A harsh critique on my color palette saved my portfolio

Some random guy on a feedback thread told me my greens all looked like puke. I switched to using actual reference photos for shadows instead of guessing and now my landscapes actually pop. Has anyone else gotten feedback that completely changed their workflow?

2 comments

2 Comments

terryr468d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, @jade3 nailed it - reference photos are basically cheat codes for colors.

jade38d ago

Had almost the exact same thing happen to me but with skin tones. Someone flat out told me my portraits looked like everyone had jaundice because I was just guessing at warm colors. Started using actual color picker samples from reference photos and it was like a lightbulb went off. Now I pull up three different skin tones from real pics before I even start painting.