No Love for my Ukraine piece HELP!
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@willicreate Thanks for the kind words.
It was just a little below my average and honestly thought my audience would be more interested ( maybe the algorithm got me)
I was hoping this could be a portfolio piece towards editorial work. More in the idea of solid portrait work that I see in magazines often. Love me some Flagg though maybe I should look at his stuff less If my style is going to propaganda... but I do love those styles
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@kayleenartlover That was something I was taking phot reference for of my self lol I couldn't quite decide what was the appropriate size since I did want it bigger (to be closer) I couldn't quite tell glad it wasn't just me tho
I agree with you there!
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@nyrryl-cadiz I knew this would be a possible critique before posting. "Capitalizing on tragedy" is not my intention I wanted to capture a hero in the face of this tragedy. So in asking for critique I was more worried I wasn't doing his legacy justice if something was off in my art I was missing. I do make art to show others and share a message not for my own pure enjoyment, so I would have liked it if more and joined me in sharing. At the end of the day I do think it is important to make art about tragedy. Look no further than Picasso's Guernica and what would have been the impact of that work if no one saw it?
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THANKS! @ellinor Yes I was worried about the similar posts and maybe that was the problem. Or maybe the realistic colors were better! To this piece was way cooler and was hoping my audience would connect with it more!
I have given up hope on the algorithm lol
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@bradysgallery hi again. This is my second reply. I removed the first one since I felt I wasn’t being as clear as I wanted.
Since you mentioned you are more concerned about the portrait’s accuracy because of the low engagement, then my advise is still the same: don’t focus on the engagement numbers. A post’s performance on social media is a BAD gage of its quality.
This is a great piece. It did not perform as well as you expected most probably because of Instagram’s algorithm.
Don’t get too caught up on this piece. You’ll be helping more by creating more art rather than perfecting and trying to figure out what went wrong with this one.
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I would blame the algorithm as others have said. I discovered this week for myself how unjust algorithms can be when I posted a number of bird photos I had taken of a snow goose migration to a Facebook group. Even though numerous people posted MUCH better photos after I did, my post continued to rack up a ridiculous number of likes while their's languished all because I was one of the first posters so my post kept getting pushed to the top of people's feeds which in turn meant it got more likes which pushed it farther up, etc. I was frustrated on behalf of the better photographers that were not being noticed just because of the stupid algorithm. Likewise, the number of your likes may have nothing to do with the quality of the piece but may be due to the number of people posting things in support of Ukraine and the consequent bias of the algorithm that left yours buried under previous posters. It's enough to make one want to give up social media.
Laurie DeMott
instagram.com/demotlj -
First off, you seem to be pleased with what you produced, as pleased as any artist can be, we're all our own worst critics of course. But being happy with what you produced, proud even is vastly more important than social media approval. If you're proud of this piece, feel like it's part of your best work, and fits your portfolio in as much as it represents what you're trying to get work in, then put it in there no matter how many likes you get on an app. Never judge the value of your work based on how many likes you get on social media.
But I guess your question is, why this one? If this is what you consider to be on of your best pieces, why has it not done as well?
Well, maybe it's to different from what your audience typically expects to see from you. Maybe it's just another "Ukraine" support piece in a sea of Ukraine support art right now. Sometimes as an artist the pieces we are most proud of are our least appreciated outside of ourselves. There are things we as artists see in our own work, both good and bad that others just don't, and that's how it's always going to be. This is why it's so important to stay true to yourself and make art for yourself, because you have control over that, you have no control over what others will like or not like and if you go chasing that you will lose yourself and possibly go mad in the process. In all honesty, your most direct answer would probably only come from directly asking those who like your images on a regular basis why they didn't hit the like button on it.Draw, Draw, Draw, Draw and Draw Some More!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/levisimpson55/ -
@BradysGallery I think the piece is awesome but here are some of the issues that might be going on.
First off, the Instagram algorithm is not a good metric for measuring if your work is good or not. It can vary wildly and in recent months many artists, myself included, have noticed huge dips in engagement for seemingly no reason.
Second, one reason people may not like this piece is because it can come off as making a cool piece of artwork while Ukraine is suffering. That can leave a bad taste in peoples mouths. This does not mean your artwork is bad, like I said I think it looks awesome, but due to context I think it’s the kind of art that may not have a place on social media but is absolutely perfect for something like an editorial piece.
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Instagram works in it's own ways. I find with my pieces the more light/shadow and the more emotion the more likes no matter how good the piece really is. Also the appeal in the first milisecond is so important and it might be hard to grab the viewer with a yellow/blue graphic design style. I was so often surprised which pieces went well and wich didn't, so don't judge your piece by IG reaction unless you inented to design especially for IG.
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@Nyrryl-Cadiz Thanks yeah glad to hear. I wasn't really concerned with it performing low but more concerned if maybe something was off that I was missing
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@demotlj yep for sure a lot going on there we can't even see!
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@Blitz55 oh for sure! I was wondering if there was something I might have missed. I get at the end of the day the algorithm and even people are influenced in ways we can't control
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Thanks @Griffin I appreciate it! Not really judging it off the algorithm but just wondering if maybe there was something I was missing! But I've gotten some feed back affirming the work on here.
Yeah I get some judge the motives behind the artwork and you can't control peoples preferences could be it. Part if the risk of making art. Glad you think it could work for the editorial style I'd take that over insta any day!
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@Holumpa for sure still developing this graphic style maybe the next step is add more shading/mood
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@BradysGallery Yup, and hell, sometimes even the time of day in which you make the post seems to play a part. There are so many factors that it can be maddening. Haha.
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I could just repeat what some people here said already, and i don't know if what i write now has been said.
But i took a look at your numbers and for me they show, that your post has average amount of likes compared to most of your posts, some are better some are lower. I guess you should'nt be concerned, it's not lower then normal.I second what @Blitz55 says.
