What to Post After You Share Your Finished Artwork

You finished your latest piece of art, shared a photo of it online and felt quite pleased that you had something to post.

Then the next day arrived.

Now you're looking at your social media wondering, What the bloody hell do I post about today?

The good news is that you don't need to finish another piece of art. You probably haven't finished talking about the one you already shared.

Whether you created a pattern, an illustration or a greeting card, the final image is only one part of its story. All the decisions and difficulties that happened before you reached that point can give you plenty more to talk about.

The finished artwork is not the whole story

Artists often treat the reveal as the main event. We spend hours researching, sketching and changing things, then condense the whole process into one photograph and a caption saying, "Here is my latest piece."

After that, we assume we need something new before we can post again.

Your audience has only seen the finished result. They don't know what inspired it, why you chose those colours or which part nearly made you abandon the whole thing. They haven't seen the layers of thought behind what appears to be one neat image in their feed.

That hidden part of the process is where many of your stories are waiting.

Pull out the decisions you made

Every finished artwork contains decisions, even when you made some of them instinctively.

Why did you choose that theme? Perhaps it came from a childhood memory, something you noticed while travelling or an object you found at the back of a cupboard. Maybe one small idea sent you off in an unexpected direction and the final piece looks nothing like what you first imagined.

Colour choices have stories too. You may have worked from a photograph, researched a particular season or changed the entire palette because the original version did not create the mood you wanted.

Your style is another possible topic. Was this piece unmistakably yours, or were you trying a different approach? You can talk about why you wanted to experiment and what you discovered while doing it.

You made those decisions for a reason. Sharing some of that thinking helps people see more than the finished surface.

Talk about what made the piece difficult

There is a good chance your artwork did not arrive fully formed without causing you any trouble.

Perhaps one motif was much harder to draw than you expected. The composition may have looked wrong until you moved an element, changed the scale or removed something you had spent ages creating. You might have tested several versions before finding the one that worked.

These difficulties don't make you look less capable. They show the work involved in making something appear effortless.

You don't have to turn every problem into a dramatic tale of overcoming adversity. Explain what wasn't working, what you tried and what helped you move forward. That gives another creative person something useful while allowing a potential customer to appreciate the care behind the finished piece.

Share your materials and process

People are often curious about how artwork is made, particularly when they don't create in the same way you do.

If you work with analogue materials, you could talk about why you chose gouache, watercolour, ink or acrylic markers for this piece. Perhaps the texture of a crayon created something you couldn't achieve with a smoother medium.

If you work digitally, you still have a process worth sharing. You could explain why you used Procreate, which type of brush helped create the finished style or how you kept some of the imperfect qualities that make hand-drawn artwork feel alive.

The point isn't to write a technical manual every time. One small detail about your materials can open up a conversation about how the piece came together.

Go back to the memory or inspiration

Sometimes the strongest story sits behind the artwork rather than inside the practical process.

Did a place, person or memory inspire it? What was it about that experience that stayed with you? Why did you decide to turn it into this particular piece now?

This is where you can use the Dot, Thread, Lesson and Doorway method.

• The dot: the original moment, memory or observation.

• The thread: why it stayed with you and what it made you feel.

• The lesson: how that experience connects to your work or to the person viewing it.

• The doorway: what you want them to do next.

Your doorway might invite somebody to share a similar memory, follow the development of the collection or visit your shop. It does not always need to lead directly to a sale, but it should give the conversation somewhere to go.

Let people see the artist behind the artwork

If you're comfortable doing it, talk about the piece on video.

Show your face and explain one decision you made. Hold up your sketchbook or let people see the materials you used. You don't need a polished script or an elaborate studio set-up.

People connect with the person behind the artwork. Your voice, expressions and enthusiasm help them understand why the piece matters to you in a way that a finished photograph cannot always do on its own.

This human connection is one of the ways an artist can stand out when so much online content is beginning to look and sound the same.

One piece of art can give you several posts

Go back to the last piece of art you shared and look at it again. Instead of asking what you need to create next, ask what you haven't told people yet.

You could talk about:

• The memory or research that inspired it

• A motif with a story behind it

• One decision that changed the direction of the piece

• A difficulty you had to solve

• The materials or digital brushes you chose

• Why you used that colour palette

• What you learned by trying a different style

• How you hope the finished piece makes somebody feel

You don't need another finished piece. You need to pull more of the story out of the one you already have.

Choose one question from this list and use it for your next post. If you share what you create, tag me so I can see where the story took you.

If you'd like more honest ideas for finding stories in your everyday life and creative work, you can join my Stories from the Dotty Side newsletter at jodraper.au/stories-from-the-dotty-side.