Showerthought: I realized I'd been painting digital highlights with pure white for a year before a pro told me it flattens the whole piece.

My mentor in a Chicago online workshop pointed at my character's cheek and said, 'That highlight is dead, try a pale yellow from the background light,' and it instantly added a warmth I never knew was missing, so what's one basic art rule you learned embarrassingly late?

3 comments

3 Comments

margaret_jackson731mo ago

That thing about highlights being dead really hits home. I mean, I used to make all my shadows just darker versions of the base color. Someone finally told me to add some blue or purple in there for depth, and it was a total game changer. Felt so obvious once I saw it.

cameronschmidt1mo ago

My first digital painting teacher said the exact same thing, @margaret_jackson73. I spent years just sliding the brightness slider down for shadows and it always looked so flat. Adding a cool color changed everything for me too.

danielb4323d ago

Stumbled onto this realizing I'd been blending everything way too smooth for years. Was doing a portrait and this guy in a Discord server said "you're airbrushing like it's 2005, where's the hard edge?" I had zero clue what he meant. Turns out I was terrified of hard edges because I thought it would look cartoony or unfinished. Started leaving some shapes crisp where the light hits directly and everything popped. Now I literally find myself adding sharp highlights then softening some of them just to keep that balance between sharp and soft.