Pro tip: A friend told me to stop using so many layers in my digital paintings and I fought it for months

My buddy Mark who does concept art for games kept telling me I was overworking my pieces with 30+ layers. I thought he was crazy because layers give you control right? Last week I forced myself to do a portrait study in just 6 layers total and it came out cleaner than anything I've done in a year. The colors blended way better and I finished in 2 hours instead of 6. Has anyone else tried cutting way back on layers and seen a big difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_elizabeth1mo ago

YES, this is a REAL thing. I did a challenge once where I used 3 layers max for a whole week and it CHANGED my workflow forever. My brushstrokes got more deliberate because I couldn't hide mistakes, and the colors popped way more without all that blending mess. The weirdest part was how much faster I got at making decisions instead of sitting there tweaking tiny details on separate layers. Now I keep most pieces under 10 layers unless it's something complex, and my art has never looked better.

sam_wood601mo ago

Yeah, that "hiding mistakes" bit hits hard. I did the same challenge a few years back and it was brutal at first. My lineart got way cleaner because I couldn't just paint over sloppy sketches on a separate layer. Also stopped spending 20 minutes blending skin tones that nobody would ever notice. Best thing I ever did for my art honestly.