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A friend told me my character art looked flat and it clicked after he showed me one trick

He said my shading was too even and made everything look like cutouts. He opened my file and added a simple gradient map over the whole piece, just to show the value range. I changed my whole process and now I block in the light and dark areas before I even pick colors. Has anyone else had a simple tip fix a big problem in their work?
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3 Comments
sage_green
sage_green14d ago
Wow, that's just how life works.
9
the_taylor
the_taylor15d agoTop Commenter
Mine was learning to flip the canvas constantly. I used to draw everything tilted and never noticed until it was too late. Now I flip every few minutes and it catches wonky anatomy right away. That simple habit fixed so many perspective issues.
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milarodriguez
What was the gradient map trick exactly?
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