The wilds of Instagram and Tumblr offer up a limitless supply of artists. Illustrators, photographers, printmakers—you name it, there they are, their work on display for all to see. Certainly not all are created equal, nor will they all be to your liking. But that’s the beauty of these platforms, after all: there’s bound to be something for everybody.   

That said, we certainly have our personal favorites. Here are five artists from across social media whose work we think you especially need to see. Some of these artists (or their accounts) are quite well known, others less so; of course, the internet is so vast that this is only the tip of the iceberg—but we might as well start somewhere, right? 

And it’s hard to think of a better place to start than with these five amazing artists:

1. Tina van Dijk

From the artist’s Instagram.

First up is Tina Van Dijk, an illustrator from the Netherlands. Her spirited illustrations spotlight our marine mammal friends, portraying them in such colorful, happy glory that it's hard not to fall in love. You can find her work on Instagram here. Ranging from straightforward to quirky to totally surreal (e.g., a narwhal going on a bike ride), all of Tina's cetacean sensations are imbued with a particular ebullient sweetness all their own. 

(She also has a Society shop here, where you can order prints and such – I think I'll be partaking.)

2. Daily Cat Drawings

Illustrations from Daily Cat Drawings Tumblr. 

Okay, so this may not be the most original pick of all time, but there's something so satisfying about good cat drawings. They’re universal, and this particular (unnamed) artist’s offerings are so expressive, they seem to evoke every cat you’ve ever met. Suffice it to say the artist is highly attuned to the variety of cat weirdness, depicting its realness even as they exaggerate and stylize. You can check out the wealth of feline fabulousness on display here. (Side note: I particularly enjoyed that, in the FAQ, the artist states a clear refusal to do tattoo commissions. Know your boundaries, I say!)

3. Maya Av-Ron

Maya Av-Ron is an animation student, studying her art at the École de l’image Gobelins, a visual art conservatory in Paris. It was her pair of house drawings pictured above that originally pulled me in. There’s something fascinating about when an artist shows more than one phase of his/her process, and here it’s satisfying to watch the house evolve from intriguing sketch to full colorful warmth.

Maya and her fellow students also recently worked on a short animated film called “Tchin!,” its style reminiscent of The Triplets of Belleville and 101 Dalmatians. 

4. The Dogist

Tale, an Ibizan hound and the most recent dog chronicled on The Dogist.

The Dogist is Elias Weiss Freidman, a New York City photographer who became well known for his highly expressive photos (and “interviews”) of dogs all over the city. So entertaining were these portraits that the Dogist Tumblr eventually became a book; Weiss has also expanded his project since to include dogs he meets on travels far from NYC. In an interview with the website 6sqft, Weiss sums up his project as “a story about dogs that wasn’t being told. […] Dogs are a remarkable part of our culture and no one is really telling their story in a consistent, beautiful, thoughtful, personifying way.” 

5. Thomas Romain

Thomas Romain, from Bored Panda

My final pick isn’t technically a Tumblr or an Instagram, but it’s wonderful and entertaining. Meet French artist Thomas Romain, who takes his young children’s drawings and turns them into fully realized characters. Below is my personal favorite, the Cloud Dwellers. You can read more about Thomas and his “Father and Sons Design Workshop” in this Bored Panda article.