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My digital painting hit 500 likes on a forum and it felt weird

I posted a fantasy character piece I made in Procreate last month and forgot about it. Checked back today and it had exactly 500 likes, which is way more than my usual 50 or so. I think it got popular because I used a new brush pack for the glowing runes. Has anyone else had a random piece just take off for a reason you can't quite figure out?
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bell.laura
bell.laura2mo ago
Thought it was luck, but maybe it's just that one cool detail.
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nancy_smith
nancy_smith2mo agoMost Upvoted
Hold on, you can absolutely figure out why it took off! It's not some magic. You said it yourself, you used a new brush pack for the glowing runes. That made your piece look different and stand out in a crowded feed. People probably saw that cool glow effect and stopped scrolling. It's not random, it's cause and effect. Your friend's frog study probably had the same thing, some unique color or detail that caught eyes. We just like to call it luck when our own work does well.
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piperschmidt
Yeah the "random piece taking off" thing is so real. My friend painted this weird little frog on a mushroom last year, just a quick study, and it blew up on Instagram out of nowhere. She still gets comments on it. We think maybe the colors just hit the algorithm right that day, or someone with a big account shared it without tagging her. It's still her most liked post by a huge margin and she can't recreate the magic.
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