Finally realized my digital art pieces looked flat because I was painting highlights at 100% opacity every single time

After watching a speedpaint from an artist I respect where she layered her highlights at maybe 30% opacity with a soft brush, I tested it on my latest character portrait and the difference was honestly night and day has anyone else been doing this wrong for months?

3 comments

3 Comments

hollyc9215d ago

Completely feel you on this one. I was doing the same thing for like a year, just blasting pure white over everything and wondering why my stuff looked so harsh. Then I tried building up highlights at maybe 40% with a soft round brush and suddenly my portraits actually had some depth to them. It's wild how such a little adjustment makes everything look way more natural.

charles_kelly4315d ago

Ha, buddy of mine went through that exact phase too!

anderson.david5d ago

Jumped right into testing that after seeing this post and yeah, 40% opacity with a soft brush changed everything for me too. Makes the light feel like it's actually glowing instead of just sitting on top of the drawing.