A watercolor artist in New Mexico has been painting for 30 years. Her work hangs in galleries across the Southwest. Her online presence: a Facebook page with 200 followers (half are family) and no portfolio website because she can't figure out Squarespace. Meanwhile, a digital artist with 2 years of experience has 50,000 followers on ArtStation and gets commission requests weekly. The platforms were built for digital artists; traditional artists are invisible online.
ArtStation, DeviantArt, and Behance are optimized for digital art and concept art. They favor high-output creators posting daily and digital workflows with easy uploads. Traditional artists — painters, sculptors, printmakers, ceramicists — create fewer pieces, photograph their work rather than export files, and often lack the technical skills to present their work online effectively. The result: traditional art is underrepresented in the places collectors and buyers actually look.
The opportunity is a portfolio platform for traditional artists at $8-15/mo: simplified upload process optimized for photographs of physical work, display options that showcase texture and scale (not just flat images), discovery features that don't penalize low posting frequency, and collector/gallery connections. Position as 'ArtStation for painters, sculptors, and craftspeople.' Target the 2+ million professional traditional artists in the US who feel excluded from digital-first platforms but need online presence to sell work and get commissions.
📊 Market Evidence
🏆 Competitor Landscape
How existing players stack up in this market
| Competitor | Pricing | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ArtStation | Free / $9.95/mo Pro | Industry standard for digital art |
| Behance | Free / $23/mo (Creative Cloud) | Adobe ecosystem, broad creative |
| DeviantArt | Free / $5-10/mo Core | Community-focused, all art types |
| Cargo | Free / $13-29/mo | Design portfolios, minimal |
| Format | $6-44/mo | Photography/art portfolios |
Industry standard for digital art
Adobe ecosystem, broad creative
Community-focused, all art types
Design portfolios, minimal
Photography/art portfolios
Score Breakdown
Good market signals with room for growth
Market (20%) + Revenue (20%) + Trend (15%) + Competition (15%) + Build (15%) + Pricing (15%)
🚀 Start Building
Copy a prompt into your favorite AI coding tool and start building this idea right now.
Build a SaaS product called "Traditional Artist Portfolio Platform". ## Product Overview Portfolio and sales tools for non-digital artists ## Problem Portfolio and sales tools for non-digital artists ## Solution Build Traditional Artist Portfolio Platform ## Target Audience indie hackers, small businesses, and solopreneurs ## Tech Stack - Next.js 15 (App Router) with TypeScript - Tailwind CSS v4 for styling - Supabase for auth, database, and storage - Vercel for deployment - shadcn/ui for UI components - Framer Motion for animations ## MVP Features to Build 1. Landing page with clear value proposition 2. User authentication (sign up, sign in, forgot password) 3. Core product functionality based on the solution above 4. Dashboard for users to manage their data 5. Pricing page with at least 2 tiers (free + paid) 6. Basic settings/profile page ## Known Competitors ArtStation, Behance, DeviantArt, Cargo, Format ## Key Risks to Address Standard market entry risks ## Deployment 1. Set up Supabase project and configure environment variables 2. Deploy to Vercel with `npx vercel --prod` 3. Set up custom domain 4. Configure Supabase RLS policies for security ## Instructions Start by creating the project structure, then build the landing page first. Use server components where possible. Make it mobile-responsive from the start. Focus on getting the core value loop working before adding polish.