We live in an incredibly fast-paced world made to seem even faster via social media. This can be discouraging to artists whose work takes time to create. These platforms demand quick content creation rather than celebrating the art creation process.
Most of these apps, such as Instagram or TikTok, necessitate posting multiple times a day for the algorithm to push your posts into people’s feeds. Reels have also become a massive task for users who must reformat how they share their work. To add to all of that, these platforms force users to share their work in pre-determined dimensions while also losing image quality. Not to mention limiting the caption word count. All this being said, they aren’t great for displaying art in a manner that accentuates the work. So, are there any better alternatives for artists to network and share their work with the world without incredibly taxing boundaries? Fortunately, yes, there are, and The Connector has compiled a list of some of the best options.
Behance
The first is Behance, a free Adobe-run online platform for showcasing and discovering many facets of art. It’s free for SCAD students as part of the Adobe Suite subscription. The platform is somewhat like traditional social media in terms of creating your own profile, following other users, commenting and the ability to “appreciate” (Behance’s equivalent to liking). Behance was designed specifically for artists looking to promote their work and find inspiration from other artists. This is apparent through many of their features, such as high-quality image and video uploads, space for promoting your freelance artistic services, Adobe stock links in order to license your work to the creative community, room to display NFTS, 24-hour posts titled as ‘work in progress’ and the ability to livestream.
There is also space for user-curated mood boards compiled of other artists’ work and a collection of the posts you have appreciated to be able to reference them in the future. A project is Behance’s primary way to share work for a compilation of images, videos or other art forms. There’s informational space to add specific details about each body of work, such as the title of the project, hashtags, description of the tools used in the creation of the project, categorization of the project, project description as well as room for credits if it was a collaborative project. Behance is an all-around esteemed platform used by some of the industry’s top artists and opens the door to the creative community by putting it right at your fingertips.
Adobe Portfolio
Secondly, this Adobe-generated portfolio page is also an excellent tool for promoting artistic work. This platform is less like social media and more like a website. Adobe Portfolio is linked to the Adobe Cloud and makes sharing your work even simpler through options to share Adobe albums to your portfolio page rather than uploading everything separately. The platform is set up in a template forum where the user can decide which to use, and then from there, they can customize the website to make it more personable through arrangement, about pages, contact forms, etc. This is a great way to display your portfolio work professionally.
Artsy
This website is an elegantly curated online gallery space for viewing and selling fine art. They sell both print and NFTs. Additionally, it has a blog that keeps users updated on the latest artistic happenings in our world. The website is set up in the style of a refined gallery offering viewing rooms, galleries, auctions and artists’ information. It also highlights work from fairs, shows and museums from all over. This is a great place to get your work out to the public and can be a great way to connect with galleries interested in your craft.
Dribble
Finally, Dribble is a great space for a wide array of digital artists. This includes but is not limited to animation, web design, illustration, print, branding, product design and typography. The platform is a multifaceted interface offering online workshops for artists, job postings, a hiring aspect that allows employers to find a good fit for their job, and a feed where users can post their work. Dribble is a free website but offers a subscription for $8 per month to become a Dribble pro user, attracting more opportunities and tripling engagement.
Artistic processes should continue to be celebrated, and in pursuing that, The Connector hopes that these websites can bridge the gap between your artwork and the world. Keep putting yourself and your creative skills out there!