My Instagram account is not growing: am I doing something wrong as an artist?

Every time I open my Instagram, it quietly asks me the same question: “So, how successful are you today?” For a long time, my honest answer was: “Apparently… not very.” And I am sure it is a very common thought among creatives.

When a small art Instagram account is not growing it starts to feel like proof of failure

I’ve had my art Instagram for about seven years now. First, I’ve been posted one - two times in a month. Then I started experimenting, tried different things: shared finished pieces, sketchbook pages, process, thoughts, making reals with hooks, posting for 30 days...you name it. And I still sit at around 300 followers (Half of them are my friends or people I know personally).

If you look at how Instagram is talked about online, especially “Instagram for artists”, it’s almost always framed as a business tool: grow your audience, sell your prints, launch your course, build a brand etc. But when your art Instagram is not growing, it doesn’t feel like a “tool”. It feels like a report card. It feels like a quiet public scoreboard that says: “Everyone else is moving forward and you’re not.” I kept seeing artists explode: new accounts and then suddenly thousands of likes and comments. And then there was me (with 300 subscribers). It was very easy to read this as: “They figured out the secret. I didn’t. So maybe I’m just doing something wrong.”

When numbers become more than numbers

The hardest part wasn’t actually the number 300 itself. It was the story I attached to it. My mind happily turned Instagram metrics into identity statements. Low followers became: “You are not interesting, “You’re behind”, “Maybe you should not even try”, or the worst of all this - "You should do the content as others do"

I’d post something I personally liked, and if it didn’t “perform”, I would start doubting the drawing. If several posts in a row were quiet, I’d start doubting myself as an artist.

At the same time, Instagram is built in a way that constantly puts numbers in your face: likes, saves, reach, followers, “account growing” or “account down by 23% this week”. For a creative person who is already sensitive to feedback, this is a dangerous mix. It’s (sadly) very easy to let this tiny dashboard decide how you feel about your entire creative life.

I noticed a very specific pattern in my head: big art accounts = “real artists, real business, real success”, my small, slow art account = “stuck, not serious, not working”

What we don’t see when we compare

The funny thing is: I know from my own behaviour as a follower that the story is more complicated. Some artists I follow grew quickly because they already had an audience on another platform and casually invited people over. Some had one Reel blow up completely randomly, and that one video carried their account forward. Some post fan art or very trendy subjects that the algorithm knows exactly how to distribute. Some simply have the time and energy to produce a lot of content, test every format, and think about “Instagram strategy” several hours per week (and do not have 9 to 5 job 😅).

I, on the other hand, work full-time as a designer in an IT company. I commute, I cook, I try to have a life outside of work. I draw as much as I can, but my energy is not infinite. I don’t have a team or a manager, or a strategy department. I have just started seriously thinking about the marketing strategy, trying to figure out why my Instagram account is not growing.

So when I compare my slow, realistic situation with someone’s fast, curated Instagram growth, I’m comparing two very different contexts. And still, my brain happily uses it as evidence that “I’m failing”. It doesn’t care about algorithms, timing, subject matter or luck. It cares about one thing: the numbers on my own screen.

When Instagram becomes the main mirror for your art

Another thing that makes this hard for artists with a full-time job is that Instagram has quietly become the main place where we “exist” as artists. If your art is not visible online, it almost feels like it doesn’t exist. There is this heavy message in the background: “If your art Instagram account is not growing, you’re not doing it right.” And “doing it right” often seems to mean: constant output, on-trend content, teaching, entertainment, being present everywhere, all the time.

I reached a point where opening the app felt like opening a daily exam. Did I pass? Did I fail? Am I allowed to continue? It sounds dramatic, but if you’re an artist, illustrator or creative person, you probably know what I mean.

At some point, after yet another round of “everyone is growing except me”, I realised I had to change how I think about Instagram and what role I let it play in my mind. I started asking myself a very simple question: “Is Instagram a measurement of my worth, or just one tool among many?” There are many artists out there who earn without audiences or followers and use Instagram simply as a portfolio.

• A tool can be helpful, neutral or not very effective right now.

• A tool can be updated, used differently, or sometimes put aside for a while.

• A tool does not decide whether you’re a “real” artist.

When I looked at my account through that lens, it changed the feeling a bit. It became a small window into my world and a place where people can find my work and my services.

Did this completely fix my relationship with Instagram? No - I still notice likes and saves, and I still wish my art account was bigger, and I still get pulled into comparison.

But I try to treat the numbers as information, omitting the judgment part.

Social media should support our art, not own it

If you’re anything like me, an artist or aspiring artist, maybe with a full-time job, maybe with a small art Instagram that feels stuck - it’s very easy to let social media define you.

We hear so many rules:

• You must grow your audience before you can sell.

• You must post every day.

• You must film Reels (obviously with a super strong catchy hook)

• .You must show your face. etc. etc....

  
  

And personally, I got lost in all this "must", I lost the joy of creating, the purpose of showing my art. And it took me a while to realise: none of this actually defines what art means to me. It doesn’t define why I draw, or what I want on my own walls, or why I love sketching coffee, plants and socks.

So I keep reminding myself (and maybe this is your reminder too): Instagram is not who I am as an artist. And my art account is not my whole creative life.

Yes, I still want my art Instagram to grow. I still want to sell prints, originals or custom illustrations. I still hope that my future business will be supported by the right people finding me online. But I don’t want my sense of worth as an artist to depend entirely on an app.

Social media should assist us — help people discover our art, make it easier to share, maybe connect us with clients and other creatives. It should not make us feel like we are only as good as our last post.

The most important relationship should be between you (as an artist) and your sketchbook (or wherever you create) and your ideas, while the app is just a tool.

Instagram can come and go, and your art will exist anyway. Subscribe to my Newslater to receive notifications about new Blog posts and my art Join Newsletter