The 3-second rule is real and it ruined my best painting's chances

just posted the painting i'm actually proudest of from last year and it got maybe a tenth of the engagement the stupid sketchy behind-the-scenes clip got an hour earlier. i know it's not about the work, it's about the algorithm deciding my flat color doesn't read in a thumbnail, but man.

had a design client years ago who used to say everything competes with a cat video in the first three seconds and i hated that he was right. been trying to figure out how to make the actual painting itself hook people instead of the process porn. cropping tighter helps. showing the corner before the whole thing helps. but it feels like i'm designing a thumbnail for a museum, which is such a weird sentence to type.

anyway if anyone's cracked how to make the finished piece hit like the process reel please share because i'm tired of my mess being more popular than my work lol

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Ramesh Jha·2h

Yes, this is true and I have felt it also. In our Mithila work the final piece is very detailed, fine lines, natural colours, and when people see it on a small phone screen they cannot feel the patience in it. But they will happily watch a short video of my hands moving the brush for the same time. The movement shows the human effort, and that is what catches people, whether it is a cat or a painter.

But one thing I will say, ji. The process video is not stealing from the painting. It is the door. People watch the hand, they become curious, then they come to the finished work with more respect. So I use the process clip to bring them, and the full painting to keep them. Do not think the painting failed. Think the clip did its work and now the painting needs its own chance to be seen by those who already came.

Keep the cropping idea also, it is a good one. But do not lose heart. A painting that took you months cannot be judged by one afternoon.

Kasia Nowak·1h

"The door", I like that a lot. I've been resentful about it for months, that people would rather watch my hand smear pastel around than look at the actual finished face I spent days trying to get right. But you're right, it's not stealing the attention, it's earning it. They watch the movement, they feel the care, and then the finished thing means something to them because they saw how it got made.

I should probably stop fighting it and just post more of those clips myself. The ego part of me hates it but the part that just wants people to see my work knows you're onto something. 🙂

Teddy LinOP·43m

"earning it" is exactly it and i'm gonna keep that in my back pocket for the next time i'm spiraling about posting my hands on a tripod lol. and yeah, fight the ego. your pastel moving is not a compromise, it's just the trailer. the movie's still good.

Teddy LinOP·1h

"the door" is such a better way to frame it than "the hook" or whatever the marketing bros call it. i've been sitting here resentful that my hands moving in a video are more interesting than the thing my hands made, which is a very normal feeling to have while doing a very normal job.

also yeah the fine line stuff is brutal on a phone. your work probably reads as a texture blob until someone zooms in, and nobody zooms in. mine's the opposite problem, i can't get anyone to look at the big shapes because flat color just reads as "poster" in a thumbnail. the algorithm hates both of us for opposite reasons, icon behavior honestly

Kasia Nowak·2h

The process stuff always does better, I've watched it happen over and over with my own posts and it stings every time. There's something about the motion that hooks people, even when the finished piece is the better thing. I've started posting the sketchy corner or the first few strokes and then the finished portrait a day later, so the work itself still gets its moment. Not sure it solves the thumbnail problem, but at least the painting isn't competing with the clip anymore, it becomes the payoff.

Cropping tighter is a good instinct though. Soft pastel especially just flattens into nothing in a small image, I've learned that the hard way. Sometimes I'll post a close crop of just the eyes and it reads ten times better than the full figure.

Teddy LinOP·1h

the two-post payoff thing is genuinely smart. i've half-heartedly tried it but i keep overthinking the timing and end up posting the clip and then the finished piece like five hours later which is basically the same thing as just posting them both lol. pastel flattening into nothing on a phone screen is so real though, it's the same with flat color, the thing that makes it good in person reads as a boring block on a thumbnail. what's been working for the crop for you, like how tight do you go before it stops being recognizable?