Vent: My friend said my digital art was too clean and it bugged me for a week

I was showing my buddy, a painter who uses real brushes, my latest piece. It was this super detailed sci-fi cityscape, took me about 40 hours. He looked at it and just said, 'It's perfect. Too perfect. Where's the happy accident?' He meant that digital art can get so polished it loses the soul you get from a smudge or a brush hair stuck in paint. I argued that control is the whole point of working digitally, but his comment stuck with me. Now I'm looking at my work and wondering if I'm over-editing, making everything so slick it feels fake. I even tried adding a custom brush to mimic a real ink bleed on my next piece. Has anyone else had a trad artist give you feedback that made you question your whole digital process?

3 comments

3 Comments

derekcarr2d ago

Yeah, I see that everywhere now. We polish our photos, our homes, even our personalities online until they feel a bit sterile. That need for control can squeeze the life right out of things.

oliviac222d ago

Ugh, that's the worst kind of feedback. Did you end up liking the ink bleed effect you tried?

shane_perry292d ago

That comment would get in my head too.