The 9 Best Online Art Communities for Artists in 2019
By: Matthew Pierce
Tags: Design, Collaboration, Graphics, Art, Comics

From hobbyists to professional artists, anyone with a creative practice can find so many benefits from joining an online art community. What makes a great online art community? Being able to share your art is one thing, but what really makes these places shine are the discussions, connections, and collaboration.

The everyday challenge of an artist’s life can be quite the burden, even if sometimes it’s all in our heads. But luckily, us artists today have plenty of options to connect for art inspiration, critiques, motivation, or simply some tips and tricks.

Ready to dive in and enrich your art practice? Read on for the best online art communities for artists in 2019.

/r/ArtistLounge

If you’re just looking for discussion, look no further. /r/ArtistLounge is one of my favorite subreddits for discussing the more nuanced parts to being an artist. This isn’t a community for sharing art or promoting your work, which is a bit of a relief, to be honest.

Instead, the focus here is all about knowledge. Artists practicing all kinds of mediums gather to share their experiences and provide advice. Whether it’s topics like balancing art with life, career possibilities, or simply a bit of venting, you’re bound to find a bit of insight each time you visit.

PanelJam.com

Have you ever wished you could draw them? While there are many artist communities where you can share and promote your work, there aren’t enough where you can make art together. with more artists, and not just at one simple trick: PanelJam cuts back against the noise and shouting match of “nice pic!” you’ll find on places like Instagram. The community does this with no single artist’s work can be completed alone.

On PanelJam, artists collaborate by drawing webcomics together one panel at a time. It’s like improv, but for drawing. Artists of all art styles and skill levels are welcomed. All that matters to this comic art community is that you try your best to connect, and collaborate.

DeviantArt.com

An ancient and reigning champion, DeviantArt has been the most popular artist social network since 2000. There are over 45 million registered community members, and thousands of new art pieces are upload to the website every single day.

A blessing and a curse, DeviantArt covers it all. Artists include 3D modellers, photographers, models, illustrators, graphic designers, concept artists, and more. This can be great as there’s so much to discover, but at the same time, the place can feel almost too big to make any meaningful connections.

However, there are a lot of really nice features that have built up over time: an active forum, art contests, artist journals, and even free stock art resources.

ArtStation.com

If you’re a professional digital artist, ArtStation is the place to be. This community features a real sleek website that easily matches the extremely high quality of art to be found at every turn. For video game fans, you’ll be sure to find a lot of cool character designs coming out the wazoo.

As an established company in the digital art space, ArtStation does a fair bit of publishing which is interesting too. If you browse under ‘more’ on their website you can find great illustration inspiration with selected art books as well as master classes from industry pros.

Polycount.com

Digital art doesn’t just mean drawing. At Polycount there is an awesome range of 3D modelling and animation to be seen and shared. Being 3D, a lot of the content may be pretty video gamey, but don’t let the majority fool you. Plenty of different art styles ranging from low-poly to photo-realistic are happy at home in this artist community.

The discussions on this website really shine, too. Artists are quick to share the process behind their final 3D works. This includes sketches, concept art, and scene set up. Goldmine.

Creary

Here’s a community that we’ll be keeping our eyes on, no doubt. Creary is a creative community built on the blockchain. It’s not often you see an artist community where the real notable feature is the technology behind the community itself. But this community is pretty neat. Their website says that the platform is decentralized, and artists can share their art here to earn Creary’s very own cryptocurrency.

It sounds neat, but we’re not so sure how that converts into real dollars just yet. Nonetheless, there is an interesting variety of artists publishing here to get in on that sweet, sweet, crypto.

Our Art Corner

As the name suggests, Our Art Corner is a small community with an understated vibe, but that’s no reason to overlook this friendly art community. The interface is very simple, and that’s kind of nice compared to many of the websites in this list that try hard to look cool. You won’t find a ton of artists updating here often, but the platform makes up for that by placing a focus on what matters: discussion, critique, art tutorials, and even the odd challenge.

ConceptArt.org

If you’re interested in concept art or just want to learn a bit about speed painting, Concept Art is a classic space with a keen focus on education. In fact, if you go to their homepage you’d be hard-pressed to realize there’s a community here. Instead, they redirect you to their “LevelUp” course which is a paid online boot camp for concept artists.

If you skip past this splash page and hop on over to their forums you’ll be in for a treat.

The Concept Art online artist community all takes place on their old-school styled forum, but the content is great. You can receive honest feedback on your drawings, view other folks’ sketchbooks, discuss fine art, and even get technical tips and advice for your favourite Wacom tablet.

/r/SketchDaily

We’re firm believers that to grow as an artist you need to improve your art habit, and the guys and gals over at /r/SketchDaily are in fine agreement. If you’re stuck for ideas this is a fun place to check, as they have daily drawing prompts and weekly art discussion themes.

Placing a focus on the ‘sketch’ in the name, one of the greatest things about this community is the real lack of pretention. Nobodies looking for perfectly finished masterpieces here. No, the art is all about the daily process. Artists of all skill levels are welcome, and it’s nice to see those with more experience lend a helping hand with tried and true advice.

The Best Online Art Communities for Every Artist

So there you have it. Whether your medium of choice is traditional or digital, 2D or 3D, there’s bound to be somewhere in this list that you can add to your toolkit. The best online art communities will help you grow your art and practice.

Want to find new inspiration or insight? It’s always a good idea to look around and see what other artists are up to, especially if they’re doing something different. You never know where you might find your next muse, but if you keep your eyes open, your next great idea will hit you faster than you’d think.