The Chinese application no longer attracts only Millenials and the world's best dancers, but is now invaded by a multitude of creative minds of all kinds, including visual artists, whatever their discipline. Painting, sculpture, graffiti, digital art, collage ... All styles have found their place on the network, for the delight of collectors and art enthusiasts.
10. @achesdub : Colors and Hallucination
With 1.8 million followers, the Irish street artist @achesdub is one of the platform's star creators. As a young graffiti prodigy, he has been practicing his art since he was 15 y-o.
His videos, with no additional music, allow us to discover the everyday sounds and the creative and graphic process of a highly talented urban artist. He creates monumental and ultra-colored graffiti, mixing 3D effects and overlaying patterns to obtain a result close to visual hallucination: we love it!
9. @nicolaiganichev : Portrait's Delicacy
Already mentioned in our article on the 4 Tips to Boost your Online Art Sales, Russian artist @nicolaiganichev is also quite famous on the platform. Several of his videos even accumulate up to 6 million views. We discover precise and magnified portraits in the manner of Lucian Freud, with pastel shades that are particularly pleasing to the eyes. At just 22 years old, Nicolai Ganichev seems to be heading at full speed towards a well-deserved success.
8. @fundara : Hyperrealism and Satisfaction
@fundara is the most followed artist in this list, but she's also one of the most mysterious.
With more than 2 Million followers on the platform, she creates small hyperrealistic artworks of breathtaking detail, as well as various tutorials allowing her community to reach, maybe one day, her imperturbable mastery of the pencil. In going through her profile, we discover a particular passion for the human anatomy, notably the delicacy of her pulpy mouths, or the intense power of her eyes, which she seems to be able to reproduce infinitely thanks to her disconcerting pictorial technique.
7. @kasim.tattoo : Illustration and Movements
@kasim.tattoo is a young Russian artist, tattooist and illustrator. On TikTok, we can see his skill and inspiration without limits. Thanks to short dynamic videos describing his creative process on lpad (via ProCreate software), we discover the infinite possibilities of this kind of tools, and it really makes you want to try it. Beware, the addictive potential of this account is really significant!
6. @tommymachtnichts : Passion and Creativity
Still rarely put in the spotlight by the platform, this young artist, about whom we don't know much, yet has a great ease to realize artworks, especially portraits, with a striking tone of colors. Throughout his videos full of energy, we discover him painting in his snowy garden, dancing or having a good time in his studio.
If you are an artist and are looking for a source of inspiration to get started, @tommymachtnichts' montages can be very inspiring. Indeed, he succeeds brilliantly in integrating the platform's exhilarating challenges discreetly into his creative process, for a result that is always surprising!
5. @mrcallaby : Gluttony and Relaxation
@mrcallaby is a young artist from Britain based in Montenegro. He is also a great enthusiast of ASMR Art. If you're not familiar with this concept, let us explain: ASMR (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response) is a relaxation technique, working on certain receptive people, which translates into a stimulus of comfort or satisfaction caused by certain sounds or visual evocations. With @mrcallaby, it's difficult not to be receptive to the softness of its finely executed lines, showing a particularly sensual mastery of the marker. Subjects of his compositions are also very pleasant to contemplate: the artist reveals a dreamlike universe where his round and sympathetic characters, with faces of colorful delicacies, blossom in a world dripping with sugars and chocolate sauce.
4. @designical : Graphic Design and Landscapes
Thanks to his YouTube biography, we know that @designical is an illustrator and digital artist who produces many tutorials to help his community improve their skills, and... that's it. Although we can't know more about the personality behind this account, it is clear that he shows a considerable ease in mastering the stylus and graphic design software. We especially love his mountainous landscapes with whimsical gradations and purple shades.
3. @mickedeck :
Soon reaching over 2 million followers, this young Mexican street-artist also quickly became an emblematic personality of the platform. He creates with an obvious deconctraction small graffiti inspired by Pop Culture (Bugs Bunny, Sponge Bob, Homer Simpsons, Gorillaz...) or calligraphy. With a particular technique consisting of a layering of strokes of different colors and thicknesses, he magnifies his subjects by giving them a neon effect, very pleasing to the eyes, and with great originality.
2. @mattchessco :
Born in Toronto and currently based in Montreal, the artist @mattchessco is the perfect example of artistic success through social networks. In 2020, taking the measure of his rising success on the Chinese application, he decides to quit his job as an industrial designer to live for his passion: painting. This choice was the right one, since he now has a powerful community of collectors, and multiplies partnerships with brands interested in promoting their products.
Blossoming in a very original pictorial technique, colorful and full of his personality, he mainly produces portraits of emblematic celebrities: Tom Hanks, Marilyn Monroe, Zendaya, Donald Trump, or Billie Eilish. In addition to his authentic style, Matt Chessco has another strength that allows him to accumulate millions of views on each of his videos: a dynamic and meticulous editing, synchronized with the music used. Thanks to this skillfully maintained rhythm, he manages to take the viewer to the end of the video, so that he can discover the impressive final result.
1. @zhiyong.jing :
ZhiYong Jing is an artist from Beijing, China. His favorite subjects are dreams, hopes and the "absurd reality" of our world. In the realization of his artworks, he blossoms thanks to different techniques: painting on wood, painting on canvas, he has even published an artbook.
Close to surrealism and life scenes of Edward Hopper, his works depict miniature characters in situations as irrational as they are absurd. On his profile, we can see: an astronaut lost in space, a burning limousine abandoned in the middle of a snowy mountain, a mysterious ghost beside a dead body on a deserted beach, as well as a multitude of other artworks with undeniable poetry.
With academic precision, @zhiyong.jing takes us to a minimalist universe where wide open spaces dominate and solitude persists. If you' ve just discovered him, chances are that he will quickly become your favorite artist!
This top is obviously not exhaustive, as this network abounds of creative people of all kinds. Unfortunately, it's impossible to discover them all, even for a fervent user and art enthusiast (like the writer of this article).
For those who haven't yet discovered the possibilities offered by this application, we can only advise you to take a look at it. This will allow you to understand how it works before you start creating content.
More than an application, TikTok has become a community, with its codes and habits. Stay authentic, have fun and don't be afraid to fail: getting started on a new social network can always seem difficult, but if you are passionate about what you do, then you will always find a community to support you. Also, age is not a boundary to thrive on the app. Proof of this is the American actor and painter in his spare time Anthony Hopkins, at the top of his 83rd birthday, accumulates several million views on his videos where he dances in front of his paintings: self-acceptance is usually enough to conquer a caring community.
Bastien Alleaume
Content Manager - Artmajeur Online Art Gallery
Bastien Alleaume