Art Hashtags for Instagram – Find Artwork, or Get Your Own Art Seen
Using art hashtags for Instagram is a great way to get your artwork discovered. It’s also a good way to see what other artists are doing, and connect with some exceptional artists.
Being such a visual medium, it is a great platform for artists. If you’re already uploading your artwork to Instagram them you should be using some hashtags.
Mastering Art Hashtags for Instagram
Before listing some specific copy-and-paste hashtags you might want to use, let’s discuss why mastering the # is so important!
Whatever you upload, you can just tag it with #art if you want to. However, this isn’t a good way to get discovered. At the time of me writing this, there are over 761 million posts tagged with #art.
It’s fine to include this tag, of course, but the key is to be a bit more specific. Niche down for more views and follows.
When you visit a hashtag on Insta, it gives you a choice of viewing “most recent” or “top posts”. Insta’s own algorithm decides what to show as the top posts. If you want your artwork to be more than just on the #artwork most recent for about 3 seconds, you need to use some of the tags you can dominate. Your aim should be to stick around as a top post on some of those hashtags.
As an example, if you just tag #art or #artwork then you will quickly fall away. Unless you hit the jackpot, and already have a lot of followers, there will be nothing “sticky” about your post.
Compare that to some of these hashtags for someone who focuses on realism:
#womenartists #portraitart #realism #realisticart #realisticdrawing #pencilarts #pencilartist #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninsta #painting #artists_community #artfeature #artworkfeatures #artexplore #artexplorer #artworkdaily #realisticartwork #hyperrealisticdrawing #drawings #artwork_artist #artshare #drawing
There are a few things to notice about these hashtags
- They all have people subscribing to them.
- They focus on the medium (#pencilartist) as well as what is in the drawing.
- They utilize communities such as #womenartists rather than just focusing on the art itself.
Top Tip – Choosing Your Hashtags
It is worth creating a spreadsheet or just a notes document with your regular hashtags within. This way, you can revisit those copy and paste hashtags to make it easy when you’re uploading your art.
As well as a few basic tags, you should change the list every time, adding what is in the artwork or explaining some of the content or how the art was made.
Be creative, if you’ve drawn a picture of your dog, you can use #petportrait which has had over 2 million tags, and way more people viewing the pictures!
Hashtags for Paintings
#painting #figurepainting #picture #pic #picoftheday #watercolor #watercolour #fineart #artist #artistsofinstagram #paintingsofinstagram #color #light #design #contemporarypainting #artwork #oilpainting #acrylicpainting
Hashtags for Drawings
There are some great hashtags for drawings and sketches.
#sketch #sketching #sketchart #sketchbook #sketchbookart #sketch_daily #pencilsketch #pencildrawing #drawart #drawing #drawings #sketchbookdrawing #blackandwhite #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraitsketch #facesketch #illustration #art #artoftheday #artwork #bw #graphiteart #graphitesketch #graphitedrawing #realisticdrawing #realism
Generic Art Hashtags
The following hashtags can help you to get some traction. They’re worth using, but be sure to mix them up periodically.
#sketch #artista #artoninstagram #artstagram #artistofinstagram #painting #arts #instaart #artist #art
An Example of Great Hashtags for Artists
The post below shows incredible use of hashtags. There are a lot of them on the post, but it seems to be working. The post has over 1,000 likes.
View this post on Instagram
Check out that list of hashtags.
This art is pyrography. This is a great hashtag, and the artist has focused on some “bigger” hashtags:
#pyrography #pyrographyportrait #petportrait
Then check out some clever, niched-down hashtags:
#brittanyspaniellove #petloversofinstagram #realismtoday #pyrographyartist #brittanyspaniel #seniordoglove #pyrographyart #brittanyspanielsofinsta
The post has a chance of being seen on any of these arty hashtags. The artist is targeting one of two things happening.
- The post gaining some traction on a big, much-seen hashtag like #pyrography or #petportrait
- The post becoming a top post in a smaller niche, like #realismtoday or even #brittanyspanielsofinsta
This account, jendiarenzocreative, has amassed over 6,000 followers, which is pretty great! They’re also clearly busy with commissions.
Summary
Nobody can tell you the exact hashtags you should use. Plus, Instagram has some restrictions on hashtag use to avoid spam.
No list of hashtags that you can copy and paste is going to turn you into a world-famous artist overnight. The best thing is to understand your own niche, and try to get a reputation using relevant hashtags. Insta is not about the spam!
