How to Support Artists You Love

Now and then, I get questions about how to support myself and other artists you love, so I've made a list of how to do just that. Just like BuzzFeed and every blogging sites out there!

Just as a note, I am an artist myself, and I have been doing art in person and on social media for about five years. The information I'll be giving is based on a personal experience and observations I have accumulated through the years. I don't see myself as a complete expert as there is always a lot more to learn. The list of things are great things to keep in mind, and you don't have to do all of them. But if you are reading this right now, you are probably interested in doing at least most of these.

1. Buying Their Merch or Commissioning Them

This might seem like an obvious thing but purchasing an artist's work or providing them with work is easily a top thing you can do to support artists you love. Sadly, being an artist is like being in business, without people coming in and buying your works, it's hard to keep things running. Art materials cost money and especially for those that vendors at art events or conventions, it is required to operate.

2. Supporting Them Through Donations/ Patreon/ Ko-Fi/Etc

If you want to support an artist directly without a purchase, you can ask them how you can donate to their cause.

These days, a lot of artists are also offering perks for donations too through the Patreon and Ko-Fi platform. Many artists, including myself, will even provide early-access or exclusive perks to works that haven't been posted yet to the public.

3. Affiliated Links

Affiliated links are links connected to a person's account. It's a big way for companies like Amazon to have people drive more traffics to their site while giving those people some perks like a percentage in return if someone buys something through the links.

This is very common for content creators on YouTube but is something artists do as well. Especially with artists that share what tools they use to make their art and want to monetize that with direct affiliate links to those products on Amazon. With a purchase with their link, they'll be getting a percentage of that sale. It's small cash flow but is still something you can do to support.

4. Sharing Their Work (with Permission of course)

Sharing is caring, and that applies to the artist's works as well. If you like an artwork that your favorite artists have shared, feel free to share their work. And if they aren't on the inter-webs, ask if you can take a picture and share them on social media! No matter what, more exposure is always great! Make sure to ask the artist themselves if it's alright to share, and always credit their works so that people know who to look for when they are crying over beautiful art!

5. Follow Them On Social Media and Engaging with Their Posts

Following your favorite artists on their social medias is a great way to always stay up to date on what they're currently working on, what art prints or merch they'll be selling and which convention they'll be at. And like in one of the previous points, liking, commenting and SHARING is a big bonus for artists who are trying to get a following on social media.

If you did not know, social media sites/apps have these things called algorithms. The algorithms factors in which content has the most engagement and those posts will be pushed down your feed so that you're always getting "popular" posts at the top of your news-feed. This is also their way of still giving you the best experience on their platform. If you don't engage with posts from a specific creator consistently, the algorithm of the feeds will think that you aren't interested in seeing content from that creator (yes, even if you are following them). So if you want to keep seeing posts from any specific creators, make sure to go and like all their latest posts now so their posts shows up on your feed!

That is all for this post. If anybody want, I can do another blog post about more ways anyone can support artists. Let me know in the contact box!

If you want to support me and my brand, considering joining my Patreon, a purchase of adorable goods or by sharing my webcomic and this article! : ) <3