Welcome to the ArtX Blog!

Now, let’s get started!

What is ArtX anyway?

ArtX is a student-run club on campus at WSU Vancouver, where students of all experience levels meet up and practice their existing skills, learn new techniques, go on field trips and eat delicious snacks!

This blog will be covering everything from club events, interesting art happening on campus, tips and tricks for improving artwork, and outside resources from other artists, museums and art stores! I want you to be able to receive useful information that will either encourage your passion for art, or inspire others to start. The main reason I want to draw attention to these topics is because as an artist who has a passion for traditional and digital arts, I am always looking for new techniques and resources to make my art successful. In addition to this, it is always fun to participate in a variety of art themed activities, on your own or with friends and family.

Influencers to learn from

Blick Art Materials

Many of you are probably familiar with Blick, a popular art store in downtown Portland, Oregon…

Something I noticed about their posts was that even though they have a free giveaway for a watercolor paint set, this psychedelic paint pour artwork got over 23k likes, the only other post that comes close to it has 19.6k likes, with the caption “Dahlia in progress” by @jbaumgarner.art. Everything else after that at most, has 5k likes. I noticed the variety of videos or photo series of projects and I came to the conclusion that even though giveaways are popular, people are actually interested in fast-paced progress videos, and “clean art”. What I mean by that clean hands, brushes, and working area for fine detailed and purposeful artwork. For this blog post I will make it a goal to get more video footage in of student artwork progress since people seem to enjoy short, loaded, videos.

Watercolor Knowledge

In this blog, it was apparent that people were more interested in the supplies and interesting facts about them including explanations on how to use them. Tips and ideas however, seem less than popular, but overall workflow had an edge when it came to “how-to” posts. Once again, videos gained more traffic than blog posts. Moving forward, I plan to keep my readings short and sweet and put more energy into “visual content” in terms of footage and easy-to-understand workflow methods, instead of letting my words do the work. People are more responsive to quick videos, even over a short reading, because people would rather watch a video than “study”.

Doodlewash

This site was a little different from the rest, since the author was most focused on guest speakers and telling stories from his own experience. Most of the posts ranged from about 50 to 60 likes so its hard to find a pattern in what people are interested in, however in terms of comments people responded to things that they felt relatable too. Many of which were just compliments to the artist on his original artwork such as his most recent and popular post, “taking a breather”  which accumulated 26 replies! Something I’ll keep in mind for future posts is to keep things down to earth and relatable and approachable, nothing too avant-garde or niche that would scare away readers with flashy topics. Also, regularity is an important factor because once you get a following it could pose a challenge to get it back if you disappear for a year with no explanation. A “trick” this artist uses is he challenges himself and others to make art regularly, and posts frequently to keep his viewership alive.

Thank you!

That about sums up this first post, and I look forward to hearing back from all of you!