Took a photo of my pastel box, not my painting, and it got 4x the likes
I spent about six hours on a pastel portrait last week, a face I've redone maybe five times now, and posted it. Got a polite handful of likes and one comment from a friend.
Then on Thursday I was cleaning up and took a lazy phone snap of the box itself. Stubs down to the wrappers, the dust all over the lid, my thumbprints on everything. Didn't even wipe the table. That photo has four times the reach of the finished piece.
I'm not going to pretend I understand it, exactly. I think people liked seeing the mess more than the result? Or maybe the finished thing is just harder to say something about.
Anyway I'm not going to start posting only pastel dust. But it's stuck with me, and it made me a little sad about the portrait, honestly. Has this happened to anyone else, the working photo outperforming the work?
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honestly this doesn't surprise me and it's not a bad thing. the box photo shows the hours without asking anyone to judge the result. a finished face is intimidating to comment on, people don't know what to say so they scroll. a wrecked box of stubs, everyone has an opinion, everyone's been there at 1am with paste everywhere.
the finished piece is the meal, the mess is the kitchen. people love the kitchen.
Half with you. The kitchen idea is right, but I think it's less about judging and more that the box is a photograph and the portrait is a painting. People respond to a picture of a thing instantly. A painting takes time to look at, and most scrolling isn't looking. The mess is easier to see in three seconds, c'est tout.
That's a fair distinction and I think you're right, the photo asks nothing of you. A painting asks you to decide if it's good, and most people would rather not decide while standing in a queue for the bus. Though now I'm wondering if I should be insulted on behalf of the six hours. c'est tout indeed.
The kitchen comparison is going to stick with me, honestly. And I think you're onto something with the not being asked to judge part. I can say "nice mess" about a box of stubs without having to decide anything, but a face, you look at it and some quiet verdict starts forming whether you want it or not.
Which is a little sad for the painting, but also useful to know. Maybe I stop posting the finished thing like it's a verdict and show the 1am state more. The dust is apparently the popular part 🙂