I'm posting to this relatively late, but ya know.. I was active on deviantart way, way back in the day in the mid-2000s when I was an undergrad in university. And I gotta say, I got to a know a lot of professional artists because I started by following their deviant art accounts before they became professional artists. Then they migrated to Tumblr and instagram and I migrated with them. I was also big on oekaki though I always kind of just sucked at it, I just liked drawing on it, was always kind of horrible at actually using it.

Most of the artists I follow now, are on instagram and my actual art side account that I use to post art for fun which is how I used deviant art too is on instagram now too. It's not the same feeling as deviant art and I don't think, there's really anything in the modern scene like deviant art was in its heyday, but I'm also just not after a ton of followers. I tend to be very much in the dude, if you like my art, all the better for it, but I'm not the hard core artist who was an animation major like I was in my early 20s so I just art for the sake of arting as a form of stress relief now.

Honestly, same.

I took a break from posting art and art related stuff but coming back to these different art spaces, it's been a whole mess. Actually art websites suck or are becoming worse. (i.e with A.I and unfair algorithms) The big thing with Deviantart was a good community of people just wanting to communicate and whatnot but with all the not friendly content paired with the fact that it seems like the creators of the site don't seem to care about it anymore.

It does feel hostile and competitive.

Places like Twitter, Tumblr (Although I hear it's having a comeback) and Instagram just aren't cutting it.

I wish somebody would come up with a website that ticks all the boxes, yknow? But even better, have the glorious traction that Deviantart had back then. Because I know there's probably one out there but I haven't heard any.

OOOOOH MAN this made me so nostalgic. There's so much cool stuff that was on the internet when I was younger that I miss, and this is definitely one of the MAIN things I miss.

I miss it so much. I miss how everyone interacted the most.

OCT, Original Character Tournaments, dude. When those were around for a short time, that was the BEST. I spent hours looking at people's entries and got so invested.

it feels weirdly nice to hear other people bemoaning the loss of oekakis—i’ve felt for ages like i was alone in remembering them because i hardly hear other people talk about them! the sutaro/suta-raito oekaki was my internet art home for… a really really long time. i still checked it regularly and occasionally posted a drawing until it was taken down with no notice a few years ago. i reached out to the owner asking if there was any archive or way to access it, and unfortunately, the answer was no. that was my big “the internet is so different now” moment, particularly for art.

i will say that chickensmoothie still has a super active oekaki community with boatloads of boards! it also has a really nice variety of younger, newer artists and more experienced artists, so it has that really lovely knowledge exchange and atmosphere of loving critique that i loved about oekakis back in the day. it’s hard for me to use an oekaki these days as they don’t work great with my ipad, but it’s fun and nostalgic to be able to revisit that community in some way, even if it’s just scrolling through and commenting.

i’m a professional artist these days, which my oekaki-loving childhood self would probably explode from happiness about, and i am bitter each and every day that social media is the only way i can get people to interface with my work now. it’s exhausting. it isn’t designed for us, and it feels like fighting an uphill battle every step of the way to get a handful of comments and nearly zero engagement. even tumblr hardly has the fanart community it used to :((

I miss DeviantART too. I swear every time I log in the whole front page is just "deviant" art (coughcough starts with an F and ends with -etish coughcough), which I'm not against! But I will specifically have "Show mature art" off, and I'll still be flooded with it. And because that "style" of art isn't "Inherently mature," according to the dA admins, they won't force people to tag it as such. Also, their tag system is even more of a mess since they changed it to the hashtag system. It's so sad because I made so many friends there.

This is something I've felt a lot lately and had my artist friends echo, too. I'm keeping an eye on Artfol at the moment — it currently is only a mobile app, but their web version is supposedly going to be released this year. I think patreon supporters and premium account holders are allowed to use the beta version of web right now, though.

They've recently announced that they're banning AI art on the platform, but I haven't heard any word on NFTs specifically. They did ask the community when the topic of AI art came up though, so I have hope that they would do the same for NFTs if they ever started to entertain the idea. >_>

In general, the art community isn't what it once was, so rather than trying to engage with the whole community I just go on a person-by-person basis. I'd much rather have a few good friends than immerse myself in a culture that feeds off competition and clout, which is kind of the tone of some art communities these days? Or at least, that's what it feels like, which is a huge bummer. :/ I've not made any effort to get into the community on Artfol, but if it ends up being a fun place to post art again than that's a plus! I thought I'd mention it here in case anyone else was interested.

man i have been thinking about this a lot lately too it seems that every art site has issues, dA went down the toilet, sheezy art closed cause it was just 1 dev's practice project, buzzly had some weird ass issues, artfol doesnt have desktop yet and i dont do that stuff on mobile.... i have an inkblot but the track record of all these others means i havent bothered posting on it yet, so in essence i just havent been posting art at all anywhere. i posted on twitter for a while but twitter just isnt the best place for it. ive been debating making a new art tumblr but man i really like having comments haha

it seems like twitter and instagram are the biggest art places, not including things like kofi and patreon

It's a crying shame, but there really is no art site like old deviantArt anymore, and nothing so far is a good replacement. I don't know much about Instagram or Twitter (I don't have an account at either one) but they seem like terrible places as far as getting your art discovered, and for others to give meaningful feedback. Tumblr isn't good for it either: it's easy enough to post your art, but hard for others to find it, and even when/if they do, again, they're very limited in the feedback they can give.

Patreon and kofi aren't art specific; they can be used for just about anything that needs funds.

DeviantArt allowed people to leave comments on art that weren't limited to a certain number of characters. The tag system sort of worked as far as getting people to find your art, but what helped even more with visibility is that you could join groups with a common theme or interest (a group about dragons, a group centered around that one pairing from that show you like, a group dedicated to monthly art trades, etc) You could submit art through that group, and immediately anyone who was a part of that group could see it, so right there already were some people interested in your art. I can't think of another site offhand that has that, or at least makes it that easy to organize a group.

Tags are okay, but the main thing I don't like about them is you have to think of every possible permutation of one (or more) in order to reach the widest audience, and honestly I'm not going to think of every single possibility, every single time I upload something.

I hate that deviantArt has made so many shitty decisions lately - not only the one about NFTs, but the filter that automatically detected "sensitive" material that didn't actually work (it flagged a lot of art as "sensitive" that was nowhere NEAR suggestive, with no way to appeal). I still have an account there, but I don't plan on uploading anything to it ever again.

And I won't even get into the AI based art programs that can steal pretty much all your art, and a lot of other people's, in the blink of an eye.

So all that, plus personal problems with motivation - no wonder I don't draw much anymore.

Edit: Almost forgot!! Subeta did indeed have its own oekaki years ago, but it got taken down. Difficult to keep working, I think. :(

Just popping back in to say that Artfol has a web version now! :) It's still in beta I believe, so improvements will likely be made and things may change around over time, but from what I can tell it has all the main features that the app has. [edit] Should probably mention, the URL is Artfol.co !

Old thread, but yes. It seemed like people would comment more on art, for example, and be encouraging. I understand what OP means when she says "colder." I think online culture as a whole has become more introverted and "cold," not just the art culture. I'm guessing rising levels of anxiety in the population are playing a part here. ETA: And maybe it's because I'm an old fogey but I dislike how it feels like everything's on Discord now. I like the atmosphere of forums, and speaking of anxiety, live conversations make me more anxious!

All the professional artists I know, friends in undergrad included who didn't end up becoming artists for studios( animators, background artists, etc...) and just became freelance artists are all pretty much on Instagram or Tumblr, mostly because they can parlay the Instagram followers they have into art for sale for their livelihoods.

I do think it's true that maybe art has become more cold. The thing about stuff like Oekaki and Deviantart is that they also helped a lot in improving your art skill. I mostly used Bakaneko and Oekaki Central when I did draw Oekaki though I stuck to the general forums( Oekaki Central and Bakaneko) had Oekakis for more advanced users and I was mostly just playing around with Oekaki.

But deviantart and oekaki central were big on user commentary without the destructive ( your art is just plain bad insulting)... oekaki central and bakaneko both had moderators for their oekakis and their biggest rule was just, constructive criticism only. I don't really see Instagram and tumblr as having that avenue simply because there's just not an extensive commentary system to include it.

I used to LOVE deviantart. It was one of the things that inspired me to become an artist. I feel like these days a lot of people make fun of it and it's seen as a creepy fetish place now which is so sad. I pretty much only use Instagram now :/ Does anyone follow artists on Tumblr anymore? I try to use Twitter but IDK... I find twitter boring.

OMG THIS! Its about time we are seeing other artists actually discuss this! I am not the only one who thinks a lot of engagement has died off. I remember being on DA and FA back in '06. Back then, people actually talked to one another. It was not uncommon, especially if you were a popular artist, for your work to get like 20 to 30 comments. Now, no matter the platform or site, even artists nowdays I consider to be popular, only get like 2 to 3 comments. People would rather retweet, like and fave, than actually engage anymore.

As far as hostility goes in the art community, I have seen some, sure but I will admit it has gotten..I dunno, colder, more indifferent? It makes you feel like, why should I spend X amount of time on a personal piece or fanart, if it just going to get ignored or filtered throughout an algorithm.

I miss the old art site days too. Back when artists felt like they had a community. I remember making and having so many friends. I have my discord server and a good number of friends there, but, it doesn't really feel the same, ya know?

100% agreed. This has been a huge source of unhappiness in my life for the past decade, no exaggeration.

All the art sites I used to be on are either deleted or ghost towns, except maybe Deviantart. Then DeviantArt did all that nasty stuff with profiting off users's art, using it to train AI, etc. and I was glad I don't really use it any more.

Social media is terrible for posting art, but that's where the audience went. In the beginning, the image size restrictions and forced compression were the biggest problem. Then they started using algorithms instead of just showing people a proper timeline. Now if the algorithm isn't in your favor, you're just out of luck. Nobody will see what you post, even if they follow you.

Ever since things started going this way, I just haven't felt motivated to draw like I used to pre-2010. There's no good way to share it, so why bother. It's very depressing and I don't know what to do about it.

I used to love deviantART. I was on there for 17 years and I made some amazing friends there. But the straw that broke the camel's back was their own AI "art" generator and how they handled the criticism.

I'm somewhat active on FurAffinity and Weasyl, but for the most part I'm sharing things on Twitter, Bluesky, and Instagram.

But man... I really miss the days Oekaki Boards. ;~;

I remember when Subeta had an Oekaki ... I never used it but I remember it. Sadly it didn't last long from what I recall.

I miss the early days of DA. I am by no means an artist myself, I'm trash. But I got better at art for a while and honestly it was just fun and felt more real to post on DA and other art sites?

I use some social media but never for art or anything it's just not worth the headache.

Genuinely hope I'm not too late to the discussion!

I totally miss the old days of DA (mostly bc I was a kid and I just posted for my friends as we drew warrior cats ocs and dittos wearing monocles and we didn't quite care yet about the public eye). There always seems to be a new art site that pops up but can't handle the pressure or image hosting cost OR the site explodes bc of something weird the admin did to their team or something. But with Twitter going down the hole, it just kind of doesn't seem there's a good place anywhere ? it feels very lonely.

Definitely one of the more exhausting problems surrounding modern-day internet.

Every social media platform wants to be some kind of one-stop-shop and be able to do all the things, all at once even if they're not the best platform for it rather than having a good spread of sites that have their own specializations/niches to fill.

Can't blame artists though, because, of course, they'd want to be somewhere that's more accessible and has a wider reach.

I think I can still access my dA account but I'd rather not use it anymore when I get around to posting my art again because the layout just feels like total ass...

Tumblr's probably the best alternative I can think of but I get it might be intimidating at times for those concerned about notes/engagement.