Used to post my digital art flat with no process pics big mistake

For 3 years I just uploaded the final polished piece. Then last month I started including my initial rough sketch layers and a 10 second speedpaint clip. My engagement jumped from like 12 likes to over 60 on my last piece. Has anyone else noticed people respond way more to seeing the messy middle stages?

2 comments

2 Comments

norab2117d ago

Used to post my digital art flat with no process pics big mistake" - yeah that was me too for like 2 years. I started showing my messy sketches and half-done color blocks and suddenly people actually commented asking how I did things. The raw stages show the struggle, makes people feel like they're in on the process instead of just looking at a finished product. I even leave in some ugly parts sometimes, like the sketch where I totally messed up the anatomy before fixing it. People eat that up way more than the final polished thing for some reason.

mason.brian17d ago

Yeah the "messy middle" thing is REAL. My buddy Chris does these watercolor cityscapes and for years he only posted the crisp finished piece. Nobody cared. Then one month he posted a shot of his palette with all the muddy mixed colors and a photo of his paper where he'd taped over a section he messed up with paper towel. His comments EXPLODED. People were asking about his brush technique and what brand of tape he used. He even left a weird blob from where he accidentally knocked his cup and had to paint over it. Now he includes those mistakes on purpose because people love seeing the recovery.