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My art teacher told me to stop using black paint and I argued for weeks
Had this art teacher in high school named Mr. Chen who kept saying never use black straight out the tube for shadows. I thought he was nuts because shadows are black right? So I kept doing my digital portraits with pure black shadows and wondered why they looked flat. After like 4 months I finally tried mixing dark purples and blues for shadows instead. Total game changer, my digital portraits suddenly had depth like crazy. Anyone else have an art rule they fought against at first?
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dylan_stone3310d ago
I read somewhere that Caravaggio actually used dark browns and deep reds instead of black for his shadows, and his paintings are still some of the most dramatic ever. That advice about mixing purples and blues really mirrors what old masters were doing before tube paints existed. Once I stopped fighting it and started layering those deep tones my portraits had way more life.
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laura_knight5410d ago
Wait, did changing your shadow colors fix your overall color balance too or just the depth?
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