Here’s an ugly truth: art is a male dominated field. From comic illustrations to fine art, men tend to dominate the fields of art and illustration, being paid more and being more recognized for their work.
But there’s a hashtag on Twitter that is helping to change that.
#VisibleWomen and #VisibleWoman are both awesome hashtags that many artists are using to showcase their best illustrations and artwork.
Over the past couple of days my feed has been flooded with the skilled work of many women using these hashtags, and I couldn’t be happier!
The beauty of these hashtags are that they’re introducing me to so many artists that I would never have even heard of otherwise. These women have unique tastes and skill sets, which combine to create some stunning pieces of art.
Some of these top tweets have hundreds of likes, but some are even in the thousands, which is why it’s so important to utilize hashtags to get people to view your work.
Keeping an eye on and using the trending hashtags that Twitter shows is one way to use hashtags, but here are a few others:
1. Look at what other professionals in your field are tweeting and retweeting
One of the ways to get your work seen is to look at what other professionals are using to get their work seen.
Keep in mind that some hashtags are field specific, so keep a close eye on the tweets of professionals who are working in your field, or in a field you want to break into.
The reason that I found #VisibleWomen was because some of my favorite artists, the role models who inspire me and my work, started tweeting about it and retweeting people who used that hashtag.
2. Follow and interact with people who have similar interests, hobbies, and professions
When you’re following and interacting with those who have similar interests, hobbies, and professions, you’ll be seeing what they use to get their work noticed.
You’ll also learn more about them and what they like, so you might make a new friend or find a new mentor!
3. Check out the top influencers who use a hashtag you’re interested in, and see what other hashtags they use, and what they tweet about
Scrolling through the top tweets that used #VisibleWomen, it didn’t take me long to find one that had a few thousand likes. I’ve been following this awesome artist for awhile, and so I decided to scroll through her tweets to find out what she was tweeting about.
Along with several retweets of other artists using #VisibleWomen, this artist tweets about her artwork, her kickstarter campaign, the status of her online shop, and which conventions she’ll be going to.
Looking at a few more artists who were using that hashtag with much success, they were also tweeting about their artwork and sketches, their inspirations, conventions they were attending, and their stores.
Doing these analyses is a great way to find out what you should be tweeting about!
Remember, don’t be afraid to promote your own work. You put time and effort into your passions, promoting yourself gives ways for others to see that.
If you have a moment, I would highly recommend taking a look at some of the work being featured using #VisibleWomen and #VisibleWoman. Who knows, you might find your next favorite artist.
