Simple art vs Complex art on social media

The artist, Vextasy, discusses the success of simplistic art on social media compared to more detailed pieces. They explain that simplistic art tends to receive more likes and shares because it can be completed faster and appeals to a wider audience. However, they emphasize that there is still value in detailed work for portfolios and specific industries. They also mention the importance of understanding the target audience and the different platforms, noting that social media algorithms favor frequent and consistent posting. Vextasy advises artists to consider their goals and choose the right approach for their desired success. Alright, so I'm back again, and if you don't know who I am, my name is Vextasy, rhymes with ecstasy, it's not Vex plus Stacy, I am an artist that's been doing online commissions for over 5-ish years, really around like 10-ish years, but yeah, and I wanted to talk about something that I see a lot, which is people will get very upset because art that is seemingly more simple will succeed more quickly and more often than art that is more complicated on social media, so this won't be a super in-depth explanation of social media vs industry vs etc types of artists, but I did just want to touch on this topic in particular, so I'm just going to get straight into it. Here's the thing, on social media you have about 2-3 seconds if you're lucky to make an impression on someone, long enough for them to click the like button, hopefully, as well as if you're even luckier, they might retweet it or reblog it or share it, whatever have you on whatever platform, so one of the reasons that simplistic art often ends up very successful on social media is because the turnaround time for completing it is completely different than that of something that is extremely detailed, involves a background, has a foreground, has a middle ground, you know, a piece you spend 40 hours on as a social media artist will likely get the same or less likes than a piece that someone spent 5 hours or less on, and that's not to say that there is no value in very detailed work, because there is, and it is often translatable to things like ArtStation, you can use it in portfolios, if your goal is to become a Magic the Gathering splash artist, a Riot splash artist or a World of Warcraft splash artist, these are going to be great skills for you to have and great pieces to add to your portfolio, and yes, it can also lead to some success on social media, but even just looking at it at a cut and dry angle of, if it takes you 40 hours to complete a piece, and typically that 40 hours is not being completed within you know, that actual 40 hour span, that's usually over the course of days, meaning you might go 1-2 weeks with no other content that you're putting out, so strictly algorithmically and pace wise, the person that's able to put out something that connects with people who believe in their heart of hearts, they can't draw even a straight line, is going to see a faster amount of success if they have fairly decent hold on some of the foundations and bright colors can make people go, people's brains go brr, basically, so while that person is spending 40 hours on a singular piece, in 40 hours the other person is getting 8 pieces done, and that means they have content to spread out over 8 days or more if they decide to only post every other day, this also helps them algorithmically, because not just being able to post every day, but the more you post and the more often you post, whether it's Instagram, whether it's Facebook, or whether it's Twitter, that is when the algorithm starts to favor you and attempts to show your work to people more often. The longer you space out activity, specifically media posts that are relevant to what you're doing, not just thinking memes or whatnot, but literally posting art, the more you get out of it. That's how social media and being a social media artist works. So while it is, again, great if you want to do that detailed work, if your goal is going to be those extremely detailed pieces, absolutely go for it, this is in no way trying to discourage you from doing so, this is me talking about how you need to understand the market you are catering towards, or pandering to, rather, either or, however you want to word it, different things are going to appeal to different audiences are going to appeal to different venues. And I think people misunderstand that they feel like a venue is something that's only brick and mortar, it's only tangible, it's only someplace you can actually walk into. But that is not the case, just like I can't, well, I could post my art, let's say in a Facebook group dedicated to painting landscapes, I assure you, I would see little to no traction. Another example, people who post human art in furry community spaces generally don't see a lot of success, that's not the right audience. In that same, you know, sort of vein, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, they're very different from ArtStation. And I'm not really sure what is a comparable to ArtStation other than perhaps DeviantArt, where you may also see a lot more success with very detailed work. But these are things you need to think about. Are you aiming for studio? Are you aiming for portfolio quality? Are you trying to get hired by, you know, your favorite studio? Keep in mind that many people who work for studios or animation studios and things like that, they actually very infrequently do they have really high numbers on social media. And if you don't believe me, feel free to go ask literally any other artists. This isn't just me talking out of thin air. This is me having talked to professionals in the industry who are saying the exact same thing. But some of you will swear to God, you can, you know, prove me wrong. And if you can, by all means, yes, there are some exceptions to the rule, there will always be exceptions to the rule. But an exception to any rule is a smaller net that got lucky and caught a big ass fish. But usually you don't want to make that your goal. That's not the net you want to try to cast. Usually you want to pick the best net for the best situation. And usually you're hoping that you're going to catch as many fish within that particular pond as possible. So this is something people need to think about. And this is why the artist that draws a character on a blank background that took them three hours often has, you know, a massively larger success rate, you know, follower count wise, then the person that's spending 40 hours on a singular piece, not keeping up with the not being able to keep up with the speed of what a social media account usually is asking of someone. This is not some, you know, not witchcraft, even if your goal was to post cute selfies. Okay, it's literally the same thing. If you post one single picture, every one to two weeks, you are not going to see as much success as the person that's able to post a selfie or a makeup look or an outfit of the day or what have you every day during the week consistently for months. And this is why if even if you wanted to juggle both, which I would venture to say was going to be putting a lot of extra work on yourself, but if you work on that 40 hour piece, you know, I guess five hours a day, but then you also give two hours to a much simpler piece allowing yourself to put out something, if not every day, then at least every other day, then you're putting yourself on more of an even playing field, but you are probably going to slow down your productivity and production in general for that bigger piece. So it would slow you down a little bit growth wise on something like ArtStation. So I just wanted to address that I see people get frustrated about it a lot. They say, oh, I spent 40, 50 hours on this piece and I just saw someone get more likes to me or the same amount of likes as me. What was the point of me spending all that time? And well, that you should be the one to be able to answer that question. Do you want social media likes and follows or are you building a portfolio for something completely different for a path of different success? Are you trying to, again, are you trying to get hired by a studio? Are you trying to get hired by a company or not? This so much art has a time and a place has a place where it can be successful. Then there's art that, you know, and then among all of those venues, all of those places, there's art that wouldn't do well within certain spaces. That's literally life. You know, I really don't know what else to say, so I'm going to call it on that one.