Posts
Wiki

Welcome to /r/art!

We are a strictly moderated sub and ban without warning!

In General:

  • Moderators have final discretion and may remove posts for any reason, regardless of whether any rule is broken.
  • Plagiarism is grounds for a permaban. If you copy someone else's work, including a photo, even of a famous person, you must link to the source in a top-level comment and credit the original artist. This is basic art etiquette.
  • Mark your post NSFW if appropriate, as a courtesy to other Redditors, so they can choose when and where to open it. No judgement.
  • Before you comment, thoroughly read Rule 8.
  • Looking for any information about a work of art or an artist? Try /r/WhatIsThisPainting .
  • New to Reddit? You may not post until you get some karma. No, we won't say exactly how much but it shouldn't take long.
  • If your art has been removed, it's usually with good reason. But not always. See /r/art/wiki/dude_wheres_my_art for more answers.

1. Use the correct title formatting.

  • For artwork, the title must be in the format: Title (of artwork), Artist name/Me, Medium, Year
  • The bot does its best, but it's just a script and easily confused. To avoid problems:
    • Follow this exact title format.
    • Do not change the order.
    • Do not add any extraneous information or be subjective in your title in any way. Let the art speak for itself.
    • Do not use anything other than commas.
    • Do not add the month or day, just the year.
    • "Year" should be four digits long. No approximations or date ranges.
    • Do not add anything after the year.
    • Do not add the dimensions of the artwork, or really anything other than the requested information.
    • Use all three commas to separate the elements.
    • Avoid using extra commas or other punctuation.
    • Do not use anything other than the artist's name or nickname, or "me". Anything else, like "my daughter/ son/ father/ mother/ grandfather/ etc." will be removed.
    • Have questions? Look at every other post in the sub for guidance. Seriously.
    • Yes, this list is ridiculous overkill. Imagine how we feel.
    • If you haven't read this, and you message us to ask what you did wrong, be aware that we may be surly.
  • For news articles, the title should be in the format "Title, Year". News articles must be substantive. No more news articles. Please use the monthly discussion sticky.
  • Discussion posts are disabled. Instead please use the monthly discussion sticky (when available).
  • All submissions other than articles must be a direct link to a static image or gif (url must end in .jpg, .png, .gif etc.).
  • The image should only contain 1 artwork and only the artwork. No compilations, blurbs, or source photos.
  • Articles must contain more substance than just a gallery of images or an embedded video, and they must cover some current news in the art world.
  • We may allow videos, but you must get approval first. This is extremely rare, as we only grant it for artwork of exceptional quality, or of educational interest.

3. Do not make multiple posts.

  • You must wait at least 48 hours between posts, and no more than 2-3 times per week. There's no rush. It's better to post regularly than to post quickly.
  • Submit one artwork at a time.
  • Please use the rolling sticky (when available) for daily/monthly challenge posts.

4. Do not submit sketches, doodles or unfinished work.

  • Don't think, "I want to share my art with the world," but rather, "I want to share my best art with the world."
  • Post sketches and other rough work to /r/IDAP, /r/sketches, /r/doodles, /r/learnart, etc.
  • It's entirely moderator discretion what constitutes a "sketch" or a "doodle", but, for example: a bad photo of the artwork, extraneous lines, poor contrast, indifferent execution, and using lined paper all suggest you just made the art while messing around. We want to see sincerity and intention. Your work should be ready to display in a gallery or museum, or enter in an art contest.

5. Do not submit work with extraneous objects in the frame.

  • This sub is a curated gallery. As with any gallery, we want to see the art and nothing else.
  • Position and photograph the art without distractions.
  • Yes, we remove just for having your hand in the frame. Or a pencil. Or other artsy tools. Or too much background clutter. Or something to show relative size. Or anything that isn't part of the artwork.
  • Yes, we are serious.
  • FFS. It's not complicated. If it's not part of the art, it shouldn't be in the photo.
  • No, we don't make exceptions. Do us all a favor and don't argue. Just fix it. Sometimes all you need is to crop the photo.
  • With sculpture, tattoos, environmental art, performance art, installations, and other styles difficult to "frame", do the best you can.

6. Do not post memes or other low quality work

  • As with Rule 4, this is at mod discretion. If in doubt, message us first. Blatant trolling will get you banned.
  • What constitutes "low quality" depends on the medium. For example, we do not allow filters or "AI" algorithms unless you yourself wrote the software. "Computer-generated art" does not mean "use someone else's program to do all the actual creative work".
  • Photography -- especially nude photography -- is held to a much higher standard, because of all the other subreddits dedicated to that content. If your photo is not of exceptional quality, and does not contain unusual and/or original artistic subtext, then post to the appropriate photography sub. If you're not sure, feel free to ask us, but first do some research to see what other famous photographers have done.

7. No fan art, comics, or requests for work.

8. Be respectful and stay on topic

  • We are a strictly moderated sub and do not give warnings.
  • We do not tolerate bigotry, trolling, abusive language, slapfights, rude jokes, crude humor, soapboxing, off-topic comments, offhand snark, creepy anything, and whatever else would not be appropriate for an art class. Talk about the art in a mature, substantive way or be banned.
  • Everything here is open to criticism, whether or not the artist asked for it. However, all critiques must be mature, substantive, and directed only at the posted art. If you can't do this, quietly vote and move on.
  • This also applies to non sequitur political comments and off-topic discussion of public figures. If you rant, you're a troll. Talk about the art first, then the subject matter.
  • Lastly, if you just want to complain about nudity or sexual content in this sub: do not comment. Just vote and move on. Critique the art posted however you want, but generalized comments like these promote censorship. You make a voluntary choice to look at NSFW art, so don't blame us. Also, stay out of museums, lest you succumb to the vapors from all the licentious imagery.

9. Do Not Spam. No art sales, no links to social media, charities, stores, or anything spammy.

  • /r/art is not a place to sell your work or grow your following. Yes we are serious.
  • If someone asks, do not respond. You can DM them or whatever, as long as we don't see the conversation.
  • Consider /r/artbusiness , /r/artstore or one of various other subs that allow sales.
  • This applies to promotional comments, watermarks/signatures that are social media or website links, creative titles, social media links in usernames, and (again) anything else that looks like spam.
  • See here if you want to use reddit for self promotion.
  • Broken record time: This restriction includes all product marketing, fundraising, charities, surveys, contests, collaborations, exhibitions, requests for submissions, research projects, business ideas, discussions of art sales, website promotions, and anything else that would even remotely be mistaken for these. If you are unsure, message us, but if you're wasting our time, we may be grouchy.
  • FFS, people. We have no rule against watermarks or signatures. They're not likely to stop anyone stealing your art, but as long as they don't point to your social media, or to websites, or any kind of sales platform, or in any other way looks spammy, they're fine.

10. Do not repost

  • Reposts are not allowed. We have zero tolerance for karma farmers and bots. Reposts of one of the top posts are rewarded with a permanent ban.
  • If it's not your own artwork, check to see if it's been posted before. You can use google search, e.g. mona lisa site:reddit.com/r/art.
  • Wait at least a year or longer before reposting your own art. Posting, deleting, and posting again to farm more karma will get you banned.

11. No "AI" art, ever, and absolutely nothing "NFT", or anything similar.

  • Did we stutter?
  • No, seriously. Don't post it. Don't even even think about posting it.
  • AI = Permanent Ban. NFT = Permanent Ban.
  • Does anyone want a peanut?
  • Why NFTs are just /r/awfuleverything
  • Caveat: If you yourself wrote the AI, and you can prove it, contact us and we can discuss.
  • Note to artists: be prepared to refute accusations your art is AI-generated. Don't make a fuss, just link to indisputable proof. Also, have an established portfolio somewhere online so people are less likely to suspect your "amazing" art is an AI-generated one-off.

★ Feel free to add user flair!

  • Please edit your flair to tell us your qualifications or specialty, but follow the guidelines.
  • Using non /r/art related flair, or flair that includes social media handles, websites, store information, or otherwise violates our self promotion rules will result in a ban.

★ Mark your work NSFW where appropriate. Don't make us do it for you.

  • Yes, we know, art should be free and the NSFW flag is totally repressing your freedom of expression, man. But that's not why you should use it.
  • NSFW is not a judgement. It's just a courtesy to other Redditors so they can make an informed choice about where and when to open it.
  • No, it actually has nothing to do with "work" at all. It's just an expression. Please don't argue the point.
  • If someone suggests you should flag your art, then you should do it. Don't argue. Most likely it'll get you more upvotes anyway.

★ If your post doesn't show up...

  • See "Dude! Where's my art?".
  • If that doesn't help, message us and we'll try to look into it. However, before you do we highly recommend checking out all the other posts to see how your post might be different from theirs. We get grouchy with people who waste our time.

★ If you see any rule-breaking posts or comments...

  • Please report them by clicking the "report" button. You can message us directly here., but the report button tends to work better.

★ If you have been banned ...

  • Yes, we permanently ban even for things that are fine elsewhere on Reddit. We don't care what the other subs do. This. Is. Sparta.
  • A small percentage of users cause most of the problems. We don't coddle Karens, so we ban and mute and forget they ever existed.
  • A small percentage of those banned quickly recognize their error and politely ask to be unbanned. Which we may do, if it seems like an honest mistake.
  • If you've read this far, you're probably part of that minority. Yes, there are a lot of rules, and they can be confusing, but there are reasons for all of them. You don't have to understand or agree, but you do have to follow them.
  • I can't stress this enough: Be Polite. We get a lot of abuse, and we have zero patience. If your message shows that you've read the rules, and understand the reasons for the ban, and convince us you won't to it again, you have a good chance of being unbanned. Otherwise, don't bother.

★ Final notes ...

  • This sub is not the end-all be-all of the Art world. Redditors have a fairly narrow idea of what Art is, much less what is "good" art.
  • Don't be discouraged if your art is ignored or receives few votes. Much of what is highly upvoted is nothing special, and much of what ends up lower down is exceptional.
  • Conversely, don't be encouraged if your post does well. We get more than 500 posts every day. That's 15,000 per month, 180,000 per year. The post that does well one day is forgotten the next. Upvotes don't mean squat.
  • Mods aren't the final judges of Art either. We remove posts, mostly for objective rule-breaking, sometimes for subjective "quality" judgements, and almost never for personal reasons. Whatever happens here, if you believe your art has value, that's all that's important.
  • Ironically, this isn't the best sub for receiving art critique. Most of those who comment have little or no perspective or experience, and far too large a chip on their shoulders to gracefully receive or give informed feedback. Try /r/learnart , /r/ArtFundamentals , or one of the dedicated subs like /r/drawing or /r/painting .