About

Big Twitter Artist is a term used to describe any artist with a large Twitter following, usually at least over 10,000 followers. Starting in late 2010s, following the rapid growth of art Twitter, memes and discussions pertaining to big artist accounts and their social media interactions with smaller accounts became commonplace on Twitter. In September 2021, a comic about interactions between big and small artists on Twitter went viral, inspiring edits and debates in the following days, with another comic going viral in May 2024.

Origin

Posts referring to "big artists" on Twitter gained notable presence on the site following the rapid growth of art Twitter in the second half of 2010s. In the 2020, meme art format in which small Twitter accounts expressed feeling honored and humbled when their art was reposted by large accounts gained notable popularity. For example, on September 29th, 2020, artist @JMG_PartyBean made a tweet^[1] that gained over 17,700 retweets and 111,500 likes in one year (shown below, left). On December 26th, 2020, artist @rosy_maple_moth tweeted^[2] an object-labeling meme that gained over 11,100 retweets and 74,900 likes in that period (shown below, right).

Spread

In 2020 and 2021, meme artworks expressing gratitude to artists with large following retweeting art from smaller accounts were posted on Twitter^[3][4] (examples shown below). Additionally, a number of posts in which small artists expressed their frustration with bigger artists also went viral. For example, on August 31st, 2021, artist @leecantdraw made a post that received over 8,900 retweets and 77,500 likes in one month (shown below, center).^[5]

September 2021 Comic

On September 16th, 2021, artist @Cheesymanfredo tweeted^[6] a four-panel comic in which he highlighted that big twitter artists tend to like art by small artists but choose not to retweet it (shown below). The comic received over 1,000 retweets, 1,100 quote tweets and 6,700 likes in one week, inspiring a debate about interactions between small and big artists on Twitter.

Starting on September 17th, 2021, multiple users posted edits of @Cheesymanfredo's comic. For example, on that day, artist @Karboardian tweeted^[7] a meme that received over 2,300 retweets and 24,500 likes in one week (shown below, left). On September 21st, Twitter^[8] user @WassNonnam posted an Abby Choke edit that received over 1,500 retweets and 16,100 likes (shown below, right).

Additionally, starting on September 18th, @Cheesymanfredo tweeted^[9][10][11] several sequels to his original post in which he continued to poke fun at big Twitter artists.

May 2024 Comic

On May 1st, 2024, X^[12] / Twitter artist @ThaE_Slug posted a four-panel comic about an interaction between a small artist and a big artist. The post (shown below, left) garnered over 2,600 reposts and 36,000 likes in two days. Later that day, X^[13] artist @TirtTheThing made another comic, commenting, "that's what usually happens. Ant it's the worse." Their post received over 7,100 reposts and 64,000 likes in two days (shown below, right).

The posts were followed by a resurgence of the trend on X / Twitter, with more users posting memes depicting interactions between small and big artists on the platform. For example, on May 2nd, 2024, X^[14] user @goofbell posted a Loss meme that gained over 5,000 reposts and 46,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). On May 2nd, X^[15] user @obscuritea posted a version that gained over 2,300 reposts and 15,000 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References