Every time I scroll through twitter and Instagram or any social media to look at art I always see that alot of creator's W.I.P's or messy sketches get way more likes than their finished artwork but why is that?
Even some art memes joke about this happening all the time
but I always wondered why this even happens
Mar '21
Mar '21
See it all the time, even some art friends say it happens when they post a sketch vs their finished digital finished work a week or so later lol
A lot of the time, if the artist hasn't reached an extremely professional level with their inking, colouring, rendering and other finishing skills, the sketch might look better to a lot of people.
Reasons the sketch can look better might be that the scribbly lines can often hide imperfections, but when you have to choose a single, clean line to ink, it'll be more clear that the anatomy or perspective is a bit off, or that the line itself is too thick, too thin or not smooth and confident looking.
Also there's the factor where adding in colour and shadow means making choices about value and saturation. Some artists might reach a pretty good level at drawing before they really get good at these, so you'll get what's a fairly decent drawing, but then the colours are muddy or garish, or there's poor light/dark balance, or maybe issues like they don't know about sub-surface scattering and shaded the skin with grey/transparent black leading to a really dead look, or they're not quite there with their understanding of volume so the shadow placement is a bit off.
Basically, because linework tends to be the first skill an artist develops, especially with comic artists and illustrators, it's usually their best skill, and it can take years for their other skills to catch up to the point where it doesn't feel like some of the energy and charm is being lost when a drawing moves from sketch to finished piece.
I find it's a chance to talk about your process.
A lot of people are interested in steps it took to get to that finished piece. They want to see the magic at work and maybe even trade tips. Kinda like how movies have behind the scenes. Done it myself, and it's created conversations about the inspiration behind my work and what decisions I make.
Also inspires people to try different methods. Just recently, I made an artwork inspired by this artist's WIP gif:
https://twitter.com/roousuu/status/136400650984010957219
I got real excited and tried it myself (even tagged the person). They broke down how they did it in the comments, and it sparked a conversation of people wanting to try it themselves, being excited that the featured existed in CSP, and so on. 
I like seeing WIPs too, mainly because I like seeing how that artist make their work. Do you know Boichibetoon from youtube? He's the mangaka for Dr. Stone. He makes videos of him drawing a character/s. I watch him (and also other wip that I'm seeing in social media) to be more inspired to draw. It also gives me an idea on how to improve my skills too.
Know of his work just never read the manga or watched the anime heard its great though, I like watching the process too, Brian Lee O'Malley usually does those WIP quick videos too and it is cool to watch a piece go from nothing to ink so I do understand the appeal lol
I have an opinion on this (which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone) as I have noticed this with novels, too.
Mind you, this is just an opinion but I base it on what I've seen.
I think that people see a W.I.P. and they know that they can comment, offer assistance or their feelings about the work. But when they see a completed work, comic or novel, it means that what they say probably won't make a difference to the creator so... why bother taking the time to say anything?
There are people who only like the completed works and they sometimes say something, although it's rarely "I think you should do this or that or whatever" it's usually more like "Oh, I like this character, can't wait to see what they do." Usually they just read and mark it as a like (and sometimes even if they do like it they keep reading and forget to mark it, I've been told that).
Uncompleted works are more of an inclusive thing.
I could be way off the mark on this but ....
I can only go from why I love to see them:
I love to see how from just a few lines something big will come out. A few lines, might not look like much, but they show the level and evolution of an artist. They aren't perfect, but that is the fun of it 
And the better an artist becomes, the more you will see in such a piece.
Don´t get me wrong, I love seeing the finished works - but I just enjoy the road to it
i always assumed it had to do with anticipation. showing something in progress is the equivalent of dropping a little teaser and thus builds hype or interest as to what the finished product will look like. or at least thats what i figured 
All of the above mentioned reasons are probably factors. I think it also has to do with the level of energy in a sketch vs a final inked piece. A scribble has a lot of motion behind it, and a lot of inked work involves slower, careful tracing of the underlying sketch, which kills a lot of that energy. Every decision that you make after the sketch phase saps a little of that energy out of the drawing. One solution is to just get better at inking faster. Everybody thinks that's fake advice, but it's not. Maybe leave your sketches less finished, then you'll be less likely to trace each line as carefully. Maybe don't draw any of the clothes or armor into the sketch, so when you put down inks everything is off the cuff and retains a lot of that feeling of motion.
it really is strong advice because the more confident your lines the better it reflects on the final art piece, that's why advice about using single long strokes or quick fluid strokes that come along with wips are some of my favorites because it kind of shows how to implement that
In the sketch people see " potential". A lot of things can go wrong with the final art. 
Ugly colors, bad lineart and sometimes the sketch has way more expressivity because at that point you are transmitting the idea and don't worry about details yet.
Plus internet's easy ways to share information accustoms people to think that "things just exist there". There are millions of galleries of stolen art that don't care about the origins of the drawings. Following a creators reminds you that there is a process and a person behind it.
I find that in my own twitter feed people tend to like the sketch first because that's what they see first--they love the idea, they're down--and then when I post the final they go "cool" but they've already seen it, youknow? So there's not as much of a "woah!" moment where they quickly post like or Retweet, just a cathartic "and there it is" moment. also, if they've already Retweeted it once...they're not going to do it again, even if it is finished.
Some artists won't show the full image in their sketches, just because they want to avoid spoiling it.
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Well that's the short version really. XD