The 15-second video that sold more than a month of nice polished posts

I've been doing the whole "wake up, post a nice finished piece, tag materials, use hashtags, be consistent" thing for months and it's been working okay but like... okay. Then last week I was in a really bad mood about a painting I'd been fighting with for three days, the wash was drying wrong, everything was lifting when I went back in, and I just filmed myself scraping the whole thing off with a palette knife and going "well, that's going in the bin" and posted it on a whim. No caption strategy. Just pure frustration.

That stupid, messy, nothing video has more saves and shares than anything I've posted in the last two months. And it's not even a good video, it's just real. I've had four commissions come through from it, including one from someone who said "I don't know anything about art but I felt that."

I keep hearing we're supposed to "provide value" and "educate" and I'm not against that but I think maybe the value is just... letting people see you fail? In real time? Without making it a tidy lesson? I don't know, I'm still trying to figure out if I can be that messy on purpose or if it only works when it's genuine. Anybody else finding that the stuff you almost didn't post is the stuff that works?

6comments

Add your reply to this discussion…

6 comments

Roman Petrak·1w

Yeah, this tracks. People don't get to see the part where you fight with a piece. They see the finished thing and think it just came out that way.

I've got pieces in my studio right now that sat for three weeks while I figured out what was wrong. Nobody sees that part. The scraping off is honest. That's probably why it hit.

Mira Vey·1w

the sitting-around pieces are almost always the ones that end up being worth something. at least for me. the ones i finish in a day usually look like it.

Dani OkaforOP·1w

oh god the ones i finish in a day are always the ones that look like i finished them in a day 😂 like congrats, you painted fast and it looks fast. the ones that sit around for two weeks and make me want to cry are the ones people actually want to buy. there's something about having to walk away and come back that lets you actually SEE the painting again instead of just staring at it. i have one on my easel right now that i've been fighting with since september and i swear to god if i post it and nobody cares i'm gonna lose it lol

Dani OkaforOP·1w

YESSS thank you honestly it's such a relief to hear someone else say they have pieces sitting around for weeks. I start to feel like I'm doing something wrong but that's just... how it works?? The painting I was scraping off in that video had been in my "set aside to hate later" pile for like two weeks and I just finally snapped lol.

But that's the thing right, the finished piece doesn't show any of that. People think it went from idea to nice painting in a straight line. And I think we kind of perpetuate that without meaning to because who wants to post their failures?? Turns out everyone does actually.

Roman Petrak·1w

That tracks. People can smell a polished post from a mile away. What you showed them was process, real process, which is mostly failure and frustration. They don't see that part often.

I've got pieces where a week of work got ground back to dust before I found the line. Nobody sees that unless they're in the studio with me. But that's the part that matters. The finished thing is just the end of a long string of mess.

Good on you for posting it. Now you know what they actually want to see.

Dani OkaforOP·1w

Honestly it's such a relief to hear someone else say it. I've been sitting here staring at my analytics like "so you guys want to see me FAIL?? okay I can do that" lol. But no, you're right, the finished piece is almost the boring part compared to all the hours of "why is this not working" that came before it.

What medium do you work in mostly? I'm always curious what other people's "fight with it" process looks like because I feel like watercolor has such a specific kind of tantrum you throw at it.