Unpopular opinion: textured brushes are ruining digital art, not saving it

A guy on a Discord server told me to ditch all my fancy textured brushes and just use the default hard round one for a portrait I was working on. I thought he was crazy because everyone says texture adds depth. After 3 days of fighting with a canvas grain brush that kept making my shading look muddy, I tried his advice cold turkey. The skin tones came out way smoother and I finished the piece in 2 hours instead of 6. Has anyone else found that cutting out texture actually made their work look better, or is this just a fluke for my style?

2 comments

2 Comments

kevin_schmidt971mo agoProlific Poster

Yeah sometimes less really is more with the basic stuff.

black.amy1mo ago

Yeah "less is more" really hits home with the basics. I've found that stripping things back forces you to actually learn what matters instead of just piling on stuff. It's like the simple approach makes everything else easier to build on later.