Saw a waterfall painting at a coffee shop in Portland and it hit me why my digital work felt flat.

I was grabbing a latte at this little place off Hawthorne last Tuesday and they had this oil painting of a waterfall on the wall. It was just a simple scene but the way the artist handled the light bouncing off the mist and rocks made it feel alive. I stared at it for like 15 minutes while my coffee got cold and realized I never think about light sources or reflections when I paint digitally. I just throw in some highlights after everything else is done and hope it looks okay. So I went home and tried painting a landscape with the light coming from one direction and actually planned out where every glow and shadow would fall. The difference was huge even on my first attempt. Anyone else ever get a wake up call from looking at traditional art in the wild?

2 comments

2 Comments

betty_ward23d ago

Digital tools trick you into thinking light is just a layer effect.

dylan12423d ago

Does @betty_ward have a point about layer effects though because I think my problem was treating light as just a last-minute afterthought instead of something baked into the whole process from the start.