TIL most digital painters don't use a pure black base layer

Was talking to a friend who does concept art for games last night. She said pure black (#000000) kills depth because there's nowhere darker to go for shadows. Swapped to a dark desaturated blue instead and my evening sketches actually popped for once. Anybody else tweak their canvas color after years of default settings?

3 comments

3 Comments

casey_wood221d ago

Think of it less as cheating and more like giving your shadows a secret weapon to feel grounded.

jennifer20422d ago

Yeah I made the same switch last year after fighting with muddy shadows for way too long. A dark purple-blue base lets me push highlights way brighter without everything looking washed out. My friend called it "cheating" but honestly it just makes the whole process faster and more fun.

uma_ellis22d ago

That "cheating" comment got me thinking. I had a buddy who used to swear by pure black canvases for years. He finally swapped to a very dark brown after his mentor basically forced him to try it for a week. The next time we met up he was mad about how much better his work looked. Said he felt like he'd been doing it wrong on purpose for a decade. Now he gets all smug about it whenever I bring up base colors. Pretty funny watching someone flip from stubborn to evangelical over a canvas setting.