Don’t think I don’t love posting here, but posting art made in other software doesn’t sit quite well with me since it’s a Krita forum after all!
So, I was wondering, what are your platforms of choice to post to? I’ve traversed a lot of websites throughout the years, migrating and moving all over like a web nomad, but now I’ve settled mostly on Cara, a Misskey fork (while the file hosting goes on catbox.moe), I pop over to artfol mostly to lurk, and I use threads/bluesky whenever I want to keep up to date with some of my favorite artists that aren’t quite as into foss/free web projects — whether due to just preferring the bigger reach on mainstream platforms, or just not having enough energy to move again.
What are your places of choice? Do you even trust any site anymore (as I’ve seen some artists completely abandon posting due to all the relativeky recent happenings… : - ( )?
Best is to create an own website showing your portfolio, because you never know how long it takes till a friendly seeming anti-social media platform turns evil. The only secure platform is Mastodon, everything else is a question of different high risks you are willing to take, currently I would only think about Bluesky or Cara if you dislike the relatively secure Mastodon, but best will be your own site.
That is a really relevant question these days! I agree with everything @Michelist stated. At the moment I am mostly creating video art so the only platform I am actively uploading my work is Youtube and it’s not quite as bad as the Meta social networks. But I’ll share some thoughts anyway:
Mastodon is a good network, but personally I don’t feel like it’s suitable for sharing art due to it’s twitter-esque structure. I have tried but wasn’t comfortable with it.
Generally it’s always a balance between how much you want to sacrifice for reach
Do you want to have a small community to share your work with? (e.g. mastodon)
Do you want strangers to be able to see your work? (e.g. instagram)
Do you just want to upload just for personal use (e.g. website)
Cara also seems like a really interesting alternative, especially with the integrated AI protection. Hadn’t got the energy to commit to moving to a new network again yet though.
Personally I am becoming more and more tired of all the negative developments recently. In hope for what the future may bring. (maybe an actual competitor for Meta or Google)
When I started doing digital art I shared it on DeviantArt. Now if I publish something I usually do it on ArtStation or if it’s fan-art also on the Steam community of the game.
I don’t really care if someone downloads it and uses it. Or if they train an AI with it. If they mention me in the post, perfect. If it bothers me, I’ll report it and that’s it. It’s not going to keep me awake at night either. I do it as a hobby and above all, for myself. I have my tricks to prove that a work is mine and I always keep the original files with all the layers to prove it even more.
Mastodon for social media. Very chill, I like it. I want to test bridging to Bsky when my instance admins sort out their position about it.
Technically I have a Tumblr blog but the deluge of bots in 2022-2023 and the way it changed made me fairly inactive. I was never a fan of their content management stance but at least they have tools to disallow search engine crawling and lock down blogs. Still a good platform for references hoarding and art knowledge.
I’m hoping to use Cara as my main portfolio platform. I’d be nice to see more companies using it. It’s rough on the edges and I have concerns about their viability but their heart seems in the right place for now.
Platforms I left:
Artstation. It got me in touch with most work opportunities and I had a not huge but significant audience, but it got worse over the years, their enthusiastic embrace of AI slop being the last straw. I don’t trust them at all.
DeviantART. Joined as a teenager, also had some audience. UIX was never good. It also generated work opportunities.
Facebook. Also joined as a teenager (that was pre-twitter guys!) but I was never comfortable there and left ages ago when it became obvious they were very unethical. Similar to DA, but scarily large audience, and engagement was very weird.
I don’t think there’s anywhere you can trust enough to post and forget about it. Anyone, any company who isn’t you, can change their minds and to turn out to be unethical, so what matters to me is how they’ve acted in the past and act now. The promise of good behavior is just a promise.
I used to keep my own site but quite frankly? It was never worth it, only the custom email domain. I’ve got more scrappers sourcing their reposts from my self-maintained portfolio than work opportunities.
If you are interested in the Simplified Chinese environment, you can try posting to Sina Weibo or Lofter. Xiaohongshu is also OK (although I don’t like Xiaohongshu).
（如果你对简体中文环境感兴趣，您可以试着发表至新浪微博或者Lofter。小红书也可以（虽然我不喜欢小红书）。）
And you can see this…
Very nice to see some fresh povs when it comes to this!
I’ve enough energy to throw in my 2 cents into the discussion:
Mastodon might be “secure”, but you need to trust your instance admins. If you make your own instance, you need to keep up with the “fedi meta” which is frankly exhausting. The drama that sometimes unfolds there is such an energy drain that I’ve left a few times because I could no longer handle the petty squabbles.
That said, while I don’t like Mastodon’s UI in general, I do love Misskey and it’s forks so I stay there.
Deviantart was perfect in the past, but it fell off so badly. It’s kind of gut wrenching to see my childhood crumble like this, in a way.
Artstation I don’t feel like I can trust. I’ve always been a tad iffy, but the AI flood and the artist bans have really scared me off of there; now it’s just an archive of stuff I bought from people’s stores.
Insta is bad. As in, a horrid experience. I’m there just to follow some folk, but posting there has been a nightmare. Threads is better but it sucks that a lot of fedi has defederated from it; I get it, but at the same time, I feel like it’s just lowkey scaring off new people that could be interested in fedi
Tumblr is fine. It’s nothing special nowadays I feel, but fandoms still are going strong over there. Original art has a much worse reach though, imho.
Bluesky is alright. The weird fights between fedi / BS are unfortunate but expected, but most of the artists I know use either BS, Cara, or Threads, so again, I don’t really have a choice if I want to keep up to date with my peers.
FB is… insane. It’s interesting in a weird way. Most of my local/ polish in general events & artist groups operate on FB and IG so I am left with no choice and have to be there to engage in local communities. It’s unfortunate and sometimes using both feels like pulling nails, but I just have to grit my teeth and go forward.
Personal websites are a mixed bag. I love webmastery and tinkering on my little Linode server, so a personal site is more of a fun experience to me than an actual portfolio showcase. I get minimal reach from there either way, but again, I don’t care that much about it.
Cara is a new personal baby of mine. I obviously don’t trust any host that isn’t me/ my close friend, but the goals are noble and I wish the team all the best. I do hope that it never goes bad, but as we know, history rhymes; so I just hope that it stays as it is for as long as it can.
X is just bad. I don’t feel like I’m looking at a site anymore, in a way; just a corpse of what used to be.
That’s the main sites checked off. Now, for maybe some more niche ones, or just art-related sites:
Kofi and Patreon remain as some of my favs to interact with creators. I’m more of a Kofi fan, though. It’s solid for posting art and keeping a semi-blog, but it sucks that there’s basically no reach; you already need a fanbase since discovery+search is not that good.
Pixiv is… fine. Passable. It’s alright if you post anime I guess, but more original (style-wise) works get quickly drowned out.
Artfol is surprisingly friendly. I enjoy lurking there, and the community is fun, but there’s mostly young people and less-experienced artists in my experience. It’s alright, but I wish there was more, in a way.
Funny story, I actually did make a weibo account! I haven’t heard about Lofter, but it seems interesting. I’m interested in CN as a language in and of itself, so while at the moment things look very confusing and I don’t really understand what people say most of the time, I love reaching new communities like this. Exploring art outside of your country/ non-eng artists is always super fun, and in some cases, it’s good to get a completely new point of view. So far I’ve only had experience on pixiv/ Naver/ Weibo, as those are the main trio specifically for non-english speakers. I’m always open to exploring other countries’ art sites, though – unfortunately I had no luck finding more than these three. I know not every country has their own hub of sorts, but it is a bit sad! It’s hard to “tailor” algorithms with places like X, since it’s just forcing you to see “local” happenings, or “things you might like”… but it will never let you see something foreign, completely new and maybe even strange to you, which is precisely what I want to see.
That is all from me! As an accidental website nomad, I’ve seen enough from all walks of life and all sorts of people to know that there’s no one, single, best solution for everyone, but I turn my hopeful gaze towards the future and silently wish for all artists to find a place for themselves eventually.
I engage directly with other users there and don’t get involved in inter-server politics, so other than any boneheaded decisions the admins of my instance may take I’m fairly insulated from drama.
I stopped actively using Artstation before the AI debacle (simply didn’t return from hiatus when it happened) so I’m not aware of artists bans. Really??
I didn’t include creators and POD platforms, but:
I’ve been briefly on Patreon. Nothing exactly wrong with it but I get the same vibes I get from Artstation: faceless corporation that’s on the forefront of their niche because they got in at the right moment. Not really the little guys’ friend (they already implemented some squeezes in their history), and I care a lot about young and upcoming artists.
Kofi feels more caring about small creators. I got one but I’m using it more like a not-portfolio art and resources dump than a store or sub service. All my traditional sketches, small weird blender things are there. It’s true you get zero reach from the platform itself.
Gumroad… Used that in the past but can’t trust them with their CEO stances and their changes of pricing (always squeezing) every other year. Huge pressed-by-investors-and-debts vibes from them. That’s why I’m using Kofi to share resources instead.
Print on Demand:
Society6 and Redbubble. Nope nope, run away and fast. Save for another black swan disruption like the pandemic they’ll go under in the upcoming years. They’ve become very hostile to artists because they’re desperate for money, never posted a profit for the majority of their existence, and exist in first place because they were venture-propped companies in a period of very easy money.
InPRNT is the one I’ve used for years. I’ve heard complaints about sluggishness to reply to support requests but I’ve never had issues. They were the most artist-friendly service even when S6 and RB were in their peak and awash with money.
Fine Art America. Never used and I have a slightly negative impression about them but I can’t remember why.
They’re not venture-backed and always have posted profits so they shouldn’t go under or go for aggressive squeezes of their artists any time soon.
This is exactly the vibe I get. Not everyone has moved to Ko-fi, so I’m stuck over there still, but even the UI changes over the years have been… annoying, to say the least.
Also very unfortunately stuck on that one. It’s the only platform I know of that has purchasing power parity, while places like Ko-fi or Patreon only display different currencies and do nothing else. It sucks, but what else can you do!
Ah yes, my old friends and worst enemies. I hate both with a burning passion, and am slowly just moving over to eg. Gelato. I’m having trouble finding a POD that offers more variety in their products without being of absolutely horrid quality, though… sigh.
InPRNT has been a good old friend of mine. I never really had any issues, but then again, I barely ever get sales; most of my sales come from… digital journal stickers on KR/ semi-kr sites So I pretty much know nothing about stores offering shirts/ prints/ etc.
It’s good to keep your points in mind, though! Still, I think my best bet is just my own store so I know what’s the quality of the print and materials; it’s all handmade, after all. It’s so energy/time-consuming, though, so I keep putting it off as I’ve other things to worry about.
I’ve heard t-shirts sell the least. Off the top of my head of not-print products stickers tended to sell more often, and I think products like totes and phone cases might also sell. I can look at my old RB and S6 sales later to confirm.
I’ve never sold lots of stuff, always kept these services so people who know my work and really wanted stuff with it could get them. Over many years it was significant money, but month-by-month that’s coffee money. And I also hate both services with a passion. They’re very predatory.
With that said, I honestly can’t wait to launch a few charms & stickers in my store. They won’t be POD, but I just want to share cute little trinkets from Ko-fi; since I was sick I had no energy to work on those but now that I’m back on track, I’m so hype!
I have a similar store experience. I can’t say I’m good at marketing so the stores were always more of a fun side thing to me. Like, if someone wants a cute print on a bag or hoodie, they can get one from me and that’s great!
With how much of a cesspool redbubble has become I kind of gave up, though.
Outside of a personal website controlled only by me, I like newgrounds for posting art. Unlike say twitter or facebook, tom fulp isn’t out to seek profit but keep maintaining a small community he’s been building since the mid 90s.
How could I forget Newgrounds! It’s not my personal best pick, but I do like how the site still keeps going strong.
Although, coming back to POD, I was wondering if anyone has experience with Customcat, Spreadshirt, and Gelato specifically? I really want a simple POD to go along with my Ko-fi, but finding the right platform for it has been such a hassle. There’s a lot of mixed opinions and reviews on all of them, but I’d mainly like if things were kept simple & easy to access for users, while keeping a kinda wide range of products to print. Finding something that offers at least a small part of Society6’s product catalog has been a real nightmare.
So I pretty much know nothing about stores offering shirts/ prints/ etc.