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Vent: Someone said my digital portraits looked 'flat'...
They told me to add a subtle color bounce layer from the background, so I tried it on a piece in Procreate. Does anyone have other tricks for adding depth without overdoing it?
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jennifer_west2mo ago
Ugh, the old "it's easy to overdo it" warning, like I haven't already messed up six layers trying to get it right. My first attempt at a bounce light looked like I dropped a neon highlight on a character's face, and they just looked radioactive. I ended up having to just scrub the whole thing and start over with the layer set to like 5% and a super soft brush. Your mileage may vary, but I swear by just duplicating the background, blurring it to high heaven, setting it to overlay at like 3%, and crossing my fingers. It's a delicate dance between adding depth and turning your portrait into a glow stick.
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ryan_carr593mo ago
Adding a soft light layer for rim lighting works wonders too, idk.
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elliotc103mo ago
That's a solid tip, but it's easy to overdo it and flatten the whole image. The real trick is keeping that layer on a very low opacity, like 10% or less. It should just hint at the shape, not blast it with light. A lot of folks crank it up and lose all the depth they just painted in.
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