How to Make a Sketch Blog People Will Actually Enjoy
An art blog should showcase your work and keep people excited about it. Is it working? Or are you just boring everyone? To keep things fresh and interesting on my own sketch blog, I try to take a moment once in awhile to evaluate a few things.
Here’s a few guidelines I’ve come up with, so have them in mind before you put up your next post.
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Variety – Some artists post a “painting a day.” Others fill their blogs with Illustration Friday submissions. These are all well and good, but I like blogs that give me something different every now and then, like:
- sketches
- paintings
- news
- works-in-progress
- discoveries and experiments
In other words, keep people from looking at your latest post and saying, “Haven’t I seen this before?”
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Exclusive content – Make a few posts with images that you can’t find anywhere else on the web. Try not to fill your blog with old artwork or “double-post” stuff from somewhere else. Maybe it’s your latest illustration that you haven’t put on your portfolio site yet. Or behind-the-scenes sketches from one of your paintings. This is where blogs shine, and it will keep people interested enough to keep coming back.
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Quality – Just. Post. Great. Artwork. Period. Nothing works better to gain loyal readers.
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Regular updates – Even if it’s just once a week, try to keep the posts coming. Otherwise, your blog will slowly fade away to the Abyss of Unloved Sketch Blogs.
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No cats – At least, not a lot of them (I do like a cute kitten every now and then). But if your blog contains more photos of your pets and family vacations than artwork, take a step back. You want to have a personal touch, but the main purpose of your blog is to showcase your artwork, so use it for that purpose.
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Easy on the keyboard – If you are running an art blog, your readers are most likely visual people. If they see a page full of text containing your rant about The Current Status of the Modern Art World, their eyes will probably just glaze over.
You probably didn’t know that running a blog was going to be this DIFFICULT, did you? I myself fail at my own advice sometimes. Just realize that these are just guidelines. All that really matters is that you continue to make good artwork, and remember to give your blog some attention every now and then.
I took a look at my own RSS reader and found these nice blogs that exemplify some or all of the qualities above. Give them a look!
And this is my sketch blog: http://danijonesillustration.blogspot.com
Share your own sketch blog link, or point us to some of your favorite artists in the comments section at DaniDraws.com.
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8 responses to How to Make a Sketch Blog People Will Actually Enjoy
All great points Dani. It is tough to keep things interesting sometimes, especially just starting out. I totally agree on the ‘cat’ thing, but how do you feel about dogs. They really are MUCH cuter. I do try to keep my dog pictures to a minimum…
oh boy! Thanks for the link, Dani. I was trying to take notes on the great points you were making, and there is my blog! Thanks a bunch. I especially agree with keeping the text short with artists blogs…sometimes when its too much I usually skim through. A picture means a thousand words.
i have one:
http://ihateillustration.blogspot.com/
but not as good like the other ones!
Thanks Dani!…..I’m honored to be on the lists of blogs that do it right, not that mine is perfect, but I am excited that someone appreciates all of the hard work that goes into it….fun, but hard at times.
Great post! I agree with keeping it short and sweet. Just like web copywriting, nobody reads a post that looks like a book. (unless you’re a copywriter)
What good advice!
I created my blog to encourage me to loosen up my style and sketch more often. Quite how to get people to find my blog is another thing entirely! It’s very new but it would be nice to know other people where enjoying the site too. Any advice on this?
Sandra – The best way to get your work seen is to interact with people. Comment on blogs (like you just did :)), talk on Twitter, post work on sites like deviantART, Illustration Friday, etc. Creating the blog is only half the battle – now you have to let people know it exists.
Thanks for sharing your tips Dani :0)