I used to just slap any filter on my art and call it done

Back in 2019 I would draw something in Procreate and just throw a gaussian blur or a vintage overlay on the whole thing and think it looked professional. Now I actually build my color grading layer by layer, like adjusting shadows and highlights separately for depth. It took watching a specific tutorial from a guy named Marco in Italy to realize I was flattening all my textures. Anyone else have that moment where they look back at old pieces and cringe at the filter abuse?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_sandra10d ago

That's 90% of digital artists I see on Tumblr and Instagram honestly. They slap a heavy noise filter and call it "grain" thinking it adds instant style. In 2020 I followed a popular YouTuber who taught that "texture overlays fix everything" and I bought into it hard for like six months. But honestly looking back at those pieces, the filters were doing all the heavy lifting not my actual skills. Your color grading method sounds like actual work but most viewers can't tell the difference anyway. When I post a filtered piece vs a carefully layered one the engagement is basically identical. So maybe the real trick is not overthinking it when nobody notices the subtle depth you're building.

caleb_sanchez10d ago

Reminds me, have you ever tried turning off the filters cold turkey for a month?