The app that was once used to post friendly photos, create fun feeds, and keep up with friends, has now turned into a cesspool of narcissism, unnecessary influencers, and tacky trends that change yearly. The app has what other social media apps didn't, and that was a visual layout. The grid style photo layout was perfect for photographers, artists, and creators to make a seamless and accessible portfolio. I am an artist on Instagram as well, and it's about time I spill the tea on how impossible Instagram has become for artists.
Notably, the Instagram algorithm has shifted dramatically in the recent years. Now the algorithm takes very minute detail into account, such as: number of likes, number of comments, profile history, types of hashtags, engagement, account activity and so on. The algorithm has stopped showing hashtagged photos and feeds in chronological order. This means that the larger accounts that average thousands of likes within minutes of posting always get to sit at the top of feeds, hashtags, and the explore page. This creates a very rigged monopoly against smaller accounts who will reasonably not average thousands of likes. Smaller accounts will get a smaller number of likes.
I am a very persistent person. I will try every tactic in the book before calling something out, and quite frankly after being on Instagram for a few years, it needs to be said. I've noticed countless articles, forums, and online discussions, chronicling the same pattern of struggles. This goes to show that I am not solely dealing with the wrath of Instagram.
But because of that, smaller accounts are constantly dubbed down and lost in the huge pool of posts. Smaller accounts are not getting exposure anymore, and no exposure means no growth. No growth means that you will never reach the point where you have thousands of followers and thousands of likes. That consequentially means that you will never rank on top spots and you will not be noticed.
Artists seem to take the brunt of this chaos. Running an art account on Instagram is may ways is far tougher than running a makeup account or a memes account. Makeup, fashion, lifestyle, and memes tend to trend well on Instagram. Art on the other hand does not. Generic posts of outfits, eyeshadows, and luxury goods are easy, trendy, and mainstream. Art requires a more niche taste and quite frankly more people would rather follow lush influencers and view their money ladden lifestyle than follow artists. Art also takes longer to curate than the casual outfit of the day post. Art requires planning, thought, and execution. The actual execution, whether it be paint, color pencils, digital, or markers, takes time. Instagram is a platform that rewards frequent posters. It is much easier to pile up tons of posts of makeup palettes and clothes than it is for art pieces. Many artists manage to post twice a week, while other niche accounts can post nearly everyday. This coupled with the algorithm really digs the grave for artists.
Now there is a form of art that is very trendy and mainstream. You have probably seen it in floating around in your explore page at some point. I call this the "Digital Art Girl" style. This is where artists draw just the face of a girl digitally and give her colorful hair, soft makeup, tons of highlighter, and some quirky expression. These art styles are dominating the art scene on Instagram. Why? Because they are palatable, simple, and typically don't require deep understanding of fine arts. Here is another reason. These "Digital Art Girl" drawings are usually of influencers, celebrities, or models. The artists that follow this style latch their art style on to influencers and models. In an essence, they enter the mainstream by making their art subjects females who are already very popular on Instagram. This art style perpetuates the idealistic standard of beauty set by Instagram "models," and its unnerving that even when you try to take a break from Instagram "influencers" or "models," you can't because they've seeped into art as well.
Now there is a form of art that is very trendy and mainstream. You have probably seen it in floating around in your explore page at some point. I call this the "Digital Art Girl" style. This is where artists draw just the face of a girl digitally and give her colorful hair, soft makeup, tons of highlighter, and some quirky expression. These art styles are dominating the art scene on Instagram. Why? Because they are palatable, simple, and typically don't require deep understanding of fine arts. Here is another reason. These "Digital Art Girl" drawings are usually of influencers, celebrities, or models. The artists that follow this style latch their art style on to influencers and models. In an essence, they enter the mainstream by making their art subjects females who are already very popular on Instagram. This art style perpetuates the idealistic standard of beauty set by Instagram "models," and its unnerving that even when you try to take a break from Instagram "influencers" or "models," you can't because they've seeped into art as well.
Some people love this style, some are on the fence about it. I am on the fence about this art style. On one hand its cute, colorful, and looks great, but on the other hand it is vapid, meaningless, and cliche. Being creative on Instagram is very tough. There are hundreds of art accounts that follow this exact "Digital Art Girl" style, and thats mainly because it does well. Other artists, who stick to other genres of art eventually feel the pressure as their engagements drop and their follower rate becomes stagnant. Most artists who do follow other genres or styles are not on Instagram, because they are aware of the monopoly this "Digital Art Girl" style holds.
I have experienced this myself. I love fashion designing and illustrating. I like to come up with my own garment ideas and then I digitally render them into nice illustrations. Your probably thinking, its fashion it has to do well! Well no it doesn't. Fashion Design in itself is a niche taste. There are a few famous fashion illustrators on Instagram, but most of them do not actually illustrate fashion. They just draw fashionable girls in lifestyle settings, like going to Paris, or having coffee. The real fashion sketch style of art is quite underrated.
Fashion Illustrations That Are Trendy On Instagram: I have noticed these accounts with "lifestyle" oriented illustrations tend to garner 100k-1m followers on average.
Fashion Illustrations More True To The Genre: I have noticed accounts with more proper forms of fashion illustration garner 1k-50k followers on average.
Another art style that is underrated on Instagram is Realism. I have see countless Realism artists that can render people and places like a photograph, but they are sitting on a couple hundred followers. Its quite sad because their skill surpasses the skills of many larger trendy accounts. I am sick of watching Instagram suppress talent. Why is this a big deal? Because, we live in the age of the internet where people create businesses online and are discovered online. Art is now considered unnecessary and a luxury in common day life, so social media tends to become that creative haven for artists. Instagram was the top leader in social media for artists due to its visual style, but now its proving to be one of the worst options for artists.
Surreal/Real Art: Another observations I have made is that creative realistic/surrealistic art doesn't trend as well on Instagram unless they are portraits of famous celebrities.
The point here is, I am not going to say do not start an art page. Just do not expect much from it. Many huge art pages on Instagram have been steadily losing followers or have not been growing for years. Of course there always exceptions to this whole scenario and people do become big, but the chances of that are far more difficult now than they had ever been. We can all just cross our fingers for the day a better social media platform comes along, or when Instagram finally sees all the hate its receiving and eases up on their algorithm. Until then my art account on Instagram is @IsbahStudio
I have experienced this myself. I love fashion designing and illustrating. I like to come up with my own garment ideas and then I digitally render them into nice illustrations. Your probably thinking, its fashion it has to do well! Well no it doesn't. Fashion Design in itself is a niche taste. There are a few famous fashion illustrators on Instagram, but most of them do not actually illustrate fashion. They just draw fashionable girls in lifestyle settings, like going to Paris, or having coffee. The real fashion sketch style of art is quite underrated.
Fashion Illustrations That Are Trendy On Instagram: I have noticed these accounts with "lifestyle" oriented illustrations tend to garner 100k-1m followers on average.
Fashion Illustrations More True To The Genre: I have noticed accounts with more proper forms of fashion illustration garner 1k-50k followers on average.
Surreal/Real Art: Another observations I have made is that creative realistic/surrealistic art doesn't trend as well on Instagram unless they are portraits of famous celebrities.
The point here is, I am not going to say do not start an art page. Just do not expect much from it. Many huge art pages on Instagram have been steadily losing followers or have not been growing for years. Of course there always exceptions to this whole scenario and people do become big, but the chances of that are far more difficult now than they had ever been. We can all just cross our fingers for the day a better social media platform comes along, or when Instagram finally sees all the hate its receiving and eases up on their algorithm. Until then my art account on Instagram is @IsbahStudio
Thank You For Reading!
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