webvermin art ˚₊۶ৎ˙⋆

February 3rd, 2026

Hi! Welcome to my page and my first blog post! I am a 23-year-old Canadian artist with many mediums, but mainly a focus on paintings and drawings, both traditional and digital. I particularily specialize in painting/drawing cats and people in my own style that I have developed over time.

The idea of “webvermin” (my art tag) is that the internet eats away at us, like how vermin eat crops. Vermin are harmful, difficult to get rid of, and hard to control, and unfortunately, we are the crops. As much as I love aspects of the internet and everything that comes with it, I believe now more than ever we need to be more in touch with nature and art, rather than JUST being online.

The concept of “webvermin” came to me in high school, in my graphic design class, and I’ve been using it since. It was always meant to be ironic since it’s not only my art tag but also my online handle.

On a more serious note, I believe a balance with technology and nature is essential for modern living. Being a user of the internet opens the window to so many opportunities that aren’t taken advantage of…

However, my current goal is to stop wasting my time on the internet but rather use it to find inspiration, share/grow my art, and encourage others to do the same. My goal is to use it as a tool, not a crutch. I hope the blog portion of this website can facilitate that.

I also feel that utilizing the critical AND creative sides of our brains should be normalized. There are so many people in my life that believe that they are one or the other.

You just need to find your medium and inspiration. We are all makers.

February 20th, 2026

When making art, your audience is something to always keep in mind, especially when posting online. And for me personally, I’m trying to join the art/small business world- so of course I need to be mindful. Although I really don’t think you should base everything you create on generating an audience, growing your platform is extremely powerful. Currently, my general audience is mostly made up of my friends, family, and cat fans. My cat paintings have been the most successful in growing my platform. By using this website and being more active on my social media pages, I would love to continue to cater to cat fans, and anyone who has similar interests. By doing so, I could build a community, make friends, have art trades/collaborations and of course, sell my art.

In a counterpublic sense, I would love for people to feel welcome to interpret my art. Some of my pieces are pretty cut and dry, but I have also created original pieces that tell a deeper story or an idea. I believe that people can connect to things in different ways, and it’s a beautiful thing. For example, song lyrics! You can listen to a song an artist wrote about their break up and relate it to your own life in a different way, like a friendship break up. I would deeply enjoy having conversations with people on their perspectives of my art honestly.

My favourite artists have continued to grow their communities through different social medias such as Instagram and TikTok. I have noticed that reels/videos seem to boost engagement significantly, as well as consistently posting, hashtagging, tagging relevant people, and making a lot of content from a specific media. (A video game, movie, tv series…) I have so many things I am interested in or want to create that it’s hard to stick to one thing, but cat paintings are fun to create and receive good reception! Some of my personal inspirations include Vanessa Stockard, Emily Dunlap, and DoggoRevolution. As far as I know, they all grew their audience on social media, sell their art in different forms such as prints or shirts, and all make animal-themed art. They all have a unique style and aesthetic in not only in what they create, but also on their websites, which is my personal goal towards the end of March.

Online, I am a consumer of content, whether it’s memes, news, media, etc… but I don’t want to just be a consumer. I want to be a creator and provider. I want to create art that sparks conversation, videos for others to share with one another, and be an active participant in art communities.

The art world is sadly quite complicated right now. Well, I suppose it always was, but generative AI has made it easier for people to steal art or sell art they didn’t even create. In my opinion, generative AI rips away our creativity and removes the human connection and soul from artwork. (I suppose this also negatively impacts our critical thinking too!) In school we have learned the importance about keeping the critical side of our minds active, but what about the creative side? And I don’t just mean doing some colouring. I want to encourage others to truly be creative and experiment. I hope that is what I add to the art community among other things.

I’m not only hoping to connect to the art community online, but also in person. I would love to sell my art through my online store and start going to art fairs to meet others with similar ideas or interests. Discussions with other people can create new ideas or inspirations for future projects or even give you insight into different perceptions. It would be nice to have more of that in my life, and push more out of my comfort zone to keep growing as a person, and artist and a creator.

March 9th, 2026

If I’m being utterly honest, at first I really wasn’t too keen on using WordPress, maybe it’s because I’m quite stubborn at times- but also, I have a bad habit of staying in my comfort zone. I knew a bit about it of course, like that it’s a popular website building site, but I had learned to build websites on Weebly through school and that was all I knew. I love Weebly, because it’s fairly simple to build with. In hindsight, I guess it’s good for beginners, it didn’t have everything I wanted. I haven’t updated my old website in awhile so it’s hard to give much more commentary on Weebly.

I will say however, WordPress has a lot more options and features built in and also offers the opportunity to add a variety of different plugins which I’ve started playing around with a bit. I love that they offer prebuilt themes. I wish more were free to create more diversity for those wanting to create a free website, but I’m glad there’s options at all. I will say, I’ve had my struggles with WordPress. Whether it was something simple I could look up on Youtube or a weird bug that I had to speak to customer service about, everything ended up working out in the end. I had a lot of frustration with those issues because I am so passionate about building this site, but I cannot complain at all about the tremendous amount of support the site offers or even the random people online making tutorials to help out others. Without all this, I would’ve probably bawled my eyes out by now haha. Another thing worth mentioning is AI. I guess I get why they use AI in the sense of every other tool, app, platform or software seems to be using it and they have to compete… but it’s nice that it’s actually optional and you’re not pressured to use it? I know that seems bare minimum but I’ve used all sorts of things such as editing apps that shoves AI down your throat, or limits your options if you don’t use or pay for their AI.

I ultimately ended up going with WordPress because it was my teacher’s recommendation, and I completely understand why. It’s challenging for sure, but not to the point where it’s almost impossible for someone relatively new to the website building scene to figure out. When you overcome those challenges, like you add something new to your website, or fix something you were having an issue with for awhile, it’s quite satisfying. My goal as I’ve said is to build my art website- To talk about, display, discuss, and sell my art. I am really excited with my progress thus far and I can’t wait until it’s completely functional.

Originally my plan was to overcomplicate my website. (Unintentionally…) I wanted to give it a magical forest like theme, and while that would be really cool, it would probably be too complicated. I think it would deter visitors from staying on the website or looking further into my website because they be overwhelmed if there was too much on the page. While I think my website may be oversimplified at the moment, I think it’s an easier method while building my website, and I’d like to incorporate more of my art into the design of the website in the future, as well as simple little text art. As I am writing this, I have my old art posted on my homepage. I would like to redo that to make it more relevant to who I am now as an artist, and also since my art has improved I would like to display that too.

March 17th, 2026

I currently use Instagram as my main source of promoting my art and now my website. I would love to use YouTube and especially TikTok eventually, but editing videos takes even more time, and that’s obviously expected more on those platforms. I love editing videos, but especially when my time is limited as it is, it’s difficult to accommodate that too. However if I could find a quick way to do it, it would be easier to do use those social media’s more.

Animation trends would be really fun to join in on, but again, time is something I need more of. I know animation does really well on TikTok, so that would be a good way to promote myself there, but there’s not really a product I could sell, other than actually making full on animations, but I would have less time for my website, paintings and digital art. (And everything else going on in my life…) I have been playing around with using reels on Instagram though, and I think my plan is once I have enough newer content, I will also share those videos on TikTok.

An easy way I’ve been tracking my success thus far is Instagram Business, which basically means I have a business account that provides “insights” into my engagement. I can see how many profile views I have and compare them to previous months, see how many new followers I have gained, advertise my art to appear on other peoples feeds, and see how many followers vs non-followers are viewing my posts. (And more.) I had a recent post of some Overwatch sketches I made that has done very well because the official Overwatch page had reposted it, which lead to more reposts from others, more likes, more views etc. I also gained more followers, so now I can keep in mind what kind of content my audience is interested in the most. (Though, I will continue to keep making a variety of drawings from different media’s since I have so many interests.)

I really would like my feed on my profile to have more of an aesthetic to it, but maybe in a way it’s chaotically aesthetic. I will say my page is full of variety and colour, which for sure a bonus. However, a lot of successful artists I follow will have a main colour and stick to the same medium. (ex. Painting) Basically, their feed is pleasing to look at, and their content they create is consistent and has a theme. My art is definitely not consistent, but I’m hoping to achieve some aesthetic in my website.

I wouldn’t say I have too many note worthy habits when it comes to posting. I have pinned my favourite pieces, and I try my best to upload in high quality. I also like using all lowercase letters in captions. (Don’t ask why I just like it for some reason haha.) I like having a lot of colour on my page, but to be more active sometimes I post sketches with white or beige backgrounds which pop out too much in my opinion, but for now, it’s more for people to engage with and gives me more to work with.

That being said, I contribute online, but I would like to contribute even more. I need to push myself, but I’m scared of facing burn out. It’s possible to take one art piece and turn it into several posts, which helps tremendously. (Ex. The sketch, finished piece, video process.) There are many pieces I am going to start turning into prints for people to buy, and prepare to sell at my local comic con- eventually. And of course on here. Some pieces are gonna be a bit older, and some more recent ones, but only pieces I think are worth selling. Once I have the printing and my online store functions figured out, it’ll be easier to have more time to commit to the art aspect, rather than constantly working on my website. There will be more work in promoting my website though I suppose.

It’s also nice to see my progress over time. How much I’ve improved, how much my page has grown, and like I mentioned earlier, what my audience is most interested in and what receives the most engagement.

From my first blog post until now, time has flown by for me. I’ve been balancing work, school, my art page, getting out of the house more (and photography when I do), and helping my family around the house. I like to think I improved on my goal (mentioned in blog post 1) of wasting less time on the internet. I would like to continue to do so, especially when school is over for the semester. In reference to blog post 2, I have grown my page! I’ve now reached over 400 followers which is super exciting! I have yet to connect to the art world offline, but I think when I go to in person events to sell my art it’ll be easier once I am more established as a business. Blog post 3 wasn’t that long ago, but I think I’ve improved on using WordPress in general. It’s still overwhelming for sure, and I’m still working on my online shop, however I am making slow yet steady progress and it gets easier everyday. It’ll be so worth all the effort, and I’m extremely excited about it.

April 3^rd, 2026

I want to learn what it takes to be successful as an artist. In the sense of having a properly functioning shop, products to sell, and taking part in art markets/conventions. I have a million questions when it comes to this, and I aim to at least answer the most important ones in this blog. I know I will learn things from trial-and-error overtime, but with my indecisiveness I think having some guidance would be incredibly helpful. In writing and researching this, my goal is not only to educate myself about marketing and growing in the art industry, but also maybe those of you who read this may learn something too!

In my own journey so far, Instagram has been my main form of growing my audience as I’ve mentioned previously. I like the aspects the business account offers, like seeing profile views over time. Since I’ve started this website, I have gained around 40-50 followers which I’m super happy about! I’m sure it’s most artists dream to blow up overnight (which of course I would love) but I’m still super thrilled about it. I don’t need a million followers, but I would like to have conversations, collaborations and fun merchandise. What has worked the most for me on Instagram, is tagging people. My overwatch post did very well when I tagged overwatch and they reposted. Or my cat collage painting because I tagged all the owners who then shared it on their stories. It reaches their audiences with the same interests (in this case, overwatch and cats). I didn’t create the painting or sketches with just a marketing mindset of course, but it’s an additional bonus and I learned from it.

As for my research in growing an audience and the marketing aspect, I’m focusing on Instagram since it’s one of the best platforms for an artist to grow a following. Colourfully Sarah, a cross-stitch artist, gives some tips on growing on Instagram, such as being unique (in your designs and what you sell), having a cohesive aesthetic, and making reels- Which are all things I want to work on. I have so many different interests and I want to stay true to that, but I know having a theme is important for success on an art page. She explains that despite her different cross stitch patterns, her feed is mostly purple and has a “cutesy” theme to it. A lot of my favourite artists have a particular theme, such as Beetlejulia. Thinking about it now, maybe I was even drawn to “aesthetic” pages over one’s that had no fluidity. My feed is all over the place because I want to post as much as I can as often as I can, but maybe it’s time to put more of that within my reels- another extremely helpful way to reach new people. Perhaps even the best way according to artists including Sarah.

But then this all leads me to even more questions. What is my main colour? What medium should I post when I use so many? Even what kind of brush should I use? If I’m making fanart, what fandom should I focus on? The answer to all of these, is I don’t know- and I don’t have to know yet. But I’m going to keep exploring it. I’d love to focus on my painting, but between everything I got going on, I can’t post it much. I could needle felt, sketch, create digital art, create Perler bead designs… I LOVE IT ALL. It’s hard to dedicate myself to only one. If you feel the same way, don’t give up

When it comes to selling things, artist Angela Ho says, “When deciding what to sell, think why would someone buy this?” I took this as prioritizing necessity in your products while having your aesthetic that is marketable. She continues, “Pretty art isn’t enough if you’re just starting out. The best way to increase sales in the beginning stages is selling an item that solves a problem or serves a practical purpose.” She gives a variety of examples, such as a magnetic bookmark solving the issue of losing your page (and creasing your book.) Or something like stickers, which is easy to use for notebooks and water bottles but also cheaper product that you can get more of. (And perhaps a way of promoting yourself when other people see the stickers.) Her video (linked) is incredibly insightful. She had many products she made herself (as opposed to ordering it from a store that you send your designs to) that I didn’t even think of selling. Sticker sheets, mystery bags, “oopsie” bags… I thought prints would be the way to go, but it’s more expensive and may be harder to sell.

My original plan for my shop itself was to create something through my website. However, I’ve noticed that most, if not all of the videos I have watched (outside of the ones I mentioned too) have the artists say they use Etsy to sell products. I want to investigate using Etsy and any other sites that are reliable and helpful. I don’t know much about Etsy other than it’s fairly popular among artists, so it’s definitely something I am going to look into and hopefully, whatever site I use for my store will be up and running by the end of April-May. So, stay tuned for that!

I hope you learned something with me from reading this. I truly recommend checking out the full videos or perhaps other videos from the creators I mentioned if this is something you are also interested in. I briefly cover small parts of their videos, but they have so much more helpful tips that are worth utilizing. If you are also on an art journey and want to connect with me, I’d love to hear your thoughts/ideas too or follow one another. This may possibly be my last blog post for awhile, but I will strive to continue giving my perspective, creations and ideas in the world and I hope you will too.