I used to think my digital art was done when I stopped adding stuff

Honestly, I posted a piece here about three weeks ago, a fantasy landscape I spent maybe 20 hours on. Someone commented, 'Your values are all in the same mid-range, it's making the whole piece feel flat.' I had to look up what they meant. Tbh, I always just focused on color and detail. So I opened the file again and literally turned the whole thing to grayscale. Ngl, it was a mess, just a gray blob. I spent the next two days just reworking the light and dark areas, pushing the shadows way darker and the highlights brighter, without adding a single new element. The difference was crazy. The scene suddenly had depth and the focal point actually popped. Now I check the values on every piece before I call it finished. Has anyone else had a critique that made you re-learn a basic step like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

reesepatel1mo ago

Man, that grayscale check is a total game changer, right? It's wild how you can work on something for ages and miss something so basic. I had a teacher point out my terrible perspective once, same kind of gut punch. You just have to go back to the start and fix it.

mason84721d ago

Oof that grayscale gut punch is REAL, @reesepatel. Been there with color values, just ruins your whole week.

phoenix_wells1mo ago

My first year art final was a whole cityscape in full color. Spent like 40 hours on it. My professor @reesepatel made me flip it to grayscale and the whole thing looked flat as paper, no depth at all. I had to redo all the shadows from scratch. Felt like my soul left my body for a week, lmao. That check saves me from myself every single time now.