Got a brutal critique on my lighting and it fixed my whole workflow

Some random guy in a Discord critique channel for digital art told me my highlights were all in the wrong places. He spent 5 minutes circling every part of my piece where the light source didn't match. I was mad at first but went back and studied real photo references for an hour. Now I sketch in a basic light direction arrow before I even start painting. It's not perfect yet but my last three pieces actually look like they exist in a real space. Anyone else have a single piece of feedback that completely shifted their process?

2 comments

2 Comments

anthony4264d ago

The light direction arrow thing is smart but you gotta be careful with it. People fixate on the arrow and then forget that light bounces and scatters. I did the same thing for months, drew a perfect arrow and then every shadow was this harsh blob on the opposite side of every shape. Real lighting has ambient occlusion and subsurface scattering and all that stuff that makes it look soft and natural. Ended up spending more time looking at how light wraps around curved surfaces like a water bottle on my desk than actually painting. The arrow is a good starting point but don't let it turn your work into a coloring book where light only comes from one direction.

victor_butler4d ago

Read something from a pro lighting artist once that said ambient occlusion is basically just "the extra shadow you get when things get close together" and that stuck with me way more than any arrow ever did. Completely agree with @anthony426 that the arrow method can turn your brain off if you're not careful. Really helps to go study your desk lamp hitting a crumpled piece of paper instead of just assuming the arrow tells the whole story. That bounce light from the floor or a wall is what actually makes stuff look 3D and real instead of like a cardboard cutout.