This video provides specific, concrete tips for increasing your growth as an artist on Instagram, by navigating through 2 artist Instagram accounts.
Identifying aspects such as the photographs, text captions, the flow and diversity of content are all important in evaluating the effectiveness of an artist’s Instagram.
Discussion led by Art Prof Clara Lieu, who critiques Instagram accounts by artists Kawther Elmadani and Vivian Smith as concrete examples of how to create a strategy for Instagram.
Darragh’s Tips
It’s good to consider the physical context of where the artwork will be in before starting. If the artwork is going to be printed on a business card, those can be relatively small.
If this is a social media profile pic, those are tiny and usually have a square aspect ratio. If this is going on a banner at a convention table, those are huge and usually rectangular.
Better think through now if it’s possible than get to the end and realize it was made in the wrong size/format.
Darragh is a moderator in our Discord server.
Featured Artists
Vivian Smith
“I am a multi-disciplinary artist entering my fourth year towards a bachelor of fine arts at Alberta University of the Arts.
My work is primarily focused on how the older woman views herself and how she fits into society.
Older women are often overlooked and not included in mainstream discourse. This can lead to feelings of invisibility and irrelevance.
I would like to build my Instagram following, but I’m not having a lot of luck. I do think being an older woman (I’m 50yr) is a drawback.
I’m not sure how to personalize my account when I’m not comfortable with video or photos of myself on there (it makes me feel self conscious even separate from being older).”
Vivian Smith
Kawther Elmadani
“I am a self-taught artist, I find pure pleasure by drawing and painting for hours!
For years, I didn’t have much time to practice and I kept postponing it, until last year with the pandemic I started to practice more frequently.
I started with stippling technique, after a while I felt that I needes to try another medium so I started with oil painting (there, I discovered ArtProf YouTube).
The struggle I’m facing is when I feel that what I make isn’t good enough or I don’t really know where the mistakes are, and where I need to practice on.
My goal is to keep practicing and become a professional artist.”
Kawther Elmadani
