A 60-year-old oil painter told me my digital work looked 'flat'... I was mad until I tried what he said

I was showing my wildlife pieces at a small gallery in Denver last spring. This older painter just shook his head and said my colors had no depth because I wasn't using any dark darks. I thought he was just an old crank who hated digital. But then I tried putting actual black into my shadow areas instead of just dark blue. I started using a nearly pure black in the deepest corners of fur and rocks. The difference was immediate... my pieces popped way more. Has anyone else had an old-school artist give you advice that actually worked out?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannaho522d ago

and you know what, Skyler, your kid might be onto something with the green blob thing. I went through a similar phase where I thought I was being smart by avoiding pure black because it felt too harsh or unnatural. But what the old painter was really getting at is that you need those really dark spots to make the lighter areas feel bright. Without them, everything just sits in this middle zone that reads as flat no matter how much detail you add. It's not about turning your whole painting into a black hole, it's about giving the eye somewhere to rest and something to measure the rest of the values against.

skyler_mitchell2d ago

Three kids and a dog later, I'm still trying to figure out if dark darks are the secret to life or just art. I mean, I painted a tree once and my five-year-old said it looked like a green blob, so maybe the old guy was onto something. But honestly, how much black do you really need before it's just a black hole on your screen?