Art Hashtags: Cheat Sheet & Best Practices for Instagram (2017)

If you’re an artist who is serious about promoting your work, you need to have a presence on social media–particularly Instagram. Visually driven, Instagram is the go-to platform for artists and the most important place to have a hashtag strategy. For that reason this article will focus exclusively on Instagram, and the how’s and why’s (presuming you found this page because your a creative) of targeting potential clients through art hashtags.

Why Hashtags?

Think of Instagram as a search engine, and hashtags as category markers. Power users actively search through hashtags and can discover and even follow your account organically. Gaining followers is the primary objective, as it not only gives you a bigger audience to engage with (and hopefully convert to clients), it also gives you more social proof. Get enough likes and comments, and the Instagram algorithm will push your content to more people, and potentially put you on the “popular page” where even more eyes can see it.

Of course not all hashtags are used solely for traffic or discovery purposes. Some accounts create contests, and in order to enter you have to include the hashtag in the comment such as Jake Parker’s art contest  #inktober. Other accounts might use hashtags more as methods of branding than category markers, like Huxley Co.’s  #themadones.

How many Hashtags is too Many?

Instagram allows a maximum of 30 hashtags. If you want to maximize your chances of being discovered, we recommend using all 30, tastefully. This means not including all of your hashtags in your caption. Create a space between your caption and hashtags using periods as bullet points to separate the two.

Art Hashtags Cheat Sheet

As a creative, 3D modeler, or all around artist, you want to use art hashtags in particular. Here are a few sets of hashtags that will make it easy for you to copy and paste straight to your posts. These hashtag sets include only 20 hashtags so that you can add a few niche ones of your own i.e. your city, the name of the Star Wars character you’re modeling, or the contest you’re entering.

General Art Hashtags

#art #design #artsy #artist #artwork #creative #illustration #paint #painting #watercolor #acrylic #modernart #artgallery #photography #graffiti #streetart #popart #instamood #instagood #instadaily

3D Art Hashtags

#3Dart #3Drender #3D #art #illustration #3DModel #rendering #animation #design #graphicdesign #artsy #artist #style #instamood #instadaily #instagood #photography #digitalart #3Dprinting #3Danimation