Do you use Pinterest?

robgale

@demotlj Totally. I find pinterest to be super useful, like others have stated, for finding inspiration, artists to look at and learn from. Another thing I'm starting to use it for more and more is for reference. I find that, for example, if I'm looking for reference for a certain type of costume, let's just say some kind of European Mideaval armor, I get a lot of better quality reference images than if I were to simply google medieval armor. Then when you click on an image, below the image itself, it will show you a bunch more images that are similar.

I don't love using it to categorize things though, it's a bit too cumbersom for me, so I usually just dump everything into one or two big loose categories and browse for what I'm looking for, or download what I need and organize it locally.

Whitney Simms

I have 638 followers on Pinterest. Am
I missing a source of people that would like my work? I just pin because i like it and keep all my reference together. Should I post my artwork there?

demotlj

I guess I’ll have to try it. I’m a little afraid of it honestly, because I can get sucked into spending more time organizing references than actually drawing but I can particularly see its usefulness for pinning artists’ works to study. I have a love-hate relationship with all of this social media. I’m constantly swearing off it, determined to sit by my wood stove and paint by lantern light like the old school artists but then I’m back on it because I love seeing people’s work.

djlambson

I love Pinterest..I've been pinning for some time. I treat it like a virtual scrapbook..pin interesting ideas, music, things that just grab me visually as well as illustrators I admire. There are unending sources of inspiration available to us online. The creative spirit is alive and well and bowls me over daily.
Im not sure what's going on with Pinterest lately though. I had 138K monthly views a couple of weeks ago and then it began to plummet..it is now at 107K monthly views. Since Ive done nothing differently over that period of time I have no clue what's going on. If anyone can fill me in, that would be lovely.

Going to go and follow you @Heather-Boyd I need more artists in my feed!

https://www.pinterest.com/deborahlambson

Sas

@whitney-simms Yeah you should! But dont forget to watermark your work and if you have a website, put the website underneath your pins. This could mean more traffic to your website. However, keep in mind that pinterest is not social media. Most pinners use pinterest as moodboards and don't bother clicking the reference (as in where the pin comes from).

Sas

@demotlj If you pin something and put it in a well suited board with a name that works for you, there won't be much organizing needed. Keep in mind that pinterest is no social media. I am quite active on pinterest. Here I collect environmental designs and character designs to use as inspiration when I need to fill up my creative bank account.

Sas

I use pinterest all the time and I absolutely love it! But as I have said before, keep in mind that pinterest is no social media. People who come to pinterest use it most of the time as inspiration and dont click through to actual websites.

I see pinterest as a virtual bookmarking system where sometimes you can come to an absolute gem of a website. I use it as inspiration for environmental designs, character designs and just to fill up my creative bankaccount when it's low and dry.

demotlj

@sas This was part of my hesitation with Pinterest. When I’ve searched it for non-art things (ideas for work related topics) I would often get frustrated that people wouldn’t put links so all I could see was a picture that was intriguing but not really helpful. I think I will probably just use private boards initially.

Sas

@demotlj Ususally when you click on the image, it will give you the link to where the image is coming from.

demotlj

@sas I know it's supposed to but often it doesn't work maybe because of too many re-pins or people uploading images without pinning the link.... I don't know. Maybe I'm not using it right but often I would see some interesting craft project or DIY project but not be able to find the instructions that went with it which was really frustrating. Whatever the reason, I think that Pinterest will work better for me as an art board/reference board where all I need to see is the image and artist name.

Actually, I have the same issue with Google images sometimes. I see an image, click on "Go to Web site" and the web site might have the image buried in the 13th page or I can't find it at all. Minor issues in the grand scheme of things but it can be frustrating.

Sas

@demotlj Hmmm I don't recognize your problem. I always thought that by repinning something, the original link would come with it. I do however sometimes come across links that don't work anymore because the site name has been changed and the original pinner might have forgotten to change the new URL or the site has just been removed all together.

Are there more people here who have come across the same problem as Laurie?

demotlj

@sas It’s also possible I just don’t know what I’m doing or it could be that I was trying to do things through the browser on my Mac rather than the Pinterest app. I’ve started using the app for art stuff so I’ll have to see if it works better for other sorts of pins as well.

JennyJones

@sas I have the same problem sometimes. It happens when whomever put the pin on Pinterest in the first place did it incorrectly. Most of the time I get the the link I want and sometimes I don’t. Also once or twice every link was that way and I think Pinterest was just glitchy that day. I would say just keep trying. Pinterest is awesome and I use it daily.

Nathan

I'm busy over the next couple of days but can do a case study on an art Pinterest profile I have (not my personal one - this one). It has over 1200 followers and 700k+ views a month. I can give you tips to grow your own and what has worked for me if you want?

Heather Boyd

@nathan

Thanks, you have a nice solid collection. I am interested in how to best categorise boards and sections. I find I overlap a lot. I am not looking for more followers just an easier time to find what I need to help me personally in growing my own work.

Nathan

@heather-boyd Thanks. I'll be sure to include something about how I choose board names and why. I'll likely have time to write up something on boxing day.

If people have any specific questions I'll try include answers to them too.

Aaron Pierce

Constantly! I use it for inspiration boards as well as reference boards when I'm working on stories and world building. I'm pretty sure that's not what it was MEANT for, but heck I love it for that. I also have the pintrest plugin installed on Chrome, so any time I see something I like or that inspires me while I'm browsing, I can pin it. I have a whole board full of nothing but illustration, art, and photography that gives me inspiration for when my creative bank account is overdrawn lol.

Miriam

I like Pinterest. I don't know about having a great organizational system, but I have a lot of boards, and I like to look at all the wonderful things I've collected. I use it for both art & for other personal interests. I think if I were starting to use it with a new account, I might create one account for my other interests, and one account just for art--but things can overlap sometimes & it's too late for me to do it that way, anyway!

I like to collect art that inspires me, styles I might want to incorporate into my style, and I also have boards to collect reference.

Yes, I've had times when the pins aren't linked properly. Sometimes it's just an image, and sometimes it's a bad link, and often it's something that's been reposted on blogs that are a just list of things & they don't always link to the original.

It is frustrating, but I just label my pins with something like "photo only" so I won't try to click on it again later (and to warn anyone else).

Another thing that I've done is to try a Google image search & sometimes I've been able to find the original source that way, then I can add the correct link (I just put it in the comment if it doesn't let me change the link, or if I feel like spending the time, I might download the image then upload it to Pinterest so I can add the correct link).

Christine Dion

Hello all!
I have a question about Pinterest and copyright. So I, like many of you in here, love pinning images for inspiration. I’ll try to post my original art and the images I used for inspiration. I belong to an international colored pencil group and I posted it to their closed FB page. The moderator told me I had to remove it because I had used Pinterest. I explained I had used it for inspiration and created my own 2 animals and she then cited some article that was 3 years old as the justification to their copyright rule. Please correct me if I’m wrong, as I would prefer to be honest and truthful about all my work. But I just don’t see my art and my references to be in any violations....ok I’m trying to figure out how to post a photo from my phone....I’ll post this and then see if I can do it from my iPad when I get home!

davidhohn

@mrsdion It is a very good idea to get a clear understanding about copyright. Both for your own work and when you use the work of others. Please post the images in question and I'm happy to offer my understanding about copyright and how to use images you don't have a license to (i.e. images found on pinterest)