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 not 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.
Exaggerating my points doesn’t make you sound any smarter. To quote myself, my literal, actual words: “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” — literal, actual quote. The words ‘should’ and ‘tend to’ and ‘might’ are pretty important in context, don’t you think? wouldn’t want to get ahead of ourselves and try to satirize the previous person’s content, would we.
i also never said it was anyone’s job. again: if you like something and want someone to keep working with their art, encourage them. it’s not that difficult. it can make someone’s entire day to put a good word towards them. is it really so hard to spend maybe ten seconds to reblog and add ‘wow nice coloring!’ to the tags? like hey, if you don’t like the work, cool, literally no one’s talking about you because hey, you didn’t like the work anyways. if you kinda sorta liked it, okay, whatever. but if you genuinely liked it and would be saddened if the artist stopped posting, then wow, maybe you should do something to prevent that.
you’re trying to put this all on the artist—saying it should be the artist who changes their thoughts and feelings for a fan who won’t give them the time of day past a ‘like’ (yeah, real investment, they should really change their point of view for someone who spends so little time on them). that’s so stupid, why on earth would someone change their point of view for someone like that? again, i already agreed that views and likes and reblogs shouldn’t be all someone draws for. but it can get downright discouraging when you’ve worked hard on something and haven’t been drawing long.
seriously—artists owe their fans nothing. but they’re the ones putting time and effort into something. not the fans. the fans don’t really get a choice in what the artists want. when artists specifically start making comics about how they’d really appreciate constructive criticism or acknowledgement that their work was actually appreciated, then the fans don’t really reserve the right to get angry with the artist for expressing what they feel. artists are well within their rights to get disheartened by lack of response. they’re allowed to express themselves through their artwork. and whether you think it’s fair or not, when an artist says ‘hey, 20 reblogs or i’m canceling this in favor of other projects because i won’t waste my time on something people aren’t interested in’ then that’s really up to them. if people don’t reblog then that series is getting canceled, plain and simple. it’s not up to the fans. it’s up to the artist. and fans throwing a hissy fit because they’re being ‘emotionally manipulated’ (give me a break) doesn’t change the fact that an artist won’t waste their time on something that no one else appreciates if it’s created as an entertainment for someone else.
Your argument from the beginning boils down to, “if you don’t give artists attention they’ll stop being artists.”
- ”if you actually ‘liked’ it, youd support the artist by reblogging and sharing your approval.” – aphfrain
- ”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. ” – aphfrain
- “They’re not machines designed to put out work. They have dreams and worries and insecurities and lives. " – aphfrain
^These are attempts to make viewers feel bad for choosing not to reblog art, even if they like it, by invalidating their choice on the grounds that it will discourage the artist if they don’t.
That is emotional manipulation.
There’s plenty of art that I like but won’t reblog for my own reasons. Maybe it’s nsfw, maybe it’s from a fandom I dont care about. Maybe it’s a character I dislike. Maybe I don’t agree with the subject matter. That’s what the LIKE button is for, because I LIKE the work despite those things.
Honestly it’s starting to sound like you think the fans owe the artists, and that is kind of incredible lol. I dont even know where to start with that one.
Artists don’t owe fans anything, they can express themselves as they please, but it works the other way around too when it comes to showing non-monetary appreciation (or lack of).
I have NEVER EVER seen a serious artist, commercial or otherwise, give their fans an ultimatum like "hey, 20 reblogs or i’m canceling this in favor of other projects because i won’t waste my time on something people aren’t interested in.”
Someone like that is either a child or a rational business person because they’re either crying hard for attention (“if you don’t give me what I want I’ll stop giving what YOU want”) -or- deciding if there’s money in that project VS another project. I would hope it’s always the latter.
In both cases reblogs remain a vague and unrealistic measurement, so again, not reblogging does not equal not caring/liking.
I am not arguing against people reblogging art if they like it. We all reblog art we like.
But what I think is shitty is artists trying to guilt trip viewers into reblogging their work when, as I’ve hopefully demonstrated, there may be several reasons why someone will not reblog art they like. They don’t owe the artist a reblog anymore than the artist owes them something TO reblog.
I can’t believe we’re at this point here lol