How to Upload Digital Art to Instagram: A Quick Guide

One of the tell-tale signs that you have made it as a digital artist is when you already have an established online reputation.

People should be able to recognize your work and your online pseudonym even if they don’t know your face.

Plus points if your art is known in multiple social media platforms and art-sharing sites.

If you are still stuck on thinking about the best place to start, though, then we definitely recommend Instagram.

Now, if you are clueless about how to upload digital art to Instagram, we’ve got your back.

Benefits of Uploading Your Art on Instagram

Why Instagram, you ask?

Well, here are four solid reasons why:

1. It offers a vast audience to view your art.

Instagram has billions of users around the world, almost 500 million active users each month, and around 80 million active users daily.

What’s more, you can expect that these people love consuming visual content.

2. It’s primarily a visual platform.

Twitter is mostly a platform used to share short snippets of text.

Facebook, on the other hand, is a raucous mixture of different media.

Instagram focuses on visual communication, making it the perfect social media platform to share your artworks, digital or not.

3. It’s the new “It” place for collectors to discover art.

To drive the point home, surveys show that more than 50% of collectors now buy pieces that they have first discovered on Instagram.

In addition, almost 30% follow the accounts of galleries and artists that they plan on purchasing art from in the future.

4. It’s very convenient to use.

Finally, we love Instagram as a platform to display our works because it is very easy and convenient to use.

You don’t even need a computer; you can post directly from your phone and use the image editor that’s built-in within the platform.

It is important to take note, though, that directly posting from your phone and editing your pieces through Insta might not provide the same image quality that you are aiming for.

This is the reason why we’re going to share with you more tips on how to properly post your artworks on Instagram and achieve the best quality possible.

How to Upload Digital Art to Instagram

Uploading your digital art to Instagram shouldn’t be too hard.

However, the experience might differ according to the program you use to create your work.

For that reason, we are going to divide this part into two further subtopics: one for users of Adobe and another part for users of ProCreate.

We have chosen these two since they are the more commonly used programs today to create digital art.

Then again, feel free to read through even if you use a different program.

If you do, we’re sure that you’re going to learn important tips along the way.

From Adobe

(1) Whether you are using Photoshop or Illustrator, the first thing that you want to do is to save a master copy of your work.

(2) After that, proceed to save a separate copy of your piece for posting, this time modifying it to 1080 x 1080 pixels.

Yes, Instagram works best with square pieces, but that does not mean that your rectangular piece won’t look as impressive.

In fact, for rectangular pieces, you can choose to save in a 1350 x 1080 resolution.

As long as you keep up with these suggested dimensions, your work will look great on Instagram.

(3) Now, all that’s left is for you to do is to save your work.

To do this, click on File, then on Export, then Save for Web.

In this way, this file will be specifically optimized for web sharing.

From ProCreate

ProCreate is yet another commonly used program to make digital art on, and we’re not surprised.

Using ProCreate, whether you’re simply making stickers or a more elaborate piece, is so much fun.

Not to mention, the use of the stylus simulates the feel of making art in the traditional way.

Remember the dimensions that we have shared earlier?

The same rules apply for ProCreate, but just like on Adobe programs, you don’t have to restrict yourself and work in these sizes.

You can work on a really big canvas and simply downsize later on.

Now, here’s an extra step.

Export your work to a JPEG file and open it in another program, one that will allow you to resize it.

You can always use Photoshop if you want, but there are a lot of other programs and apps out there that you can utilize for this purpose.

Once you have it sized to the proper dimensions, save a copy of your work, and you’re done.

You now have an Instagram-worthy copy to post on your account.

Pro Tip: Whatever dimensions you’re thinking of using for your canvas, you can set it to match the ratio required by Instagram by setting it in multiples of 1080 and 1350 pixels.

In this way, your saved work won’t be out of proper proportions, even when scaled.

What About Art Process Videos?

Having your best works to put on display online is not enough if you really want to maximize everything that Instagram has to offer.

After all, one should not forget that this platform is primarily a social media platform.

This means that you should also take advantage of the fact that it allows you to reach out and connect with your audience.

There’s no better way to do that than by sharing how you work behind the scenes.

The solution is to post art process videos.

The question is, how?

Well, here’s a quick guide on how to do so:

Step 1: Choose your preferred software.

You’ll need two: a screen capturing software and video editing software.

There are a lot of these programs to choose from out there.

For instance, there’s Camtasia, CamStudio, and Fraps for screen recording.

You can use iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, or Adobe Premiere Pro for editing.

Step 2: Clean your screen.

Once you have chosen your tools, it’s time to prep your workstation.

In this case, that would be your desktop.

Remove anything that can possibly tip off your personal information as well as other elements that you don’t want your viewers to see by accident.

Step 3: Set your recording area.

Once you’re done cleaning your screen, you can now set your preferred recording area.

Open the program you use for your art and drag its corners to fit the recording space.

Step 4: Start recording.

All that’s left to do now is to click on record and start working.

If you ever want to go on a break, we suggest to stop recording and allow the file to save.

Then, just restart your recording once you get back.

This will prevent you from forgetting to click on the record button the moment you resume working.

Step 5: Edit the video.

Good job!

You have just finished recording your first digital art process clip.

The next thing to do is to edit it.

First, import the video files to your video editing program.

If there are multiple clips, you can drag them chronologically to your video editing timeline.

Remove any unnecessary parts by splitting and cutting the clips.

After cleaning up your clips, merge them in one long clip if you want and set the desired speed.

You have a choice of filming it in real-time or in a time-lapse; just remember that Instagram only allows minute-long clips.

Lastly, don’t forget to add copyright-free music to accompany your short film, and you’re done.

Export your file to save it and post online.

If you’re wondering how to condense that hour-long video you have into the one-minute limit of Insta, then you have two choices.

You can either post a minute-long snippet on Insta and link that post to the full video that you have chosen to upload elsewhere or chop this video up into a series of one-minute clips.

Uploading Traditional Art to Instagram

We understand, though, that not all artists create digital works, like those of us who enjoy using acrylic as a medium.

This is the reason why we also want to dedicate a small section of our guide for traditional artists who want to leverage the benefits of posting on Instagram, as well.

You can use the guidelines on the required dimensions we have mentioned above when creating digital copies of your works.

Then, feel free to follow the guide below to post your own timelapse process videos:

Step 1: Choose the proper location.

It should be a place with a lot of natural lighting (preferably from all angles) where you won’t be disturbed.

Remember that being near an outlet where you’ll be able to plug your filming devices when needed is also a plus.

Filming can be very demanding on your phone’s battery, and the last thing you want is to find out after an eight-hour art session that you’ve only filmed the first three hours of it.

Step 2: Determine your goal.

There are two ways to post-process films on Instagram.

First, you can post it as a regular post, just like the ones that we have posted and worked on so far, or you can post it as a story.

What’s the difference? Their orientation.

Regular posts will have to conform to the dimensions we have shared earlier.

On the other hand, stories will be on a portrait orientation, similar to how you video chat with friends on Messenger.

Step 3: Prepare your gear.

Once you have chosen the perfect filming spot and determined how you want your video to look like, it’s time to prep your filming gear.

You can use your phone, but an actual filming camera is still the preferred choice.

Set it on a tripod, on a comfortable height and angle that will allow your viewers to see what you’re working on.

Make sure that it won’t hinder you from your actual art-making process.

This means that your head shouldn’t get in the way of the shot either.

Step 4: Start filming.

Now that’s everything’s set up, you can now start filming and making art.

Try to work on your piece in a manner that’s easier to follow.

Imagine that you’re telling a story and guiding your viewers through it through their eyes.

For example, if you start from the left, then make your way to the right side; if you’re starting from the top, make your way down.

Don’t start at the left side of the piece, jump to a far corner of your canvas, and then jump next to the bottom of the piece.

It’s confusing and will make you lose a lot of viewers.

Step 5: Use a program to turn it into a time-lapse.

What’s great about using an iPhone is that it already has its own time-lapse feature.

Fortunately, for those of us who don’t use one, there are a lot of similar apps that you can use to edit your clip.

Again, keep in mind that Instagram only allows minute-long clips.

You have two choices: post a snippet of your process or divide one long process into minute-sized parts and post them in a series of clips instead.

It’s completely up to you.

By the way, you can use the same setup we mentioned above in taking photos of your finished pieces for online posting.

The only difference in the process is that instead of filming a video, you’ll take a photo instead.

Also, rather than using a film editing software in the end, you will need to use a photo editing program.

Conclusion

Instagram is a platform that offers great potential for artists and art lovers alike.

It presents art in bite-sized forms and makes it accessible to more people than galleries and museums ever could.

Hence, if you’re a digital artist, we believe that it’s of vital importance to take advantage of this.

Then again, we understand how daunting it is to build your reputation on a new platform.

This is why we sincerely hope that our short guide on how to upload digital art to Instagram has proved helpful to you.