Tumblr artists: WHY?

[Bornes]

Why are so many artists moving to tumblr?
There are no galleries on tumblr, there is no easy way to commission, not even a proper comments feature for your posts.

And to hear there are tumblr artists who actually prefer tumblr over everything else, don't even have a DA/etc... Just why?
What is so appealing to artists on tumblr? I don't get it. I'd never commission someone through tumblr and I've commissioned a lot of art.

[Ratte]

I used Tumblr for a little over a year and I hated it. I was commissioned a grand total of once and my art was never seen. There were a handful of occasions where I would repost my own image because dammit I worked hard on that and I want people to see it and know that I'm here.

But since it's art and not some dumb fandom-related gifset or cats or some SJW whining about nothing, I guess I should have expected that.

[lorenith]

I've seen lots of artists move from DA to tumblr, because they prefer the freedom quite a bit more, among other things. Several of these artists are actually professionals though and they don't typically have to do commissions, but a few do (the ones still in art school, or who make a living on commissions rather than working for a company). Some have a presence on multiple places, but are more active on tumblr, some have moved fully onto tumblr.

And judging by the variety of commission price posts being signal boosted, lots of people do commission artists on tumblr, or at the very least it's another vehicle to share your info and get customers.

Also you can create something like a gallery depending on the theme, and special pages and such.

[QT Melon]

I use Tumblr as a visual blog or avenue. I get my Sai tips reblogged a lot

[owlette]

I hated Tumblr until I had a friend who posted most of her art there, and I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I have to say, I like it.

When it comes to sharing art, it works kind of like gaining popularity through favorites on DA -- your followers reblog your art, their followers see it and reblog it, so on and so forth exponentially. You just have to make sure to include a signature or watermark, though most of the people I follow are really good about keeping the original source with the image. If people like the art enough, it has the potential to spread like wildfire.

That said, I do personally find it a little awkward for commissions. I much prefer a gallery site like Weasyl, or via email. I usually use Tumblr for sharing art, and have it link back to my website or another gallery.

[Infestissumam]

Tumblr's navigation is so counter-intuitive (and was actually adopted by other art websites, like dA and Photobucket) that I hate the site for its influence (I can't tell you how many people act, not are, act like a complete idiot, now). That on top of its terrible community and the fact that it's just a bunch of gifs from TV shows leads me to finding the site bland and just plain awful.

I have an account there specifically for making controversially terrible statements to other blogs, just because it's funny to make self-entitled pricks angry.

[Chesse20]

I don't want to join a site full of SJWs and big nerds, and memes

considering that tumblr is rumored to be the place where the doge meme came from

[marchen]

I personally like tumblr as a way to upload sketches and other pieces quickly and to house them to share. I don't really fret over popularity since I don't do fanart nor am good enough to attract the masses. And that is ok since my tumblr is just a platform to upload everything. I have gotten a couple commissions through tumblr but I prefer to get them through main galleries.

I don't care for the tumblr community as a whole but I've met some wonderful friends through tumblr and just avoid everyone else.

[Vae]

Tumblr is amazing for sharing media. That is its purpose.
Like something, or want to comment on it?
Reblog it, and add your comment.
Not only are you commenting, but you're also sharing that work with everyone that's following you.
You're increasing the piece's exposure. Something that, through adding comments normally, you won't end up doing on an art site.

I do feel that Tumblr needs a normal comments system, though. One that isn't limited to who's been following you for a few weeks. If people are worried about spam, that's where comment moderation tools and having the ability to turn off anon replies comes in.

And not everyone does commissions. I've never done commissions, so I can't really comment on that. But it's not that hard to add a link to your commissions page or even your gallery page in the post description.
People CAN remove this, but it's considered good manners on Tumblr not to.

You can also easily section off a part of your Tumblr for being an art gallery, through the use of tags and pages.
For instance, all of my art on Tumblr is posted with the tag #art post.
Which means that you can easily find my art from the drop-down menu in the sidebar of my blog. This links to pages of nothing but my art.
An "art gallery", in a sense, except that it's imbedded into a general blog for my general interests and everything else, as well.

Also, you have to take into account that not all artists are in the interest of incessantly networking and stuff.
I like the simplicity of just dropping something in there and pretty much forgetting about it, save for the occasional ask or comment.

[Willow]

I've come to realize that the only way to really get people to notice your work on Tumblr is to already have your work uploaded elsewhere and therefore already have a fanbase

Either that or draw fan fart and subsequently draw porn of people's OTPs