What's the first thing that grabs your interest in an art piece?

What usually captures my attention first would be the art style. It's something like the signature of each artist that gives each drawing its own unique personality and life. Although I am not an artist and I might not use artist jargon accurately, I like looking at drawings and paintings and noticing the way the artists present themselves to the world through little bits of uniqueness in their art. It might be the way the artist made that brushstroke or the particular use of colour combinations, but it's what sets them apart from others.

 

The coloring! Each time I look at artwork I'm always surprised to realize just how many different coloring styles there are and how different a personality they give to each art piece; there is an unimaginable number of variety here. A wonderful part of drawing is that pretty much each individual artist can have a coloring style to call their own and there are plenty of people whose artwork you can recognize from that alone. Plus it's so vibrant and beautiful that nothing else grabs me firsthand like coloring does. Aaart. <3

 

...girls. xD

I dunno, it's probably some sort of state of mind. I follow artists who can draw girls really well, probably because I'm not good at it and want to learn.

-cough Annie Mei Project cough-

 

I'm drawn in by art which is simple, yet effective. Too much detail/realism tends to skip my radar because it's harder to see in the thumbnail image and you have to look closely at every part of the picture to fully grasp it (which is time-consuming when you get more than 100 deviations per day in your notifications).
A good example of art that catches my attention is pretty much anything by Epifex(.deviantart.com).

Spoiler

As you can see, there is enough detail to make it look like a lot of effort was put into it, but it still has that simple cartoony feel to it.

 

I'd say the things that grab my attention the most on a particular art piece can vary, however I usually find it's between either the colour, if there's any 3-D effects or shading, or what is actually on the piece of art. But I tend to dislike the art pieces that are just a few splodges of paint here and there on a dull background for example; however, if others find that interesting, I completely respect that as that's their own opinion

 

Colors!
Brightly colored pieces are my favourite, I love reds especially.

 

For me, what really grabs my eye is color choice. Sometimes, if colors don't pair well together, it bothers me to no extent, and I can't unsee it. Color has a lot of effect on me, so when I see some use of color, or shade, it immediately affects me. Colors are well known to affect mood, and I think that's one of the most powerful effects in art.

 

I'd have to say its the overall art style. I love how some people draw these hyper realistic pictures, and then that there's others that will draw the same thing in a happy, cartoon like way. Style is a big thing for me honestly.

Next in line would have to be coloring and shading.

 

For me(like others), it would probably be the style in which it's drawn. Even within the category of 'cartoon style', there are so many different ways that people like to draw, and the changes seems so subtle– for example, someone's style might be defined by the cooler colours they use and the way they have a thick outline around the eyes– but they make all the difference.
After that, I'd notice the concept of the art and the type(painting, drawing, sketch, etcetera)

 

The bold colours really drag me in. If you're browsing a page of art and suddenly a whole variety of bright colours appear, that's what interests me the most. Even though bright colours are nice, if they are chosen incorrectly, by that I mean put with a colour that doesn't make it look good, like orange and green(depends how you do the art really). If the palette of said art is quite garish, it ruins the whole piece of art. If the colours are mixed well, then the art will be very good.

 

My eyes are caught by the light/dark contrast that an artist uses. Often, my eyes get drawn towards the lightest parts of a piece of art (which is totally natural), after which I automatically look at the darker parts.
For me, a good artist is one that's able to do great things with colors and light.

 

The main thing that makes me noticed a piece of artwork is the color use for the picture. I think color in pictures are one of the most important things to look for in a picture or painting. I love looking at bright pictures and the way how the the lineart looks makes it even better. Watercoloured pictures definitely makes everything better too.