That one artist who called out my sketch and made me better

Back in 2019 I posted a digital portrait I was pretty proud of in a Facebook group. A guy named Mike commented something like "your values are all muddled, that shadow should be way darker." I was annoyed at first because who asks for feedback like that out of nowhere. But I looked at my piece again and he was dead right. I messaged him asking what he meant and he spent 20 minutes on a voice call explaining how light falls on forms. Changed how I approach every painting since. Anyone else have a random stranger online give you a tip that stuck?

3 comments

3 Comments

blairtaylor9d ago

Did you ever end up sending that person a thank you later on? I did that with the chef who used to yell at me for not seasoning my pasta water properly, eventually I realized he just wanted me to cook better food. Sometimes the harsh truth sticks way longer than a pat on the back.

holly_walker769d agoTop Commenter

Did you ever track that person down to thank them directly?

gavinlopez9d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, that hit close to home. I had some stranger on a Discord server years ago point out that my shading looked like I was just smudging mud around - and they were totally right. I spent the next month doing nothing but value studies from grayscale photos just to prove to myself I could actually see light and shadow properly. It's humbling when a random internet person sees your blind spot clearer than you do.