you are having a slump.
Ask to hang yout art in a local gallery or coffee shop
And it doesn’t have to be all about social media. Ask to hang your work in local cafes, pubs or gallery’s. Just make sure you trust them to look ater it!
Have an artist’s newsletter
Another thing you can do is to have a newsletter that people can sign up for. That’s a great way of keeping people updated on on new work and reminding people that you are still creating art!
Just start sharing…
Support us on Kofi
This week’s creative question
If you could change your Artist name to something else, what would it be and why?
The best answers will be read out on a future podcast.
You can Tweet us your answers @KickCreatives or let us know in the Facebook Group, which by the way if you haven’t already joined, I highly recommend that you do! We will put the question up there and also on the Facebook page… and of course, on our Instagram page @kickinthecreatives.
If you have any suggestions for the podcast or our challenges please feel free to get in touch.
