How to Post Art: Engagement, Frustration and Growth

One of my patrons asked advice in how to deal with some aspects of social media management, like frustration because of lack of engagement and posting in different platforms, so today I want to briefly address those two.

Dealing With Frustration & Slow Growth

You can't stop feeling frustrated, you can just become stronger. By that I mean, posting in social media is like doing a scientific research, in which you test a series of different "experiments" (artworks) and pay attention to the result. Not all artworks have the same reach. The question is: why do some get more engagement than others? The more you test and pay attention to things like the time in which you post, the theme, if it's a portrait, a car, a fruit, a fan art, etc., all those factors might affect the performance of your post. Maybe you’ll find tricks used by other people chasing reach—and there might be some truth in them, like the insights I share below—but the truth is, unless you test it and prove it works, it’s just rough assumptions. So my advice is: try, and put some thought into what you’re doing, what sticks, and what doesn’t.

The more your approach has this "experimentation" view, the better. Again, you’ll still get frustrated if the post doesn't perform the way you planned, but at least you know tomorrow you can try again, until failure becomes casual.

Another tip is to find communities related to the themes you like to create art for. This way, you don't rely only on social media algorithms to reach an audience that finds your type of work attractive. This might take more time or depend on random viral moments, but it’s something you can control. If you like to paint hands, go and search for an "only hands" Facebook group (random example, but maybe there’s one). Use your creativity to find places where there are people who genuinely enjoy the topics you create. I did this years ago with Facebook groups, sharing just sketches on a daily basis. It worked for me.

Also, one thing that helps deal with frustration is having a consistent habit. I post twice a week. No matter how a post performs, I keep going. That rhythm gives me structure and keeps me from overthinking.

The Structure of My Posts

If you have seen my Instagram posts you will notice that there is a wide range of formatting for posts. I'll focus on explaining my current one. I chose a series of images instead of one because in that way I don't need to put too much pressure into one practice post. By having three or more, I feel I can choose to put high effort into any of the three—but maybe not the first one with which I start the session. Sometimes it's the second, or the last one. Sometimes the first is actually where I end up putting lots of time. Sometimes the first is just a quick warm-up. Having this range of freedom allows me to bootstrap the process quickly, something I struggled with for a while when trying to focus on just one practice, illustration, or artwork.

Whatever structure I choose to share art, after enough time I end up changing. The reasons can vary: sometimes because I get bored, sometimes I see other artists using a different structure I find interesting, sometimes because posts are lacking reach and I believe changing a few things might boost interactions. This way of approaching social media posts makes me feel free to do whatever I want. I think if someday I found the "perfect" way to share art, I eventually wouldn’t care much about perfection, and after a while, I’d just switch to something new, fun, or different.

So why three—and not two or twenty? Well, that's because of the second social media platform in which I have more range: X. I've noticed posting three images instead of one, two or four it It looks aesthetically good to me. You can show one full-fleshed practice and two others as extras. The post looks complex enough to catch attention, I believe. Again, all these things are just assumptions I make through exploration, in search of how to capture people's attention, but at the end of the day, a big part of this deal is thanks to X.

Lastly, I use the same structure of posting from Instagram on TikTok, but the difference is that I add music. Why? I'm not sure—but in principle I believe TikTok used to be very music/video oriented, so maybe that's the way I try to match the platform's foundation by simply adding an extra layer to a series of pictures.

If you plan to take it very seriously and grow an audience, create a space in which you can get closer to your followers—like Discord or any other community platform. I don't think social media platforms like IG, X, or TikTok are made for followers to stick around, but to push your content to new people constantly. So followers aren’t really the main focus, but the engagement you get per post. Your posts often reach only a small percentage of your followers, so maybe the best you can do is have a place for those who want to stick around—like customers, for example, people willing to buy your art or simply follow your journey.

Conclusion

If I didn’t answer your questions, no worries—no one answered mine in the beginning either. I just tried as many things as I could, and eventually I ended up gathering enough data to sustain some engagement over time. Feel free to reach out—I'll be more than happy to help. Thank you so much for reading; your support allows me to keep creating content like this.

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If you missed the Kickstarter campaign for my book Life in Every Sketch, you can now pre-order it on the 3DTotal shop.

https://rebrand.ly/The-Art-of-RamonN90

Please let me know if you have any questions—I’ll be happy to help with art advice or book details.