The day I figured out I'd been coloring my digital art wrong for years

I've been doing digital paintings since like 2016 and always used pure black for shadows. Looked fine to me until I joined a group critique session on Discord and this one artist named Sarah pointed out all my shadows looked muddy and dead. She showed me how using a dark blue or purple instead of black makes the whole piece pop way more. I didn't believe her at first because I'd been doing it the same way for so long. Then I tried it on a landscape I was working on of this lake near my hometown and the difference was night and day. The sky reflection actually looked like water instead of a gray blob. Made me wonder how many other basic habits I've got that are holding me back without knowing it. Has anyone else had that one simple fix that suddenly made your old work look obviously wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

matthewperry23d agoMost Upvoted

The sky reflection actually looked like water instead of a gray blob" - that's wild, I'm sitting here trying to picture that difference and it's blowing my mind a little.

sagey6923d ago

Honestly trying to picture it just makes me realize I've been staring at a lot of gray blobs instead of actual skies.