The obsession with 4K resolution is killing actual composition in digital paintings

I was scrolling through the showcase thread last night and counted like 15 pieces where the artist clearly spent 90% of their time rendering individual pores and hair strands. Nobody cares about your 8000x8000 canvas if the lighting is flat and the pose looks like a mannequin. I saw this one piece that had EXQUISITE texture work on a leather jacket but the character's hand was literally not connected to the wrist properly. How do you miss that? I used to fall into the same trap back when I first got my Cintiq in 2019, zoomed in at 500% for hours on eyelashes. Then I did a study where I forced myself to work at 800x600 max for a month and my actual artistic skills improved way more than any resolution bump ever did. Has anyone else noticed this trend where people flex their render skills instead of nailing the fundamentals first?

2 comments

2 Comments

charlesj464d ago

Is it really fair to say they're flexing render skills instead of nailing fundamentals? I've seen plenty of highly rendered pieces that also have solid composition and anatomy underneath all that polish. It's possible to do both, even if it's harder.

johnson.ryan4d agoTop Commenter

Fair point. Just takes way longer to get good at both.