Social media and emerging artists

Social media is heavily criticised among adults and some young people. Sometimes it may seem a showcase for our feelings, our personality and above all, our physique. We tend to believe that a person's social network is an open book about their life, but this is far from the truth.

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and the emerging TikTok bring many advantages, despite their disadvantages, and for artists who get a great reach on them, it is a perfect opportunity to reach their goals. One good thing about viralisation is the ease of recognition for the work of a person just starting out in the world.

Likes and comments can sometimes seem silly, but for people who want to grow in the art world it helps and benefits their work when people share and provide feedback on their work.

After years of work and practice, many artists have found the perfect place to present their creations and make them welcome. Social media has benefited many artists who are now further away than they could have imagined, such as singer Justin Bieber who owes his fame to YouTube and poet Rupi Kaur who started her career on Tumblr and Instagram.

In recent years, digital illustrations have been gaining ground in art and are no longer simply exact portraits of the people they represent. In the case of Inés Pérez, better known as @Ine8s (on Instagram and Twitter), digital drawing has become a tool to go beyond the people and fictional characters she usually focuses on.

This artist focuses on the most representative and recognisable part of a person's face and turns it into a unique and incomparable illustration. As soon as you see one of Inés' first works, you will always be able to tell them apart from the others. Also in recent months, the illustrator has gone further and created moving illustrations of singers such as Rihanna or Lady Gaga in different phases of their musical life. She has also experimented with the creation of two comics based on the songs of singer Taylor Swift: Betty and No Body, No Crime.

These innovations have managed to attract the attention of thousands of people and Inés has almost 58 thousand followers on Instagram, the social network through which she shares her work. On TikTok we can see and follow the creative process of this artist.

According to what Pérez told us in an exclusive interview for Atalayar, social networks have benefited her and "almost 100% of the work I have achieved as an illustrator has been through them". However, she adds that "it is true that they can impose a pressure of having to be constantly producing new, interesting things that are going to be liked, and if you don't know how to cope with it, it can end up working against you".

The illustrator has been running her account since 2016, but she says that " it was in 2019 or so that I started to grow quite a bit" after American actress, singer, dancer, model and producer Zendaya, shared her work on her Instagram account. "It was also since that year that my tweets were seen by more than 2 million people, which is crazy," adds Inés.

As for her work, she says that "I really like portraiture, capturing emotions in the faces of characters and painting light. I am inspired by films, music, TV series...". And what she loves to transmit through her illustrations is "to evoke emotions; I often try to intensify what I see in the photos I use as a reference through colour".

After so much boom on social networks, Inés saw other artists who made similar works selling prints of their work and "when people asked me if I sold my drawings, I decided to open a shop". The latest works have sold out in a matter of hours and each order is sent with a thank you card.  

Despite all these advantages, on social networks "it's very difficult to make sure they don't steal your work, the more reach you have the more common it is", he says. She also complains that "from time to time they send me links to shops that sell T-shirts with my drawings without my permission and I report them, but most of the time there's little else you can do".

In the last few years a different and innovative way of making art has been incorporated into the artistic spectrum, that of make-up art. Which is present in social networks such as Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, allowing these artists to travel the world on our screens.

In the case of Fatima Zahra, a Makeup Artist who does make-up for fashion shows, weddings, photo shoots, among many other clients who have come to her service for her perfect finishes and original make-up.

Fatima began to notice her impact on social networks from the first moment she decided to enter this world and started working while she was training. "I have to say that social networks helped me a lot, and this came about because I was sharing my school work, the internships I was doing, etc. and when I wanted to realise it, I was already working professionally," says our protagonist in an interview for Atalayar.

In her opinion, although social networks benefit 50%, they do not benefit 50% of the time. She thinks that you have to "know how to manage" social networks very well in a way that "can be beneficial" and that "this requires a lot of time, effort and, above all, perseverance". However, sometimes there is no benefit and "they lead to emotional exhaustion". She says that "in many cases the number of followers conditions you, even if you stand out, whatever your profession is".

She uses WhatsaApp and Instagram to share her work and "stay connected and interact with my clients", although she does not rule out the use of other social networks. These platforms "allow you to share your knowledge, your way of working, your style and your talent. This helps me, both to reach a certain audience and my clients, who are interested in my work.

The world of art is beginning to assimilate the fact that make-up is another art form, but many people still don't see it as such. For Fatima, art in general is infinite. "It is 'beginning' to be assimilated as another art form, but the practice of make-up began many years ago, in prehistoric times, and the most outstanding period in terms of its importance is the Egyptian era."

"Any kind of art serves to express ourselves emotionally, tell a story or simply convey a message and make us feel good, in this case the canvas is the face or the body. Likewise, make-up is about highlighting beauty, not creating it, and all beauty is art," she says.

Some people's uncertainty and ignorance leads them to get upset about wanting to charge for make-up and assume they don't have to pay. Even if they don't, Zahra says, they also try to haggle over the price. She stresses that "what they don't know is that behind this 'hobby' there is a lot of effort, work and training."

Our artist's interest in make-up began at a very early age, and she was fascinated by doing the make-up and hair of her dolls, "later on at birthdays or parties I would always offer to do the hair and make-up of my friends, I loved it because I enjoyed it so much, basically I was the 'make-up artist' of the group".

Years later, she trained at a professional make-up school and now enjoys being a make-up artist. "The phrase I will never stop repeating is that there is no more gratifying feeling than making your passion a profession".

The world through a lens

Photography is the art of capturing what our eyes see and reaching beyond what they fail to see. With a camera in hand and a city that offers irresistible landscapes, Carlos Sánchez shares on social media the essence he captures of New York.

His photographic career begins on social media, as Sánchez is the author of a photographic guide to New York (guiaNY.com) that was born directly from social media. "It is a compilation of photographs that I have shared on social networks. And it answers the questions I'm often asked every time I publish a photograph", he says in an interview with Atalayar.

This photographer has found the repercussion of his photographic work on social networks not only during his work time, but also in his free time. Twitter has been the key to the viralisation of his projects, and according to the artist, this is something of a paradox since "Twitter, which is not a network that revolves around photography, gives me much more flexibility than Instagram to tell stories from my photographs."

"I am a digital product designer. My love for photography started about 12 years ago. At first I only carried my camera with me when I was travelling," he says of his professional career. "Nowadays, I spend most of my time on it after my work. And who knows, maybe one day I'll be able to make a living from photography-related projects," he adds.

New York is a huge city and we wondered what it is that attracts Carlos Sánchez's attention to give his images a personal touch. He says that "my photography simply tries to capture moments that are special for some reason". And that his interest lies in photography "especially night photography, moon and milky way photography. But I also enjoy cityscape and wildlife photography".

At this point in the 21st century, just as in the past, you can order a personalised canvas, but now you can also have any type of garment with your tastes just a click away. In the case of Hajar Tarchoun Arrahman, her pieces have received great interest for their originality.

With this artist we continue to see the advantages of social networks when it comes to sharing art. Tarchoun, known on social networks as @nasyaiam, receives hundreds of likes and more and more comments every day with every portrait of any celebrity (mostly from the Anglo-Saxon rap world) that she uploads to social networks.

One of the peculiarities and characteristics that make this artist stand out is the customisation of her products. Customers ask, for example, for simple white trainers, mostly Nike Air Force, and she paints them the way the customer asks for. A very original way of making art for others to enjoy.

"Right now the orders I get the most are for customised trainers", Hajar tells us. However, she is an artist who is not only dedicated to customising products and making portraits, and mentions that "I am very flexible when it comes to painting, I love to experiment, so yes, I do more than just portraits".

Taking a look at her artistic career, Hajar tells us that she has been painting since she was little and that "in primary school I started drawing Manga and at some point in high school I started to try realism, in those 4 years of ESO I realised that I loved it, so after finishing ESO I got into an artistic baccalaureate".

Now social networks allow her to share this art that she has been doing since she was a child. When asked which social network benefits her the most, Hajar says that " At the moment I see the most numbers on Instagram and Twitter, I guess thanks to the loyal followers I have". She also feels that TikTok allows her work to reach more people as "it's a social network that literally makes you reach people who don't even follow you and literally from anywhere in the world, as well as interact by commenting and sharing".

On the other hand, a disadvantage that Hajar recognises in social networks is "plagiarism and the viralisation of a work that does not carry the artist's credits". However, she mentions that they can add to the dissemination of her work and reach more people, and therefore she has "the possibility of gaining clients and receiving more views".

As we can see, the disadvantages of social media are nothing compared to its advantages. Technology once again helps people to progress and, in these cases, it helps artists. In order to contribute to the progress of these artists, we must share what we like and always give credit when we do.