Art Advice / Wisdom

[watermelon]

Hi everyone! Let's share some art wisdom

 

I'd like to see your art advice, things you have learned that improved your art etc. Not exactly techniques / tutorials, just things that you think are good to keep in mind.

It can be written, but if you want to illustrate it as well, that's even better.

 

 

This is what I have for now:

(Not telling you what to do, just sharing what has worked for me. These things really improved my art immediately after I started applying them.)

 

- Never start painting (and shading) the sketch before it's CLEAN and everything is in its place. No indecisive, double lines. If I try to correct them during the painting stage it will be very messy and stressful. When I didnt know this I suffered a lot 

 

- After a digital painting is "done", take a break and wait a while. When you come back to the artwork, examine it in sections and check for any elements, strokes or lines that could be making the picture look unsophisticated / unfinished. At this stage it will usually be small things that bother you and can be easily corrected. This last step makes a lot of difference to make it look clean and nice, and more professional. To me, this is necessary even in my loose and messy art styles with more visible strokes, but for clean art styles it's even more helpful.

[aeeris]

Simplify shadows, the important information goes in the middle tones, highlights must be placed cleverly for contrast purposes.

 

If you ever want to venture into landscapes or do more complete illustrations/paintings, please always keep in mind that the more far away an object is, the lighter value it will have, the most contrast and darker values are right at the front.

 

Do color/value sketches and tests before doing anything definitive, it'll help you a ton! also try different textured brushes, if you want of course. It'll simplify your work process and give it a nice touch :)

 

Cool shadows with warm middle tones are great. Also keep color theory in mind, desaturated* orange (and even gray) can look green and blue when accompanied with certain colors , it'll look more harmonious than just slapping blue paint lol (OFC this only applies for some cases, as all of the above, do what you want to do tbh, as long as you like it it's fine)

 

That's what I can think of right now XD