A client told me my character art looked like it was floating on the background

I was working on a fantasy portrait last month, trying to get the lighting just right on this elf character. I spent hours on her face and hair, but when I showed the WIP to a friend who does concept art, he said 'She looks like a sticker pasted on, not part of the scene.' He pointed out that I hadn't matched the light source in the background forest. The background had light coming from the left, but I'd lit her face from the front. I felt so dumb. I went back and added rim light on her right side and adjusted all the shadows to match. It took another 2 hours of tweaking, but the piece finally looked cohesive. Now I always block in my background light direction first before I even start painting the main subject. Has anyone else had a piece fall apart because of mismatched lighting like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_christopher1mo ago

Wow, that's like when my whole outfit clashes because I didn't check the weather first!

gibson.morgan1mo ago

What if logan658 is just wrong though?

logan6581mo ago

Nah, I see it the other way around. A clashing outfit can actually be a cool, intentional choice. It just depends on your confidence.