Just realized I was overpainting my backgrounds for years

I used to spend 10 hours on detailed backgrounds for every character piece, thinking it made the art look more professional. Then last month I tried flat color blocks with just a few texture overlays and the characters actually pop way more now. My buddy Sam told me to stop hiding the focal point with clutter, and he was right. Has anyone else switched to simpler backgrounds and seen better results?

3 comments

3 Comments

fisher.thomas9h ago

Kind of feels like you just needed someone to tell you to chill out and that's all it took. Plenty of people overcomplicate backgrounds for years and still make it work depending on the style. Not everything has to be a lesson, sometimes it's just a preference shift.

brooke_taylor448h ago

Honestly, this hit close to home with a landscape I was stuck on for weeks. I kept trying to get this one mountain ridge to look right with all these layers and textures, but it just looked cluttered. Eventually I just threw a solid purple-gray wash over the whole thing and called it a day, and suddenly it felt finished. Tbh sometimes the best fix is just letting go of the details and accepting the simpler version works better.

gracethomas9h ago

Yeah I had a friend who spent a year obsessing over a single shadow in a painting and then just gave up and threw some black paint on it and it looked fine. Sometimes the fix is just deciding you're done.