lobstmourne:

aphfrain:

lobstmourne:

aphfrain:

mad-maddie:

Why is there a sudden push trend to reblog artist’s art? Of course people want their art reblogged (I know I do), but why is there this…sudden need to make all these posts and comics about it on Tumblr? And they’re all weirdly…manipulative…like don’t push and force and guilt people into reblogging your art, if someone likes it and wants to put it on their blog they will!

Nah son artists are getting tired of working hard on art and people only expressing their approval in a way that no one else can see it. tumblr already doesn’t give an easy way to give feedback to artists—usually youre supposed to leave comments in the tags if you reblog. but if you never reblog you never give the artist feedback, and you never let other people see it. if you actually ‘liked’ it, youd support the artist by reblogging and sharing your approval. 

its like how authors on archiveofourown get so discouraged over time. no one comments on anything. they just give ‘kudos’

neither of these systems are very condusive to keeping the author or artist motivated to do much else. when you do fanworks, you do them for other fans. when no one else replies it gives them a reason not to continue. im not saying every work really deserves even a like or a kudos, but for the things you do like, it’s important to let the author or artist know that you like it, otherwise they can get pretty discouraged. 

there’s that emotional manipulation we were talking about

It’s a pretty big jump to call that ‘emotional manipulation’. It’s literally asking ‘hey you know if you like something you should let the artist know because otherwise many artists tend to get discouraged and might stop posting’. that’s literally a cause-and-effect scenario. 

are you so intimidated realizing that your actions have consequences that youre literally going to call a summary of cause and effect emotional manipulation? 

[Example:

“Hey you know putting green house gasses into the atmosphere is causing global warming" 

"that’s emotional manipulation”]

it’s not the same for every artist, and no, art shouldn’t be done for just praise. but especially young artists draw and write to get praise. every little kid wants their drawing on the fridge. teenagers who’ve been working at art for a while who now have an audience want to know if people like it, and what they could possibly improve on, and what people liked about it. when all they see is a few likes and no reblogs and definitely no feedback, they’re basically getting no reception. 

It’s a pretty tough thing for an unconfident artist to go through. So I stand by my point. If you like something, try to reblog it. Not everything ever needs to be reblogged, but try to show some support for the artist. They’re not machines designed to put out work. They have dreams and worries and insecurities and lives. 

Trying to guilt random people into caring, “if you /really/ like something you HAVE to share it or else it will hurt the artist’s feelings!” is shitty and absolutely emotional manipulation. 

Once again, it’s no one’s job to advertise your work for you.  It’s not some random person’s job to give you feedback (especially if you don’t directly ask for it) or make you feel better about your art. 

If you’re an artist, you do not create for the singular purpose of attention.  You create what YOU love; you create because it’s something you love to DO.  Do this and suddenly those numbers on your posts mean nothing to you, as it should be.  

Pageviews, Likes, Reblog counts, etc. are used as arbitrary measurements of success or personal worth, but this is really unhealthy, especially for young artists.   We’re all so conditioned to think quantity = quality when that’s just plain untrue much of the time.  Instead of trying to make people feel bad for not reblogging, we should put more effort into explaining why these measurements are false and should not be taken to heart.  I know I felt a lot better about my art once I understood this. 

But if you’re serious about making MONEY with art then you already know what will/won’t get attention.  You cannot rely on other people to make your work more desirable.

Either way there are actual sites and forums designed for constructive feedback and creative dialog between artists/clients.  Tumblr is convenient, but it is not one of those sites.