How can I get my work noticed?

[Jabberwock xeno]

Hey.

I want to know if anybody had advice on how to get my art/poetry/ etc noticed.

Let me start off by saying that this applies to both to my Deviant art account, and to a lesser extent my Bungie profile with screenshots and forge maps, though I'm posting the screenshots on deviant art too.

I realize how hard it is to get stuff noticed, to quote a certain cynical reviewer, "kind of like throwing a message in a bottle out into a churning sea of messages in bottles: the chance of you getting noticed and someone being sent out to rescue you is punishingly slim.".

I realize that even though some of my work is better than most others (ESPECIALLY when it comes to the bungie fourms, by comparison to the majority, i'm like a nobleman with the other good screenshot takers, like the ones's you'd see on bungie favorites.), it doesn't improve my chances of getting noticed by much, finding a gem in a desert is still laughably hard.

I have and am looking for groups to join/submit my work to on both, but I'm having a hard time finding some, perhaps some of you knows of some? Or other sites I could use for the screenshots/maps, and/or my other art/poetry?

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tl;dr:

- I want my art/poetry/halo screenshots/maps noticed on my bungie profile and/or deviant art page, how can I get them noticed?

- Does anyone know of groups or other communities I can submit my work to for either?

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Samples:

 

[Heart of Darkness]

There are actually a few ways to get noticed, so give a few of them a try.

-Advertise: The easiest to do, but also the one that could potentially have the least sticking power if the content you make is your run-of-the-mill artwork and writings. I'd advise only doing this if nothing else works.

-Be Controversial: Again, only do this if the other techniques don't work. Being controversial is usually a good way to drive up page views for digital/digitized works, but it comes at the cost of a lot of bile. Plus, if you end up becoming popular this way, you're kinda stuck with being controversial, as your fans might see your swap back to more traditional methods as you going soft, and you're not going to win your detractors with your swap. A close analogy would be Yahtzee; if he released a ZP that wasn't bitingly harsh (bar the Portal review), a lot of people would complain that it wouldn't have been a true ZP and take it as an indicator of him going soft.

-Become Involved: Harder to do than the first two due to the amount of time it takes, but it ends up being more worthwhile both to yourself and to the communities you end up posting to. Generally, artists on the net and in the same communities would be more willing to look at or comment on your work after you comment on theirs. It's not a hard and fast rule, and some people don't follow it because, hey, they're trying to get noticed and don't have time to also notice others. The more involved you are in a community, the better your chances of someone seeing your work and, if they like it, recommending it to their friends and contemporaries.

This is also true for physical media that's not on the Internet, too. Enter and attend art shows, and talk to gallery owners and other artists. Enter poetry slams, and talk to other poets. Being able to network is vital to the art world as much as it is to the business world, and increasing your presence among other artists and developing friendships within those circles is vital to having your work noticed.

-Get Published: Speaks for yourself. Getting published through a reputable source (i.e., no vanity publishing) can result in becoming noticed. But it's not something that can only be done once on a single page in a journal; getting published multiple times is a good thing in making your name and your artwork more renowned. Getting a whole anthology published is also fantastic, but, again, don't hedge your bets on a single volume.

-Create Something that No One Else has Created: Arguably the hardest, and arguably something that very few people will ever achieve. The title speaks for itself, but actually describing it beyond that is hard, mostly in part to the wildly varying tastes of audiences. If you want examples, think of it like this: Pablo Picasso gained his fame with the Cubist movement. Andy Warhol gained his fame because he treated his art as a commercial, mass-produced product. Jackson Pollock gained his fame by throwing paint on canvas and popularizing the abstract expressionist movement. Marcel Duchamp is most known for a piece of readymade art involving a urinal and a signature. Piet Mondrian gained his fame by reducing his paintings to vertical and horizontal lines, the primary values (white, gray, and black), and primary colors (red, blue, yellow) in an attempt to make art free of cultural connotations.

Point is, if you create an audience for something that doesn't yet exist, or do something that no one else has done yet or possibly can do, then you're going to get noticed. It will involve some publicity on your part, but if what you advertise is incredibly unique, then it's entirely justified.

There's no surefire way to get your work noticed, and no guarantee that you'll be noticed in your lifetime. My recommendation is just try to get involved with whatever communities you decide to join, and try not to be a dick that says "Everyone else's work sucks and mine is teh r0XX0rz," and don't automatically dismiss criticism as "You just don't understand it!" or something along those lines. A good attitude is essential to successful networking, especially if your skills aren't enough to make up for a bad and/or confrontational attitude.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

There are actually a few ways to get noticed, so give a few of them a try.

-Advertise: The easiest to do, but also the one that could potentially have the least sticking power if the content you make is your run-of-the-mill artwork and writings. I'd advise only doing this if nothing else works.

-Be Controversial: Again, only do this if the other techniques don't work. Being controversial is usually a good way to drive up page views for digital/digitized works, but it comes at the cost of a lot of bile. Plus, if you end up becoming popular this way, you're kinda stuck with being controversial, as your fans might see your swap back to more traditional methods as you going soft, and you're not going to win your detractors with your swap. A close analogy would be Yahtzee; if he released a ZP that wasn't bitingly harsh (bar the Portal review), a lot of people would complain that it wouldn't have been a true ZP and take it as an indicator of him going soft.

-Become Involved: Harder to do than the first two due to the amount of time it takes, but it ends up being more worthwhile both to yourself and to the communities you end up posting to. Generally, artists on the net and in the same communities would be more willing to look at or comment on your work after you comment on theirs. It's not a hard and fast rule, and some people don't follow it because, hey, they're trying to get noticed and don't have time to also notice others. The more involved you are in a community, the better your chances of someone seeing your work and, if they like it, recommending it to their friends and contemporaries.

This is also true for physical media that's not on the Internet, too. Enter and attend art shows, and talk to gallery owners and other artists. Enter poetry slams, and talk to other poets. Being able to network is vital to the art world as much as it is to the business world, and increasing your presence among other artists and developing friendships within those circles is vital to having your work noticed.

-Get Published: Speaks for yourself. Getting published through a reputable source (i.e., no vanity publishing) can result in becoming noticed. But it's not something that can only be done once on a single page in a journal; getting published multiple times is a good thing in making your name and your artwork more renowned. Getting a whole anthology published is also fantastic, but, again, don't hedge your bets on a single volume.

-Create Something that No One Else has Created: Arguably the hardest, and arguably something that very few people will ever achieve. The title speaks for itself, but actually describing it beyond that is hard, mostly in part to the wildly varying tastes of audiences. If you want examples, think of it like this: Pablo Picasso gained his fame with the Cubist movement. Andy Warhol gained his fame because he treated his art as a commercial, mass-produced product. Jackson Pollock gained his fame by throwing paint on canvas and popularizing the abstract expressionist movement. Marcel Duchamp is most known for a piece of readymade art involving a urinal and a signature. Piet Mondrian gained his fame by reducing his paintings to vertical and horizontal lines, the primary values (white, gray, and black), and primary colors (red, blue, yellow) in an attempt to make art free of cultural connotations.

Point is, if you create an audience for something that doesn't yet exist, or do something that no one else has done yet or possibly can do, then you're going to get noticed. It will involve some publicity on your part, but if what you advertise is incredibly unique, then it's entirely justified.

There's no surefire way to get your work noticed, and no guarantee that you'll be noticed in your lifetime. My recommendation is just try to get involved with whatever communities you decide to join, and try not to be a dick that says "Everyone else's work sucks and mine is teh r0XX0rz," and don't automatically dismiss criticism as "You just don't understand it!" or something along those lines. A good attitude is essential to successful networking, especially if your skills aren't enough to make up for a bad and/or confrontational attitude.

The hardest part is even getting someone to even see your work, i'm not looking for reconition, i'm just looking for people to click on the link to criticize or praise.

That's what I need help with.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

The hardest part is even getting someone to even see your work, i'm not looking for reconition, i'm just looking for people to click on the link to criticize or praise.

That's what I need help with.

Essentially, it's the same thing. Just try to get involved in whatever community you join; even DeviantArt works. Comment on the works of other artists, participate in the forums, and try to befriend a lot of people. Increasing your presence will make it more likely for people to find your work and then comment on it.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

DeviantART you can advertise your pages if you're a premium member, which will increase people noticing your work. joining groups and posting regular artwork (once a fortnight or something, once a week can be too demanding) also helps in the long run in getting views and feedback.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I would say to start being more active about your stuff. With that I mean, join art forums etc, sharing your art while asking for feedback.

If your stuff is really good, people will start looking more at your stuff. But consider how much art there is on the internet, now consider how much bad stuff is out there.... yeah... now consider you are competing with all that crap.

Even though you are extremely good, you are still one good fish in a pond of rotten ones, so for a fisherman to catch you you need to be out there.


I know the Escapist has some policies against advertising your sites on the forums, but I would say a situation like this, where you are asking advice, would be a clever time to add links to your sites that way at least the people here will have a look.


I would also consider your own domain if you are serious about your stuff, it just makes you seem so more professional.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

I would say to start being more active about your stuff. With that I mean, join art forums etc, sharing your art while asking for feedback.

If your stuff is really good, people will start looking more at your stuff. But consider how much art there is on the internet, now consider how much bad stuff is out there.... yeah... now consider you are competing with all that crap.

Even though you are extremely good, you are still one good fish in a pond of rotten ones, so for a fisherman to catch you you need to be out there.


I know the Escapist has some policies against advertising your sites on the forums, but I would say a situation like this, where you are asking advice, would be a clever time to add links to your sites that way at least the people here will have a look.


I would also consider your own domain if you are serious about your stuff, it just makes you seem so more professional.

I've considered making my own site, but time is not something I have an excess of.

Your fish comparison is something I understand all to well.

 

[Aurgelmir]

Snip.

I've considered making my own site, but time is not something I have an excess of.

Your fish comparison is something I understand all to well.

¨

Yeah time is a *****

But still it helps with with them hits.

Also I thought about another thing: To get noticed you need to have something unique and cool, while also luring people back for more.
Just having random art will probably not get you much attention. I think that is why it's easier to get webcomics known (although that too is next to impossible, considering all the crappy wecomics out there )

 

[PurplePlatypus]

It?s the same anywhere, especially on big websites where there are just millions of people. You need to interact, bit time. Make friends, pay attention to other people stuff, comment, and join some groups and interact there.

Don?t worry you don?t need to be all that good or great at what you do, it?s all about how you network and give people the links and information they need to find and connect with you. Right now, at best, you?re like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

It?s the same anywhere, especially on big websites where there are just millions of people. You need to interact, bit time. Make friends, pay attention to other people stuff, comment, and join some groups and interact there.

Don?t worry you don?t need to be all that good or great at what you do, it?s all about how you network and give people the links and information they need to find and connect with you. Right now, at best, you?re like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.

The thing is, i'm a very anti-social person.

I can get involved in groups, but I need help finding some.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Any more tips?

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

*is sad*

 

[Loud Noise]

Praise: Fun color ideas. Good for advertising as they are bright and draw in the eye.

Crit: It's slightly hard to tell exactly what you're looking at somewhat with the first two images. While it works best for the first sample it sort of feels like I'm looking through a predator helmet with "raise edges/glow" etc. filters built in after that. Try to deviate your style a little, come up with some new ideas and try them out. Even if they end up looking awful then you've still experimented some and can open an entirely new branch of ideas for yourself which can put you ahead of the game.

Another thing is that you mention almost all of this is done with screenshots. That's partly your problem as anyone can take screenshots. Even if they are amazing as far as screenshots go, flipping on color burn is still not going to distinguish you enough from the pack. I'm not familiar with Halo as I don't play, but try varying what you can do with the materials you have.

good luck!

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Praise: Fun color ideas. Good for advertising as they are bright and draw in the eye.

Crit: It's slightly hard to tell exactly what you're looking at somewhat with the first two images. While it works best for the first sample it sort of feels like I'm looking through a predator helmet with "raise edges/glow" etc. filters built in after that. Try to deviate your style a little, come up with some new ideas and try them out. Even if they end up looking awful then you've still experimented some and can open an entirely new branch of ideas for yourself which can put you ahead of the game.

Another thing is that you mention almost all of this is done with screenshots. That's partly your problem as anyone can take screenshots. Even if they are amazing as far as screenshots go, flipping on color burn is still not going to distinguish you enough from the pack. I'm not familiar with Halo as I don't play, but try varying what you can do with the materials you have.

good luck!

Thanks for the suggestions/praise!

Though I got the impression that you thought I did some after the fact editing, which I did not. All of my screenshots are undedited once they are made in game, only using effects made by in game explosions and such to add visual flare, it's rather difficult to get the above effects without editing, as you can imagine, so not everybody can just do it.

Here's another example of a screenshot of mine:

Here's the top 3 rated screenshots, of all time from reach on it's site:

Yeah.

Can you tell why I am a bit displeased XD

I fact, I actually counted some stuff, if you organize the screenshots to include all screenshots made and uploaded since release, and organize them by number of likes, here's the amount of what the top 150 ones are:

17 - are actually supposed to be artistic, around 14 of them succeed at looking artistic, and only 5 are really good in my opinion.

10 - of them are jokes about sex or pictures of spartan's butts.

19 - of them are about "OMG RARE ARMOR!"

104 - of them are just random pictures of stuff.

 

[Loud Noise]

Thanks for the suggestions/praise!

Though I got the impression that you thought I did some after the fact editing, which I did not. All of my screenshots are undedited once they are made in game, only using effects made by in game explosions and such to add visual flare, it's rather difficult to get the above effects without editing, as you can imagine, so not everybody can just do it.

That I didn't know! If that's the case then yes they're impressive as you have to use outside editing to achieve that for the most part. Your best bet then is to advertise and put yourself out there as much as possible.

 

[Grimsinger]

I'm a starting artist and art school pansy so ill give you an example of my methods(not that they are really working ). I'm a huge believer in hitting the streets and distributing my work to places around town. I do, and am majoring in, comics and sequential arts, so i aim for comic shops and record stores. Quality work and a snazzy card is all I think you really need to get your work out there. So dont be afraid to self promote or, to quite my professor, toot your own horn.

Edit: Mind you I'm a huge believer in print, like hand made comics and posters and stuff. (hur hur I'm old school)

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Thanks for the suggestions/praise!

Though I got the impression that you thought I did some after the fact editing, which I did not. All of my screenshots are undedited once they are made in game, only using effects made by in game explosions and such to add visual flare, it's rather difficult to get the above effects without editing, as you can imagine, so not everybody can just do it.

That I didn't know! If that's the case then yes they're impressive as you have to use outside editing to achieve that for the most part. Your best bet then is to advertise and put yourself out there as much as possible.

I'm trying...

 

[Loud Noise]

Thanks for the suggestions/praise!

Though I got the impression that you thought I did some after the fact editing, which I did not. All of my screenshots are undedited once they are made in game, only using effects made by in game explosions and such to add visual flare, it's rather difficult to get the above effects without editing, as you can imagine, so not everybody can just do it.

That I didn't know! If that's the case then yes they're impressive as you have to use outside editing to achieve that for the most part. Your best bet then is to advertise and put yourself out there as much as possible.

I'm trying...

Have you considered advertising on the escapist? Or other halo communities?

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Thanks for the suggestions/praise!

Though I got the impression that you thought I did some after the fact editing, which I did not. All of my screenshots are undedited once they are made in game, only using effects made by in game explosions and such to add visual flare, it's rather difficult to get the above effects without editing, as you can imagine, so not everybody can just do it.

That I didn't know! If that's the case then yes they're impressive as you have to use outside editing to achieve that for the most part. Your best bet then is to advertise and put yourself out there as much as possible.

I'm trying...

Have you considered advertising on the escapist? Or other halo communities?

Well, if I knew of any, or how to...

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

Any more tips?