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i'm a digital artist in my free time and i really enjoy bringing my thoughts and ideas based on different animated shows to life and sharing them on a social platform. I've been doing this for almost 2 years now and have racked up almost 2k followers, which is quite a lot to me.
I really love drawing my favourite characters and sharing them with my followers to see and experience the same excitement i do; although i don't really aim to monetise from this hobby, i'm perfectly happy with doing my art purely for fun and not expecting any monetary gain. It's great.
Except.... sometimes (like at this moment), i feel an emptiness..like burnout, but when it comes to doing this. I love my hobby and it makes me smile to see so many nice comments under my posts, people having discussions about the characters or tv programme. But even with all the followers, it feels pretty lonely. On the platform, i don't TALK to anyone. It's just post, post, post.
The online community i'm part of seems to have lots of 'friendship' groups and it seems so great to have internet friends like that, i wish i had something like it, but i am quite socially nervous, even behind a screen. I have to take quite a while before i can think of the perfect reply to a comment as simple as "Really nice artwork!"
this burnout feeling is not nice at all. i want to make lots of art because i can see it in my mind, what it'd look like, the colours, the style, but the PROCESS of making digital art is often torture and time consuming. So my imagination is left to run wild as i just sit there on my bed without the energy to actually make it.
I also feel guilty sometimes whilst i create. Like i shouldn't be enjoying my time, or posting art that has no tangible benefit and i should be working on my university studies instead.
I know that i don't post FOR my followers. I post because i'm proud of a piece and then want to show it to the people who have similar interests to me. Luckily, i don't really feel that pressure of "HEY you gotta make a drawing and post it NOW otherwise you'll lose followers!"
But i wish that my art and position in the online community could build real connections with people....and i wish that this burnout-dead-grey feeling wouldn't pop up so often.
I don't really know how to explain any of this tbh but it's the first time getting this off my chest so i hope i'll be okay soon :)
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Delete social media and get out there and meet people. That’s probably a bit extreme actually,. But in reality If you have 2k followers you will find that only 10percent of them will see your content depending on how many hashtags you put in. The honest reason for this feeling you have may be because you want the authentic relationship with people who like your work and maybe do similar to what you do. If you want to have an authentic relationship with people, you do need to dedicate time to meeting like minded people in reality. Perhaps you have people on social media you could meet up with, or maybe there is a local gallery nearby or an art club? The thing with social media is it’s reward based. The more you input, the more you get. However sometimes you find that you are dedicating too much time to social media and your followers than actually focusing on what is around you that really inspires you to start creating new and exciting things. Have you got a sketchbook ? Something like that where there is no pressure to create something instaworthy. You can do anything and make “mistakes “ and be surprised from what you can gain from them. Maybe you could dedicate some time to something like that and focus on what is going on around you . It is amazing when you think of all the ideas you can pull from a sketchbook that you can work from digitally if that is your medium of choice.
ReplyFocus on the 10 percent that come back time and time again to like and comment and discuss. Hone in on them and in those you will find you can develop a good connection. It’s pointless trying to have a strong connection with 2000 people. You are only one person. I think it’s social media that is the problem. It’s an incredibly un authentic place really. Most of the really successful artists are out there talking to people . Discussing their work and going out to exhibitions.
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