Found out my portfolio got 400 views from one Reddit post

I posted my latest piece in a small digital art subreddit last Tuesday just to get feedback, and the next day my ArtStation stats showed 400 views and 23 follows out of nowhere. It was a piece I spent maybe 2 hours on, not my big polished stuff, and it got way more traction than anything I've posted before. Guess the timing or the thumbnail just hit right. Has anyone else seen a random post blow up like that when their 'serious' work gets ignored?

1 comments

1 Comment

the_miles16d ago

You got that backwards though. Everyone thinks the big polished stuff should get the views, but it's usually the quick, raw pieces that grab people. I've seen it happen a lot on here, the stuff you sweat over gets maybe 30 views and the sketch you did on a lunch break gets hundreds. The 2 hour piece probably felt more loose and real, and that reads better to strangers than the overworked stuff. Plus the thumbnail thing, yeah, that's a HUGE part of it. If the small piece had a brighter or weirder image on the thumbnail, that's what made them click, not the effort behind it. So don't take it as a sign to give up on the serious work, just know the algorithm is dumb and likes what it likes.