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Update: I thought my art looked flat because of my colors
For months, I kept trying to fix my digital paintings by changing the color palette, thinking that was the problem. I watched a lot of tutorials on color theory, but my work still felt like a sticker on a screen. The real change came when I saw a speedpaint from an artist I follow, and they spent almost half the video just on the sketch and value study. They said, 'If it doesn't work in black and white, it won't work in color.' I started doing a full grayscale layer first, focusing only on light and dark shapes, and it was like a switch flipped. My first piece after that, a cityscape, had so much more depth just from getting the values right before I even touched the hue slider. How do you all plan your values when you start a new piece?
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robert_hayes14d ago
That "work in black and white" rule is key, I sometimes even flip the canvas to check the values.
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park.riley14d ago
Oh man, that's such a solid tip. I always forget to flip the canvas, but it makes total sense for spotting value problems you get blind to. @robert_hayes, do you do the black and white check at a specific point, like halfway through, or is it something you keep doing from start to finish?
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