Animation and Illustration Why you should be using Social Media to promote your digital art now

Why you should be using Social Media to promote your digital art now

It’s fair to say that now more than ever, people are desperately in search of a hobby to occupy their time. Many are using their one hour of outdoor exercise to take up running or cycling, but many, are using this time to get creative and share their incredible portfolios online.

What is digital art?

Swap out the canvas and paint, and create using your laptop, tablet or phone. Digital art has been popular for many years now, but as creatives search for a way to fill their time during the lockdown, there has been a surge of digital creations across social media. If you have a creative itch to scratch, there has never been a better time to get involved.

Why is social media so important?

Social media has always been used to connect with people, but people are using it more than ever due to the restrictions of normal activities. With millions of eyes searching for stimulating content, there has never been a better time to publish your creative works. The average interactions with posts are increasing, and people are sharing and filling feeds with inspiring visuals.

Instagram has seen a dramatic rise in popularity as people scroll for visual satisfaction. The platform represents an online gallery, so it is a great place to upload all your digital art or create an online portfolio.

The good news for animators and illustrators

For those who are studying an Animation or Illustration degree, this is a great opportunity to work on a portfolio and promote your digital art skills. If you have access to the necessary software, you can begin uploading your work onto a dedicated social media page where people can share and interact with your work. At the University of Bolton, students are encouraged to promote their work online and are shown many great ways to do it also; you can find out more about the courses we provide here.

One thing to consider is that for your content to be popular, it has to be current and relevant, you only have to take a look at Juan Delcan and Valentina Izaguirre’s Social Distancing animation using matchsticks to see what affect digital art can have. The simple way of animating the current social distancing measures, not only demonstrated how important they are but the simple format made it so that everyone could easily understand why they needed to do it.

There are plenty of ways to promote yourself right now, whether that is by providing creative outlets for others, or narrating lockdown through digital art. Now is the best time to begin.