Professional Practice Blog

I put off writing my instagram bio for a while, as I couldn’t work out what exactly I wanted to put in it, nor the style I wanted to write it in.

In the end, I decided to be very simple, and just use it as a description for my practice:

Artists and Climate Activist

3rd Year BA Fine Art Student

Although it isn’t interesting, or exciting, it isn’t complicated by emojis or fonts and it explains exactly myself and my practice to anyone who looks at my profile.

I have also completed the rest of my profile, adding in my pronouns in addition to changing the website link on my profile simply to my artist website, rather than to my activist linktree. This seems a more appropriate use of the URL space: directing visitors to my page purely to information related to my artistic endeavours, rather than both art and activism (where they don’t collide).

The instagram bio is a short (150 character) introduction to you and your practice. This means whatever you put there has to be concise and quickly explain what you do, and share any other important links etc.

I have take a few screen shots of some other artists’ bios to provide a sort of framework to work from, as are shown below:

@callenschaub

This first bio is from a paint pouring artist, who I discovered on instagram. As you can see, his bio is very limited, saying only “Print Sale Now Live” – this doesn’t give any insight into is artistic practice, but it does highlight something that he deems as very important for him at that moment – his print sale. The capital letters above the URL create a clear path for the viewer to follow, and will help lead his followers and visitors to his page where he wants them to go.

@irisscottart

@irisscottart bio is simple and self explanatory – explaining her practice and location in one sentence. This however doesn’t feel right for my page – it somehow feels too formal, and sort of stilted? I want something that explains myself and my practice, without being too formal.

@snooze.one

@snooze.one has a very modern and vibrant lettering/calligraphy practice, and their bio reflects this, through their use of emojis to introduce each new line in the bio, which gives a new piece of information – the last two using emojis to literally point down to the URL, guiding visitors there for their enquiries etc. This is fun, but I’m not sure whether it fits with my style of page – although that might depend on the specific emoji’s I use. This is something I need to try out and experiment with.

@andy.c.white

@andy.c.white bio is vague but playful. It’s very simple, but explains their practice to the viewers, being both professional, but also casual, showing that they are still a normal and creative human. This is the style that I like most of the four that I have looked at – it does what it needs to, but is playful and individual with it – things which are important to me in my online presence.

These bios are all brilliant and varied examples of how artists use their bios to quickly direct and inform visitors to their accounts, and have given me a good idea of what I am looking for and what I want in my own bio.

For me, it needs to be professional, but a little informal, showing that I am a human under this account, and that I am creative and playful. It needs to be clearly and briefly informative and direct visitors easily to where they need to go to find the information they’re looking for. It might also say a little about me – for example, the fact that I am a 3rd Year Fine Art student, or link to my activism account, as it is an integral part of my practice.

After doing a little research on other successful artist Instagram pages, I have updated my page with the new username, and a new profile picture, as you can see from the screenshot below:

Although I have changed the username to @emilyk_arts, I have decided to keep the “name” of the account as Emi’s Art, as it maintains the link with my other platforms, in addition to hopefully minimising the confusion for my current followers. You can also see that I have chosen a profile photo for my account here too, choosing to go with a photograph of a work rather than a photograph of myself, as I felt that this was more suitable for my online presence with this account, as well as being a clear indicator of my current genre of work.

The above image is the piece that I have chosen to be my profile photo – I have chosen to use a headshot of myself, overlayed with a photograph of plants that I took, which slightly obscures my face as the artist, but also shows the relevance of plants to my work and practice.

The next stage is to look at creating a bio for my account, and then deciding how I want my posts to look, and whether to repost certain posts that I have achieved, or to start completely afresh.

As I mentioned at the end of my previous blog post, I now need to focus my attentions on the visuals of my instagram account, and the image that I want to create when sharing my work online. Up until now, it hasn’t been particularly curated, and I want to change this, starting by investigating these four accounts:

1. @polina.bright

@polina.bright has the biggest following of the following four accounts, with 1.2 million followers. Their artworks are largely stylised pencil and watercolour portraits of women and animals. The style and image of their instagram account fits with their works, as the images are all pale in tone, generally with a white background (due to the colour of the paper) and pastel or pale colours, which, although there doesn’t seem to be a particular system to it, all work together in harmony, creating one cohesive theme. The profile photo is a photo of the artist, which clearly shows who the account is run by – and appeals to the algorithm, which promotes photos of faces over that of other content). The highlights don’t have any particular covers to them either – they just showcase the artworks. This is quite a simple, and low maintenance design, which seems easy to replicate – although the photography would have to be quite exact and precise in order to capture the works at their best for the platform.

2. @sofieart_

Sofie is an artist who I have previously had some contact with, and whose work I am keen to showcase here, due to it’s use of my favoured medium (coloured pencil), but because of the very clear design of the page. Sofie also has a large following, of 38,300 followers, which is probably due to a combination of the very defined visual style, and their skill. All of the posts on their account follow the same visual formula: a photograph of the drawing – either finished or in process – against a quilted white background, with the pencils used in the drawing process arranged around the edge of the frame. This style is very bold, but clearly showcases the medium alongside the work, and the points of the pencils also aid in focusing the audience’s attention on the subject of the work, by acting as arrows or lines of focus. Although this may not work for all of my works, due to the variety of media that I use, this is a style that I would be interested in experimenting with and possibly investigating via other means. The profile photo is a cropped image of one of the artworks, which instantly provides the viewer with an idea of the style of work this artist works with, as well as providing more publicity for the work. The highlights have no covers – which is not something that I would repeat on my account, as it doesn’t look as neat as it otherwise might.

3. @francescaapage

@francescaapage is an artist who I have followed on instagram for a while now. Her incredible watercolour and gouache paintings of marine life have enchanted me, and her work within the scientific illustration community creates a direct link between her works and my own. Although less structured than either the @sofieart_ or @polina.bright accounts, her instagram draws the audience with her use of vibrant imagery and the maintenance of a distinct theme: underwater life. The colours and imagery used all reflect the theme of her work, and showcase it effectively and successfully, whilst often only showing fragments of works as the main slide, which draws the viewer in. Showing details of the work also allows the audience to appreciate the  effort that has been put into the piece. Again, the profile photo is a photograph of the artist, although in this photo the artist is standing in front of her works, which incorporates both the algorithm’s love of images of people, with the fact that this is an account to showcase art. The highlights have no covers.

4. @cj_hendry

@cj_hendry account is also one which I have been following for a while, again, due to their use of coloured pencils in their work. Like @francescaapage, @cj_hendry also uses details of their works in order to draw the viewer in, but they also show their works from a distance, in order to provide a sense of scale, which also provides gravitas to the works – as seeing them in a situational view makes the works yet more impressive and arresting. Much like @polina.bright, @cj_hendry uses a pretty simple formula of photographs of the works against white or pale backgrounds, which really highlights the intricacy and detail that is exhibited there. The profile photo is an image of one of the artist’s works, which sits perfectly within the circle and creates a very bold, strong advert for the style of art which will be displayed here. The highlights have no covers.

These four accounts are extremely successful in the ways that they display and exhibit their art online, and I definitely want to do the same when I remodel my account. These are the main points that I have taken away from these accounts, and which I will endeavour to emulate in mine:

1. Photograph the works against pale backgrounds to highlight the works themselves.
2. Experiment with photographing the medium alongside the work, or using the medium as a photographic tool in order to focus the viewer’s attention.
3. Put covers on the highlights.
4. The profile photo should reflect the art you create as a whole, to be of yourself – clearly showing the viewer either who you are, or what your work is like.
5. Try showing details of the work on the first slide and then putting the full work behind that. This creates more interest in the work and forces the viewer to spend more time on your post.
6. Situational or gallery views can be very effective with certain works or styles of work (large scale, or multiple, related works in one space).

The above image shows my now blank art instagram, from which I can now work up. Although I didn’t mention it on the previous post, a key area of change for me is the name or handle, as although I had originally (several years ago) wanted my online art name to be Emi’s Art (an abbreviation of my name Emily), there are too many other art accounts with the same name for me to be able to have the handle as just @emisart – which is why there are so many other characters in it: @emi.s__art.

In order for the account to be more memorable, and crucially, easier to find and access, I first need reassess the name. I do not want to change it much from the central theme of Emi’s Art, as I have a webpage and link tree published under these names, and continuity is key. Therefore, the new name needs to reflect this, whilst also being a much clearer and easier version to find and search for.

The name that I have chosen (after trying many different variations of Emi’s Art) is @emilyk_arts, a name which encompasses both my name, and is a much easier variant of @emi.s__art to search for AND to tag, which should make my account easier to interact with and create space for a wider audience.

Now I need to think about my profile photo, as well as the style of my account.