You love digital art and now you want to share your beautiful creations with the world? Creating an online digital art gallery is definitely a great idea!
You can share your artwork with fans and art lovers. But what’s more, you can potentially reach collectors and curators, too, who are interested in buying your art. That way, displaying your digital art online is also a fantastic way to make money selling art.
With the many social media and art sharing websites around, it can be difficult to find the right platform to post your digital art.
Each site has its pros and cons. But sometimes, it’s hard to figure out where to display digital art, unless you try each site and see for yourself. To spare you the hassle, I’ve put together the best places to show your artwork, so you can get an idea of the benefits and drawbacks of each of the sites.
Where to post digital art?
When you’re trying to sort out the best site where you should post your digital art, there are a few things to consider.
First of all, it depends on what kind of digital art you want to share. Manga or anime art? Digital illustrations? Photo manipulations? 3D or 2D renders?
Then there’s the question who you want to share your work with. Do you want to build a following, find a like-minded community, or get gigs from international companies?
These are the questions you need to ask yourself before making your choice. But the good news is that you don’t have to limit yourself to one digital art gallery platform! You can display your digital art on several sites, because all platforms on the list allow you to create a free account.
Related: How To Start A Digital Art Business (w/ FREE Art Business Startup Checklist)
where to display digital art?
Below are the websites that I recommend for sharing digital art. I’ve uploaded my digital art to a few of them, so I have a good idea of the pros and cons that are awaiting you.
That being said, let’s dive in and have a look at the best places to display digital art and why you might want to consider showing your artwork on there!
The 10 best places to display digital art
DeviantArt is one of the oldest art sharing sites around, and it’s also the site where I pretty much started out as a digital artist.
The site still has a huge number of users, even though there isn’t as much engagement as there used to be. While artists used to get lots of feedback on their ‘deviations’ (the artwork they upload) in the past, things have been getting pretty quiet in recent years.
Still, DeviantArt is a useful platform where you can display digital art. You cannot only create an online gallery, but also sell commissions, art prints, and digital files of your work. Apart from that, you can post journal entries, and contribute to their many art forums.
Pros
- One of the largest art sharing sites
- Great for digital artwork of all types
- Possibility to sell prints, commissions, and more
Cons
- Not as much engagement as before
Behance is an art sharing platform that is owned by Adobe. That doesn’t mean you need to have a Creative Cloud subscription to be able to use the site. However, you will need to create an Adobe ID (at no cost).
You can find a plethora of artworks on Behance, and many of them have been digitally created using one of the Adobe apps like Photoshop, Lightroom, and Illustrator.
Behance has a more professional focus than DeviantArt. Many professional digital artists showcase their artwork on Behance, and there’s even an entire section dedicated to jobs in the industry.
Pros
- Lots of professional artists use the platform
- You can find and apply for job opportunities
- You can follow some of the greatest talents in the industry
Cons
- Not so adequate for community building
ArtStation is an online marketplace for all things digital art, with a focus on video games and film animation. You can find everything from finished creations, work in progress shots, to tutorials, courses, and more.
Just like Behance, ArtStation is more a place to make business connections than to build a community. Lots of professional digital artists show their artwork on ArtStation, give insights into their creative process, and hope to land a contract with the industry. In fact, it’s not uncommon that the big companies browse ArtStation for new potential.
That said, ArtStation is rather a platform to forge business connections than it is to establish a social network with like-minded artists!
Pros
- Great to host your professional digital art portfolio
- You can learn from the big names in the industry through tutorials and courses
- High-quality work to admire
Cons
- Strong focus on film and animation
Fine Art America — even though the name might not suggest it at first glance — is not only a great platform to display digital art but also to sell it!
We all know by now that fine art can also be digital, and while Fine Art America originally started out as a place for traditional fine artists, it nowadays hosts the works of lots of digital artists as well.
In fact, it’s one of the largest online art communities you can find out there. When you register a free account on the platform, you have the opportunity to connect with art buyers and collectors from around the world.
As a digital artist, you can sell your creations on a variety of art prints and other merch, including t-shirts, phone cases, mouse pads, bags, greeting cards, and many more. Each product is manufactured by Fine Art America and shipped directly to the customer from one of their global production facilities.
You set a markup for your products that determines your sales margin. For digital art downloads, you can even keep 100% of the sales price. For other products, FAA keeps a share of the sales price.
Pros
- Great place to display and sell digital art
- You can connect with art buyers and collectors worldwide
- FFA takes care of the order fulfillment
Cons
- FFA will keep a share of the profit you make with each sale
Artfol is the newest art sharing site on the list. It was officially launched in April 2021 and took heed of the shortcomings of the established art sites.
DeviantArt and ArtStation, for example, have been criticized for featuring the same art styles on their front pages over and over again. Artfol promises to offer all their artists equal opportunities to be seen on their home page.
Similarly, the likes you get on your works are currently not being shown publicly. This helps stop people from judging your work by the number of likes and encourages them to view your art more objectively.
At the moment, Artfol is only available as mobile app. Whether the art platform keeps what it promises is yet to see in the future! At least for now, it sounds good enough to give it a try…
Currently, Artfol is only available as mobile app. Whether the art platform keeps what it promises is yet to see in the future! At least for now, it sounds good enough to give it a try…
Pros
- Most recent platform for artists
- Promises to give equal opportunity to all art styles
- Small user base makes it easier to build a network and get your art noticed
Cons
- Only available as mobile app so far
Pixiv started out as a small artist website based in Japan. But over time, it has grown into a huge community with millions of users from around the world.
Due to its origin, Pixiv is still extremely popular among anime and manga artists. Many professional Japanese illustrators have their digital art gallery hosted on Pixiv, but it’s also a great place to display digital art of other types.
At its beginnings, Pixiv had a very crowded navigation (as you can find it on many Asian sites). However, the creators worked hard to give the platform a cleaner look and now Pixiv keeps gaining traction. It even features membership options where you can have your fans pay for premium content you share with them!
Pros
- Especially popular among manga and anime artists
- Large community of artists from all over the world
- Option to sell premium content to your fans via membership subscriptions
Cons
- Less popular for other types of digital art
Pinterest – as you all know – is mainly a social media network and visual search engine. But it’s definitely worth a mention when it comes to the question where to display digital art!
Why? Because Pinterest can be one of the best marketing tools for artists! Since Pinterest is image-driven, it is perfect for getting eyeballs on your artwork.
Fans and potential buyers who find your art on Pinterest can go directly to your website to connect with you or make a purchase. In terms of Pinterest vs Instagram for artists, Pinterest has surely an edge in that respect!
The good news is that Pinterest Pins have a much longer lifespan than any other social media posts. Your pins will always be available and searchable, as long as you keep your Pinterest account active. Being ‘active’ on Pinterest means posting consistently several times throughout the day.
- These Pinterest Pin Templates Save You Hours of Work & Convert!
50 High-Conversion Pinterest Pin Templates
There are a few tools that allow you to schedule your pins automatically. Tailwind is one of the best and has already helped lots of people make their pins go viral. (→ What is Tailwind for Pinterest?)
To learn more, check out my posts on how an artist should use Pinterest and how to sell digital art on Pinterest.
Pros
- Visual search engine perfect for showing artwork
- You can link your pins back to your own artist website or ecommerce store
- You can easily keep your account active using Tailwind
Cons
- You need to post consistently to gain traction
Dribbble is a platform for creatives from around the world. It’s listed among the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the US and has partnerships with Google, Facebook, Apple, and others.
Dribbble has a beautiful-looking interface and allows you to connect with designers and companies recruiting talented artists. You can upload your digital art portfolio to Dribbble and advertise your skills in one of its job boards.
The platform reminds a bit of Behance, as your art portfolio will also be displayed in the form of projects. Just like on Behance, every project can only have one thumbnail—even if it features a multitude of individual images. Some artists like it, others find it limiting – but that’s totally a matter of taste.
If it sounds like right down your alley, you can sign up with Dribbble for free and start a project today!
Pros
- Specifically designed for artists and other creatives
- You can connect with companies and get jobs
- Job and e-learning forum, marketplace and inspiration included
Cons
- Projects appear with a single thumbnail only
Instagram is kind of a half-hearted entry on the list. Well, Instagram is a visual-driven social media network focusing on imagery and videos. There are artists who use Instagram to show their artwork quite successfully; others find it much harder to gain exposure on the platform.
The truth is that it’s much harder to get your art noticed on Instagram than it is on art sharing sites. (Check out the DOs & DON’Ts for Artists using Instagram, if you want to find out more.)
The secret to being successful on Instagram is still #hashtags and posting on a regular basis, just like on Pinterest. Don’t worry, you don’t need to do all the posting yourself every day, if you don’t have that much time to spare. Planoly is is an app that helps you schedule your posts on Instagram, manage hashtags, and add captions to your artworks for you! (Read the Full Planoly Review For Artists.)
Related: How To Upload Digital Art To Instagram & Make It Look Good!
Pros
- Visual-based social media network great for posting images and videos
- With the right hashtags and persistency you can grow a following
- Schedule pins and manage hashtags & captions with Planoly
Cons
- Hard to gain exposure among the millions of users
Where to display digital art? Is there still another place? Yes, definitely! Believe it or not – one of the best places to showcase your digital art is on your own artist website.
There are lots of good reasons why you should make a website for your art and to help you get started, I’ve put together all the must-haves that make a good artist website. In fact, I have an entire section on this site dedicated to building your own artist website.
If you don’t have any coding skills and previous experience in web design, it’s best to use one of the website builders that are easy to use – even for beginners.
Here are some of the best options where you can create a website for your digital art:
- Squarespace
- Wix
- Weebly
- Pixpa
- Shopify (for ecommerce stores)
To learn more about the above platforms and others, check out the best website builders for digital artists.
If you are willing to invest some time learning a few technical skills, you can make an artist website with WordPress. It’s not as hard as you might think. I have heaps of free WordPress tutorials to help you get your WordPress site up and running quickly!
I have created my artist website (the one you are on right now) all on my own, using WordPress, Elementor, and the OceanWP theme. And if I can do it, you can do it, too!
Related: Is WordPress Good For Artists? – An Artist’s Opinion…
Can you hang digital art on your wall?
Just on a side note: apart from displaying digital art online, you can also hang it on your wall!
Nowadays, fine art can be digital and in fact, there’s a huge market for digital art. Many artists use the opportunity to generate an income selling art prints. Here you can find the best websites to sell art prints (and other merch) online.
Some things you need to consider carefully when selling art prints is to save your creations in the best file format for printing digital art and select the best paper for printing digital art.
Apart from that, there is nothing in your way that would keep one from hanging digital art on your wall!
Here are some more tips for your to sell prints of your digital art:
Below are some examples of the digital art prints that I sell:
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