Thumbnail question and looking for advices

[dischimera]

I noticed some people seem to dislike the kind of thumbnail I currently use (?) and call them "desperate click me"s.

I've been going with this kind of custom thumbnail for sake of calling attention for the faces and sometimes for teasing. Since for a while I used to only own a gallery on FA I made custom thumbnails under the assumption people who browsed for the category my content is part of would know more or less what to expect for a theme, but the important call out would be "this is the featured character".

I thought people found the teasing interesting rather than an annoyance.
Is it the majority's opinion that thumbnail that are simply the full picture in miniature form are better? This has been worrying me lately. Since the difference in activity in my gallery here versus FA is ginormous I'm trying to understand if it's simply a website activity issue, if my niche is a lot more niche here, or if the thumbnail tease also contributes with lack of views/faves.

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to ask. I know some will say "just get better at drawing". That's not the point though... I have been putting a lot more effort into practicing with each picture in my current request series. I just thought I could use some advice on bringing more attention to my gallery or if there isn't much I can do.

Some replies will be appreciated.

[Uluri]

Hello there.
I took a look at your gallery, and what I can say is that your Thumbnails don't give enough content
for me (the viewer) to determine if I want to click the image. It shows too little in my opinion, and I
have little to no idea of what to expect if I click on them just by viewing the Thumbnail besides "This character has a face".

I, myself, find that I am more inclined to click on a "Whole image" thumbnail than anything as
I can clearly see that the artwork I am viewing will interest me.

[Sarukai]

I don't think you should really pay too much attention to what people think of the thumbnail. But if you want teasing, maybe reveal a top half or a part just before anything sexual? That would make for a more of a tease than what looks like a headshot.

I personally don't use thumbnails anymore since it would make more sense to give them a total before a detailed view. But it's whatever you want really.

[Socks the Fox]

The whole idea of a thumbnail is to give an idea as to what's going on with the image, without having to download/display the entire image. The easiest, most generic way to do this is with a scaled down version of the image, which is why most sites use that by default. The only reason to use custom cropping is to eliminate periphery details to give users a better view of what the image is really about. If the image isn't about a character's face, don't make the thumbnail just that character's face! Show what they're doing!

[dischimera]

Could anyone take a look at the thumbnail of the latest picture and tell me if that would be any better, or if I should just stick to the full picture anyway?

Edit: Nevermind. I just figured out the drag to select area thing >_>