Your poll doesn't have what I do so I'll just tell you. I monitor e621 tags of things that I like regularly. Thats the main way I find new artists who are making art I like.

What sorts of tags do you search, though? (I've wondered similar things)

Mostly just the stuff I really like. Like say the gender_transformation tag. That's one of my favorites. So I'll keep the occasional eye on that tag, and if a piece comes up I really like, the artist info is usually in the post. Or I might try a reverse search and whatnot. And if they have an FA page I'll follow them.

I imagine this is particularly effective to locate more artists that draw the stuff you like. It makes sense.

Yep I have a list of tags that I enjoy and I monitor them all, I'm always happy if the artist of a good piece has an FA though, since following on here is a way better way to make sure you see all of an artist's work. :)

https://e621.net/posts?tags=brand_new_animal
https://e621.net/posts?tags=fidget_.....lysian_tail%29
https://e621.net/posts?tags=krystal
https://e621.net/posts?tags=ridiculous_fit
https://e621.net/posts?tags=smaller_female

Just as a few examples, then in browsing through the recent, I'll spy something that attracts my attention and look at other works by the artist.

I have these in my bookmarks and occasionally I'll come across an artist that does not post to a site I frequent and bookmark the artist instead.

Guess that's why artists need to draw fanart from time to time XD

I've said that to you for how many years? Granted most of my picks are probably too obscure to amount to any boost...

Unless it was just added, the poll does have that: MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE!!!!

Lol so it does, Idk if it was added or I just missed it.

Someone added it and I left it there XD

This for me as well.

Thanks! Knowing this do help in general :)

I sort of do the same thing, though usually more often I'll find a piece of artwork on tumblr or reddit or something that's either uncredited or they don't have a link to the artist's page, so I'll try and search for it on e621 via relevant tags to find the artist. Like, if I come across a picture of, say, a raccoon in a sundress, I'll search for "raccoon sundress" until I find it.

I just sorta stumble across it.

It would seem to be the most common way.

I look at other people's FA favorites

^^^

This, and e6, mostly.

I also occasionally come across things on smaller or non furry specific sites, and try to trace them back to here when I can.

I rarely look at the front page, but I find the occasional thing there, and once in a while in the ads here.

Yeah, you can locate something new literally anywhere. That's why I wanted to know what's the most common way in which people find new things. It may not be the same all the time, but maybe there are more efficient ways to find new stuff in certain cases.

It seems to be the way here on FA XD

On a similar vain, I like to follow folks like you who frequently commission artists and post their work on your gallery (I dunno if there's a proper name but I call them "commissioneers"). I've found quite a few talented artists to follow from your posts alone!

I have not commissioned that many people, but yeah I have done so a couple of times. Guess that works too XD

this

And how exactly? You search for terms you'd like to see or just browse other's favs?

I think he means, like, what do you do to find stuff? What sort of keywords are used in searching, whose favorites, how much do you browse front-page, other methods past that, etc.

Yeah I imagine is a combination of both searching and browsing favs. I'm beginning to understand that there are big numbers of people who only search stuff in a specific site. This is also very useful information to me. Thanks :)

So you mostly search for specific tags in these sites?

Either on FA, Twitter, and/or e621.

How is that? Do you search for stuff or just navigate through what other people share?

For FA, I look through commissioners’ galleries and favorites. For e621, I look at various tags (characters or other descriptions). For Twitter, I just look through my feed and see what people post or retweet.

Yeah, it makes total sense. Thanks for sharing :)

Pure happenstance, usually. A friend will share an image and if the art style or the character intrigues me I'll go searching, which in turn can often lead into "rabbit holes" of searching various other artists/characters and so on.

I also follow several (dozen) webcomics and occasionally they'll have guest artists or they'll put up fan art as a filler to keep their schedule on track which will lead me to another search if they haven't provided a direct link to their gallery.

And occasionally people I follow on Twitter might share an artist's post if it's a commission they hired the artist to draw, if the artists is offering a giveaway/raffle, or to help spread the word if the artist is opening for commissions.

But yea, for the most part most things I find on the internet I just kinda blunder into by pure accident while looking at other things.

Thanks! All this is very useful. I am noticing this is the most common way people find out new stuff online. It mostly comes around sharing other's content to show it to one's audiences.

Which suggests it's best to put yourself out there in as many ways as possible. Like with your work I honestly couldn't say whether it was "art dump" sites like e621 or webcomics - I forget the name of it but it was pirate themed, think the main male protagonist was named Diego and then the lead female was some form of royalty - that first caught my eye.

But putting oneself out there in multiple ways and doing multiple things can be extremely tiring and time consuming while also trying to improve and become better everyday. Not an easy task at all x_x My admiration to those who can actually do that and more.

There's definitely a lot more grind to getting yourself out there than a lot of people realize. The simplest option I imagine would be to have accounts/galleries on as many different hosts as possible, but then it's a whole process going down the entire list to upload each new piece. Probably why it seems a lot of artists who have multiple galleries rather than uploading each new piece as it's finished will just dedicate one day a week/month to dumping everything they'd been working on in the interim, and spend the rest of that time doing the actual work.

i check the front page of FA every now and then

I wonder if that front page shows stuff based on some algorithm or simply based on the most recent uploads. Because if it's a matter of time, then an artist will only get more views if they are lucky enough to last long enough at the front page, which sounds rather difficult due the huge number of daily posts in this site XD

From what I can tell, the "recent submissions" thing at the top/middle of the front page just seems to be the latest uploads. If you stay on it and mash F5, you'll see new things come in, old stuff shuffle out

Usually through e621, sometimes inkbunny, rarely FurAffinity. Either searching a tag I know I like and discovering new artists or looking through an artists work and discovering new tags I like. This system kinda feeds itself.
Rarely I look through an artists favourites or a commissioner's gallery if I think our interests align. Every now and again something on the front page of FA or IB catches my eye. Well, mostly IB, FA's front page is not doing itself any favours...
Oh, and occasionally stumbling upon a random post somewhere else, but after leaving twitter and the (somewhat) recent reddit fuck-up fiasco, this "source" has pretty much dried up.

I've never used e621 before, so I have to thank to all the people who post my work regularly there then. Guess it's all just a matter of trying different things and seeing what works best.
Thanks for sharing! :)

Other than just "accidentally" finding new artists, like when a friend shares something nice, my main way is going to the FA userpage of either a skilled artist, or a nonartist with taste similar to mine, and just raising their favorites section. If I find the right kind of user, I tend to come out with at least one new artist.

After looking at these replies though, it sounds like e6 can be helpful for me as an artist who wants to grow, and as a person looking for new artists to follow

Feel free to use the information shared here and in the poll itself for your own artistic growth. I believe the results should be publicly available if all that mess makes any sense. At least I do know this has clarified a lot of things to me thanks to the people who kindly shared their opinions. The most basic concepts of marketing and how to sell one's work as an artist can be such a mystery to some of us. It's always a struggle. Probably someone as talented as you should have no issue in making use of these ideas to promote your work to more people :)

Usually through watched friends but sometimes through the main page.

A bit of both would probably be the best bet, then. Thanks! :)

One thing I (personally) would avoid? Spam tagging. If a submission has half a page of 'tags' attached to it, I generally skip past it. It kinda reeks of desperation/money grabbing. Good solid informative tagging makes it easy to find and easy to know what you're 'gonna look at'.

And, when it comes to friends, nothing beats both "Faving" and "Sharing". I know several people I follow have gained followers simply because I faved their work. Not that I can take all the credit... I am sure many others also faved their work (they're damn good peeps and their stuff is awesome [IMHO]!)... so it's not >just< me... but I notice when people watching me show up in the comments and I smile knowing some good artist is getting more and more known. Nothing beats word of mouth.

Depends, usually at random

Suggestions from friends, seeing something particularly interesting when at a con.

Less often but still happens is seeing something being retweeted (now on bluesky rather than twitter)

Occasionally I'll look through the favorites of other people to see something different but it doesn't happen nearly as often.