My mentor in Portland told me to paint less and post more, and I fought her for two months
She runs a small gallery and kept saying a finished piece sitting on my drive does nothing for anyone, so I finally posted 9 messy works in progress last week and got more replies than anything I ever polished. Turns out people wanted to see the ugly middle part, not just the clean final render, and one sketch got a commission offer. Do you show your unfinished stuff or do you wait until it looks perfect?
Ugh I feel this so hard. I spent years only posting the final pretty version and wondering why nobody cared, then a friend basically shoved me into sharing a half finished canvas with the sketch lines still showing and it got more saves and comments than anything I ever "finished". Something about the messy middle makes people feel like they can actually talk to you instead of just staring at a perfect thing. That commission offer from one sketch is such a good sign, keep going with it.