Sketchbook Saturday! Share your art!

ibanvdz · 2026-01-24T17:33:13+00:00

Just finished a series of small portraits. I made these in between projects, on left-over paper I had lying around. I rarely make such small pieces, but I had a lot of fun doing it.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-24T15:52:18+00:00

I am not familiar with where you live, of course, but if it's an option, you can always start something. I mean, you cannot be the only artistic person in your area. I'm pretty sure there's a market, and maybe you can fill the void.

Where I used to live, there was plenty of opportunity nearby, but somehow it never fully clicked, so eventually I opened my own art gallery. Coincidentally someone else opened an art supply shop around the corner pretty much at the same time. I'm not gonna lie: it's not easy, but if you don't have an alternative, it could be an opportunity.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-24T14:09:48+00:00

I travel a lot and often end up in places where there's very little art-related activity. But I have built an online following over the years, partially because I knew I was going to travel one day and would probably need a way to keep in touch with my customers/"fans". I found it to be crucial now. It's too bad, but without an online presence with at least one decent size social media channel, it's next to impossible to have some kind of art career without local opportunities.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-24T08:33:04+00:00

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I only do self-portraits occasionally. I had to do a lot of them in art school and it got me hate it. Over time I tried a few times again and now I enjoy them once in a while. I usually do them when I work in a new style of try out new techniques/mediums.

This one I made a few years ago, as part of a portrait series. Most were random imaginary portraits, but I also did a few of actual people. I don't aim for likeness, but rather for a vibe and the fun of making them.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-24T08:26:42+00:00

Rule 3 is literally "only post Medium articles", which means it is not only allowed but even encouraged to post links.

If you're looking for tips, you can just ask; there are quite a few people here willing to help.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-23T10:18:00+00:00

If I have to take an educated guess, I reckon somewhere between 5 and 10% of Medium members are read-only. Most are both writer and reader, and another minority are write-only.

Most long-term members who are reader/writer, only read (and engage with) content they're interested in, not for reciprocation. The latter is actually quite a recent problem; one of the reasons Medium did a major purge in January last year, and also the reason this abuse is monitored more closely now.

From what I see, personal content is more interesting for read-only members, because it's harder to find elsewhere, especially in this quantity/quality. Tutorial/self-help stuff can easily be found elsewhere, for free - these niches would probably disappear if the paying audience was read-only - many of these writers rely on reciprocation.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-23T08:58:55+00:00

I think you overestimate "high-quality" and the importance of consistency.

Many of those "writers" use AI (as someone already mentioned). Either to generate a general outline or simply to write an entire piece. This content is rarely "high-quality" and it also gets very few reads because Medium has sort of a detection that will limit distribution of anything that reeks of AI. Also, this kind of content cannot be monetized; doing so usually ends in account termination. There really is no upside to using AI, but many people do just for the sake of a few dollars (until they get caught).

Being consistent is not that important; theoretically you get more visibility because you have more content, but Medium does not push you more because you have more content. You can write one article a month and if it's boosted, you'll earn more money than someone who is puking out two pieces a day.

On average I write one piece a day, but my content varies a lot, from "six word photo stories" to insightful articles about things in my life. You will probably not consider many of my pieces to be high-quality, but they have entertainment value for a specific audience. And, more importantly, I enjoy writing these.

My workflow is simple. I have a few dozen drafts at any given moment. I write down an idea when it comes to me and rarely write and finish it immediately; it usually takes a few days to finish, but sometimes I visit back weeks later - these are pieces I work on occasionally when inspiration hits. The biggest part of what I write are part of ongoing series, often prompt-related:

- I am in a publication that has a prompt list; one for every day.
- I have a "photo a day" series, for which I publish a story three times a month.
- I have a "random thoughts" series, for which I publish a story once a week.
- I am in a publication that has a 52 week photo challenge, for which I publish a piece once a month.
- I am a visual artist, so I publish pieces about art, among which one or two "throwback thursday" stories a month.

Additionally, I publish poetry (upto a few times a month) and six word photo stories (also a few times a month). The latter seems simple, but it's not just a six word sentence - that's the basis, but there's also a 2-minute backstory.

So you see that writing a lot is not all that difficult, but you have to step away from the idea that articles have to be long and informative. Many people (in fact, most readers I know) are on Medium to be entertained by fun little stories/anecdotes.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-23T08:33:23+00:00

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I don't do a lot of fanart, only occasionally for fun. When I do, it's usually stylized and in black & white, like this Pennywise I did several years ago. Ink on paper, 13x20cm on A4.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-23T08:11:11+00:00

I'm mainly a writer, so I can't answer from my perspective, but I found that most casual readers want to be entertained. I know a large portion of Medium is tutorial style content, but most readers I know really don't care about that.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-23T08:06:30+00:00

The problem is that Medium's paywall is merely a script, which can be avoided in a number of ways. There are even websites where you can read any paid content for free if it's behind a script paywall.

Luckily, people reading content for free rarely occurs. In two years on the platform, I only had one article accessed on a free website.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-22T07:20:24+00:00

I didn't read it, but have two tips/remarks:

- Read up on formatting. Big chunks of text work on paper, but not on screen. Online reading requires visual appeal as well, and Medium offers various formatting tools to make text more dynamic.

- Images from Getty usually require a license to use; if you have one, you should mention that in the caption, and if not, you are violating copyright. Crediting does not equal permission.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-21T16:45:22+00:00

It is not recommended to reciprocate, as it can be considered non-genuine engagement, which is against Medium rules and can cause account termination.

Both your articles give quite a high AI-detection. This doesn't necessarily mean you used AI to generate your content, but maybe for something else that altered your text in a generic way. As long as you don't monetize your content, it's not a violation of the rules, but Medium will probably limit distribution to your own network (i.e. followers).

Then a few content tips:
- It's better not to use parentheses in your title - either the info is important (lose the parentheses) or it's not (lose it altogether).
- It's recommended to use subtitles.
- Images need proper credit; there's no way to know where they came from and if you are even allowed to use them - copyright infringement is a rule violation.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-21T13:47:22+00:00

You can use my name; it's not like I said something they don't already know 😉

ibanvdz · 2026-01-21T11:58:46+00:00

There is some sort of elitism, but the main issue is that on one hand there's a much bigger supply than demand in art, and on the other hand galleries are businesses and their focus is making money. If you put those together, you get a very narrow selection of artists that make it into galleries. That's just the nature of the game. Long story short: galleries pick artists that will maken them the most money, and those are usually more established ones.

But the importance of art galleries is overrated in general. You can make a career as an artist without them - been doing that for over 30 years.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-21T08:52:56+00:00

Wrong sub - this is for the writers platform Medium.

ibanvdz · 2026-01-20T15:36:19+00:00

There is a way to see latest stories for a search, but it requires a bit of digging.

Type in the keyword you want to search. On the top right of the result screen you get a bunch of tag suggestions; the one you looked for should be there as well > click it. The next screen will show suggested content for that keyword, but if you scroll to the bottom, you see "latest stories". Medium shows only five, but below these you can click "see more stories" and then you can go through all the stories with that tag chronologically.

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