4 Reasons Artists Are Loving Google+

Lots of artists are posting their work on Google+. We got in touch with a few of them to ask about their experience so far. The response? They love it. As Carsten Bradley, an illustrator in Atlanta, Georgia, writes:

At this point, for artists it is almost like a social networking utopia. We get instant feedback on our work, and visibility far exceeding the capabilities of Facebook and Twitter combined. With the power of circles, we can share works in progress to select individuals and get immediate feedback and critiques without exposing the work publicly. Maybe it doesn't have anything to do with those reasons. Maybe it's just because it's new and shiny. [But the truth of it is] that artists are really coming together here, and it's wonderful.

Daniel Ibanez, an artist and illustrator living in Fort Collins, Colorado, loves it so much he can see it becoming his primary art blog.

Here are a four things artists love about the site:

1. Google+'s image display page looks really classy. Art shines on its transparent black background. Not to pat our own backs, The Atlantic's In Focus blog has set up a camp on the site, and the results are awesome.

2. The traffic has been immense, especially relative to the rather paltry artist's private site usually receives. Eric Orchard, a cartoonist living in Toronto, says that the Google+ traffic is translating into a spike in sales of his work.

3. One reason for the increased traffic: Unlike Facebook, it's the norm on Google+ to follow people who are complete strangers. As Canadian artist Linsay Blondeau puts it, "There's no pretense of being actual 'friends.'" Of course, if you're an artist trying to market your stuff, reaching beyond the people you already know is going to be crucial.

4. Twitter, like Google+, is good for interacting with strangers. But Twitter's not a great way to display art (you can include one photo or a link to your site, but not an album like Google+ allows). Additionally, French artist Benjamin Basso points out that Google+ doesn't have a big spam problem (yet), something that can be a bit of an annoyance on Twitter. And the real humans on Google+ are a chatty bunch, giving artists an unusual opportunity to receive feedback on their work.

Below, check out our slideshow of art collected from the pages of Google+.

For those interested in checking out more artists on the site, we recommend Jonathan Chandler's list as a handy starting point.