How to Make Your Art More Interesting
If we want to get paid for our art, we must make art that others will pay attention to.
The idea of interestingness seems rather subjective, like beauty or even of art itself. If this is true, there may be no purpose in a discussion of, say, what makes something interesting or not (unless you are high or in a high school philosophy class. Or both).
But interestingness is of utmost importance for artists, especially commercial artists, whose art must capture and hold attention for at least a little while. If we are not making images that are interesting, we are making them in vain.
Case in point: when you were scrolling through Instagram this morning, what made you stop for a moment? Which images gave you literal pause? When were you compelled to read the caption? Whatever these were, they were interesting to you.
For all its downsides, Instagram is actually a great proving ground for interestingness of our art. While I think we need to make sure we are posting what we like, not what we hope gets liked, we should also become aware of what will cause others to hold their thumb down…
