A friend's one comment fixed my shading forever

I used to do those late night marker drawings and everything came out looking flat. My buddy glanced at one and said "your shadows look like dirt smudges, not shadows." That hit me harder than it should have. So I started using a purple or blue for darker areas instead of just black. Made a huge difference in like two drawings. Has anyone else had one random critique that just clicked?

1 comments

1 Comment

garcia.charles16d ago

That purple trick works because it forces you to think about light temperature, not just darkness. I remember switching from black to a deep blue for night scenes and suddenly my streetlights actually felt warm. Next step is trying a reddish brown for skin shadows, it keeps people from looking like zombies. Once you start seeing shadows as colored instead of just darker, you can't unsee it. Everything gets this subtle life to it that plain black never gives you.