Normally, I'm not one to nitpick. but come on. It's been years and nobody has had the idea of atrist following? Currently, my way of "following" an artist is favoriting one of their posts that I don't want to, then coming back and clicking their tag to check for new pieces.
Now, I'm not saying that's an inefficient system, but...
it's an inefficient system.

Is it too much to ask for a little "follow artist" button next to a tag?

If this is already a thing or it's some hidden feature deep inside the settings of e6, ignore my idiocy, and point me in the direction of said button.

I believe tag subscriptions WAS a feature in the old site for quite a few years as a "privileged member and above"-only feature, but I think they didn't got it to work.
There were alternatives suggested though, they are extensions for your browser.

Like this?

It's an extension I was working on after having the same thoughts as you, haven't touched it in a while due to lack of interest. Maybe I have a marketing problem, idk. Anyway it's not yet completely working with the site redesign.

RE621 is a wonderful toolkit with a different sort of subscription feature, maybe that'll work for you.