Is DA a good way to break through as a freelance painter?

[kigerneko]

Are there people on the forums here who've had commissions via DeviantArt before? There are lots of artists who started doing commissions on DA but I'm not so sure if DA nowadays is still as high quality as years before. If someone would ask me I'd say that I'd prefer ordering a print or commission via Gumroad or Facebook instead. Maybe even Instagram.

Is DA still a good way to break through as a freelance painter? Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

[JesterSeraph]

Every platform is a good way to break out as a freelance artist. Keeping portfolios on as many different communities as you can helps you get visibility, because each community has people that aren't on any other, and each community also has people who also browse multiple. Those who only browse one will see your work if you're on all of the platforms, and those who are in multiple communities will see your work appearing everywhere, cementing your name in their heads.

Tumblr gets you commissions, DA gets you commissions, heck even these forums could end up getting you commissions. It's all about getting more visibility.

[hermidraws]

I am by no means a working professional/freelancer.

One thing I have seen is to know what kind of audiences you're targeting, where are peoples attentions, and which allows you to easily do what you want to do.

Personally for me I stick with Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, Youtube, Artstation. I originally had dA for quite some time, but eventually this year I discarded it. It's slowly or already has changed to a different direction that I do not like.

There is also the other thing of building side projects, at least for design there is always this old saying of keep doing stupid side projects, because they're the things that will also make noises in the world which eventually leads peoples to see what you are about.

But again these are just things that I have learned from other sources, the recommendation as of late from Chris Oatley of someone asking him similar question he said personally he would go with Instagram in this point of time.

Alias, my 2 cents that I farted out of my brain. Hope this can give some insights maybe. And also, do check marketing for artist by Bobby Chiu

[Acolet]

What I heard from several artists doing freelance for a living, best sites for getting commissions are ones with mixed audience - like facebook, twitter, tumblr etc.
Since most of dA's user base are artist, there is much lower 'commissioners to artists' ratio - that's why prices there tend to unusually low too, too much supply, not enough demand.
And then there are sites like Artstation, which market themselves to both the artists and the companies looking to hire artists.

[kugelblitz1]

can yo elaborate on what you mean by DA going a direction you dont like?

[hermidraws]

It's merely a personal thing, but for me, its not like the place it used to be of you know community if that makes sense. Now it has all kind of different weird kind of subjects.

Of course everyone has their own taste. So instead I decided to move to Artstation, it feels more like a professional place, while dA at this point in time is more for beginning artist, and those whom already has a big following on there, still posts from time to time.

Overall is just personal preference really, different platforms for different time, unless you use your own platforms.

[kigerneko]

@brianhermelijn I agree with you. It feels like I have to browse through so much junk before I finally find what I like. Of course my junk is on there, too. Like you said it's personal taste but it makes me wonder how effective the site really is atm. I think it definitely has become more money oriented on their side. I could be wrong, though! It's changed a lot.

@Acolet What you're saying makes a lot of sense. Thanks!