You just finished creating your greatest Masterpiece, and the first thing you want to do is stand on top of the mountain and shout it out loud for the entire world to witness. Unfortunately, that’s not how reality works.
In today’s world of capitalism, you need to market your artwork and yourself so people can see what you’re doing. In short, you can create beautiful paintings or extraordinary illustrations on your laptop, but as long as you don’t market, people are not going to know you exist.
Kelly Marie Beckius, the artist behind @messyeverafter, writes in one of her blogs, “No one wants your art, but it’s not because it’s bad. It’s because You need to convince people they want it.” In short, you need to promote your artwork if you want to grow yourself in the market.
Luckily for you guys, we have prepared a complete guide on promoting your Movie Poster Artwork and ‘make it’ as an Artist in the Arts Community. The following are suggestions for aspiring fan art movie poster creators looking to build an audience.
The ‘5 Ingredients’ in Promoting your Movie Poster Artwork
Looking at the big picture can be quite intimidating, especially for a newbie in the world of Movie Poster Artworks. To make it easy for you to digest, we have divided the ‘Big Picture’ into a list of 5 small and simple ingredients:
- Establish your Goals
- Create Quality Content
- Social Media Platforms
- Network. Network. Network
- Take Part in Competitions
Establish your Goals
The first step in promoting your artwork is to identify your goals – Why do you want your audience to see your artwork?
Is it because you want to sell your art? Or you want to gain exposure to the industry? Perhaps, you want to grow your career as an art director or creative director? Figuring out your goals will help you understand your direction and set a roadmap towards success.
Establishing your goals will also help you gain insight into what kind of artists you need to look up to. If becoming a movie poster art director or creative director working for a big-time agency is something you are interested in, then you may want to read these 2 articles:
- Top 11 Skills You Need To Be A Movie Poster Art Director
- 7 Skills That You Need To Be A Movie Poster Creative Director
Create Quality Content
Creating Quality Content doesn’t mean you are creating bad artwork. It just means it needs to be presented in a way that it looks appealing.
Imagine posting a picture of a poster in dull lighting with bad camera quality. It’s not going to attract a lot of audiences. If you aim to become a successful Movie Poster Artist, you need to know how to present your work in an attractive way.
The best way to do this is to mimic successful artists and try to do what they are doing. With time, you’ll start to develop your own style identity and create quality products gradually.
Social Media Platforms
Believe it or not, social media platforms are not merely for scrolling through memes and influencers. In fact, social media is a powerful tool in digital marketing, particularly in the arts industry.
Big names, such as Bosslogic or Tom Whalen, started their humble journey from small art accounts on Instagram. With a little dedication and regular posting, people started to notice their work, and their followers gradually started growing.
The key to excelling in social media marketing is to develop a Social Media Strategy. The internet is filled with online art communities, where people regularly share and promote their work. Here is a list of platforms popular in the art industry:
Even live streaming has become a place to expose your abilities as an artist and garner an audience you can interact with. Check out Twitch to see what other artists are doing.
In the artist community, Instagram is pretty popular in terms of promotion and exposure. So, for beginners, it is easier to start with Instagram and gradually expand towards other platforms. Here are a few tricks to help you create your mark on Social Media:
- Use engaging captions. Small ones can work, but longer ones will keep your viewer hovering over your post for a longer time.
- Understand how social media algorithms work and post your content according. For example, posting at engaging hours on Instagram will generate more likes in less time, thus increasing your audience engagement.
- Use the right hashtags. Hashtags can go a long way in promoting your artwork.
- Interact with similar artists on social media and cross-promote each other’s work.
- For static images of artwork use multiple images with different crops so the view can scroll and spend more time on your post. This can help with the algorithm.
Network. Network. Network.
When it comes to the promotion of anything, as a matter of fact, the first thing that you need to master is networking. One of the best ways to do that is:
- Attend Movie Poster Art Exhibitions and Shows: This will allow you to meet professional artists, art fans, and industry agents. You know all the Comic-con events out there. Some movie poster artists hit them up every month to promote and sell their work.
- Artist Organizations: Apart from networking opportunities, these organizations can help you master your design skills through workshops, competitions, and artist promotion programs.
- Participate in Community Art: Participating in community art projects, such as painting a mural wall, or teaching at a community, can help you build connections with fellow artists. Plus this looks great on your social media accounts.
- Collaboration and Partner: Collaborating or partnering with other designers on art projects is a great way to build repute and strong connections with fellow artists.
The main goal of networking is to increase your exposure in the industry as an artist. Moreover, it allows fellow artists to view your work for inspiration, allowing you to grow and gain followers.
I know we mentioned selling your artwork in conventions and exhibitions. It would be wise to to brush up your understanding of copyright. We wrote an article which may be helpful and point you in the right direction.
Take Part in Competitions
Movie Poster Competitions are a great way to gain exposure and earn some attention for your art. If you manage to win, you will not only be promoting your work but having an award under the belt can help you build your reputation as an artist.
In case you don’t win, don’t lose spirit, as entering art competitions is an excellent way to polish your design skills and showcase your art. Most competitions will also show off runner ups, recent entries, and honorable mentions, which is another great way to gain exposure.
Consistency
Like anything in life, you need to stay consistent. Action needs to be taken every day without hardly taking time off. Assuming you want to rise above the rest.
The top designers and artists are constantly working and polishing their skill sets. This means you will need to do the same, even when you don’t feel like it.
The End Note
If you haven’t guessed already, promoting your Movie Poster Artwork requires great dedication and passion for what you do. It’s not going to be an overnight success; rather, the journey consists of milestones, bumps, confusions, and a little bummer now and then.
However, if you stay consistent and focused on growth, your name will surely shine among the big leagues.
My suggestion is if you want to build yourself as a Movie Poster Artist, you should polish your graphic design skills. This includes typography, illustrations, sketching, and of course, graphic art. For inspiration and creativity boost, head over to our “Poster Gallery” to view amazing artwork and designs.
Lucky for you guys, we are launching an amazing online course that’ll teach you everything you need to know to become a Movie Poster Artist.
Let us assure you; our classes are taught by professional creative directors, art directors, graphic designers, and illustrators working first-hand in the industry.
In fact, we condemn the practice of art school professors – that have never stepped foot inside a design agency – teaching design to young and blooming artists. In short, we’ll only be teaching you the real-world necessities and leaving the BS out.
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Credits
Akira fan art piece by Jeff Stevens