Got some harsh feedback on my color palette from a pro at a local meetup

I was showing my fantasy landscape at the Denver art meet last month, and a working illustrator told me my shadows were all the same desaturated gray. She said, 'You're painting dirt, not atmosphere.' I went home and spent a week just practicing with color pickers on photos, mixing blues and purples into shadows. It made my scenes feel way more alive. Anyone else get a piece of advice that totally flipped a basic technique for them?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_leo4d ago

My first art teacher in Austin always told us to use pure black for shadows. He said it grounded the fantasy. I still do that for my comic book work, especially for night scenes. That gray shadow advice would have wrecked my style back then. Sometimes a flat shadow is the right tool to make your light colors pop more. It just depends on the mood you are going for.

charles6404d ago

Yeah, hard agree.

drew_hart44d ago

Ever feel like art advice is just someone's personal taste turned into a rule?