PSA: A friend roasted my color palette and now I get it

I posted a fantasy landscape here last Tuesday with a bright purple sky and neon green grass, thinking it looked cool. My buddy in our Discord chat said 'looks like a unicorn threw up on a highlighter' and honestly, that harsh feedback made me finally see how oversaturated everything was. Has anyone else had a specific critique that totally flipped how you approach a piece?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_thomas2mo ago

My buddy was obsessed with drawing these super detailed mech suits, but they always looked flat. Another friend finally said "dude, it's like a coloring book page, where's the light coming from?" and that one question about a light source completely changed how he shades everything now.

emmam892mo ago

Wasn't there a whole art book that basically said if you can't point to your light source in a drawing, you're just decorating shapes? It really is the difference between a flat design and something that looks like it has weight and sits in a space. That "coloring book" comment is such a perfect way to put it.

nancyjones2mo ago

Can you imagine how many artists never get that one simple tip?