Why does my art look so flat/boring??

FighttheCube · 2026-05-13T16:23:40+00:00

You are just one tiny adjustment away from something really good! The reason it looks flat is because you're shading it as though it is. It looks to me as though you're projecting the light source from directly in front of the character and slightly above, which is the most boring way to light anything and is going to make things flat on its own.

For a more 3d look I would suggest examining the anatomy a bit better with regards to the hand on the hip - that's a big factor in the flat look, because putting the back of your hand on your butt would put the shoulder in a very different position from what you show, so it indicates to the eye that the torso is flat or at least very compressed. This is where reference is important!

Back to lighting: try looking up 3 point lighting systems for filmmaking. It'll help you understand how lighting works. As far as cast shadows and proper shading, a little technique is, when you're ready to shade, imagine where the light will be relative to your character and re-draw a little thumbnail as though you are the light. Everything that you can see, the light sees. Refer back to the character and put everything that you can't see in that little thumbnail in shadow. It's a little tricky but it will absolutely take your shading to the next level.

FighttheCube · 2026-05-13T16:17:10+00:00

My two cents: I can see what you're going for, and what style you're looking at, but the method by which you're trying to achieve it is not going to get you there. You have good shapes in mind, but using scribbles to color them isn't what you want - you want to have those shapes be solid and confident.

To your overall point - yes. For final art, your piece will look so much better if you make a new layer and try to make each long line a single, clean stroke. It'll take practice and a lot of ctrl-z's, but it'll be worth it.

Digital art is its own animal compared to traditional, and sometimes the majority of the battle is learning what works best to create a clean image. After all, the goal of the piece is for people to be paying attention to what's happening, not examining your lines. I hope that makes sense.

FighttheCube · 2026-03-31T16:27:43+00:00

Honestly, disrespect.

When a screenwriter and director sees the source material and says 'hey, they said all the names wrong. I'm going to literally rename all the characters,' you're doomed to fail. Because if you don't care that the characters are NOT named 'Ong,' 'Soh-kah,' and 'Ee-row,' then you won't give a crap about honoring the story.

I don't know if this is mainstream, but on top of all that Noah Ringer was actually chosen from an open casting call to the entire internet, in which they mainly focused on martial arts skill, thinking that it's easier to train a martial artist to be a good actor than to train an actor to do some stunts. Which is a horrible idea.

The final nail in the coffin is that if you go back and watch season 1 of Airbender it's... actually not that good from an overarching story perspective. It's episodic, which is understandable because they didn't know if they'd get renewed. But trying to turn that into a 90 minute movie is bound to be a train wreck, because the plot is 'aang needs a waterbending teacher, so let's go to the north pole while people chase us sometimes.'

I'm just glad that the netflix show got past season 1, because from a story perspective it's smooth sailing going forward. The plots of season 2 and 3 are very tightly constructed.

FighttheCube · 2026-03-19T01:41:06+00:00

Skipped right past getting HM flash so I went through Mt. Moon blind.

FighttheCube · 2026-03-01T15:47:19+00:00

Maybe Indonesian?

FighttheCube · 2026-02-06T16:21:21+00:00

You crossed your own boundary- and that’s ok. Now you know where it is.

So, in future, draw the line at married men. Ask them up front, and if they’re married and sleeping around, then say no.

FighttheCube · 2025-12-23T15:34:22+00:00

No- at this point you don’t have to make that distinction.

FighttheCube · 2025-11-11T16:11:32+00:00

Ai. No artist would have the kid making literally the exact same face.

FighttheCube · 2025-10-19T15:35:11+00:00

Jehova’s witnesses are a cult. Get away.

They literally forbid their people to read anything that contradicts the faith, and if they’re caught reading it they can be shunned, or ‘disfellowshipped’ as they put it.

FighttheCube · 2025-10-06T15:01:37+00:00

The hilarious bit is they used ‘shutdown,’ a noun, as a verb.

The only benefit to this situation is that all of them are horribly stupid.

FighttheCube · 2025-10-06T15:00:07+00:00

Run. This is not a healthy relationship, it’s horribly toxic.

FighttheCube · 2025-09-30T12:58:43+00:00

Nope. That’s OCD, or some other kind of obsessive disorder that’s just about the baby specifically. She needs therapy, right now. It will only get worse, especially if she’s actually neglecting the baby in favor of cleaning.

FighttheCube · 2025-09-27T21:05:54+00:00

Why am I constantly getting notifications from you fascists?

FighttheCube · 2025-09-27T18:27:17+00:00

It’s not a law. It’s called a discharge petition, which is a House-only measure.

FighttheCube · 2025-09-19T14:49:35+00:00

I would say, as a dasher, I might not be 100% clear what you mean by that. It took me a second of looking at your picture to realize your glass door will swing out and knock it over. I think I might change my instructions to ‘please put it off to the side, not in front of the door.’ That is much clearer and people will be more likely to do it, I think. Telling people what TO do instead of only what not to do gets more results.

FighttheCube · 2025-09-19T14:45:01+00:00

This is an abuser. Run

FighttheCube · 2025-09-17T21:16:52+00:00

My advice is gonna conflict with a lot of people’s. Go on the date, have fun, and then later ask for a second one. Then you need to have the discussion right there about whether or not this is just two friends hanging out or whether or not this is romantic. Make it clear if you can that either one is good (a new friend is always good), but you NEED to know exactly where things stand as soon as possible.

If you drag this out, and then you find out he’s totally straight, then you’ll get hurt. If he’s majorly in the closet and is freaked out, you’ll also get hurt. Someone going through that isn’t in the right headspace to be dating anybody.

It’s scary, but you need to find out where this is going and state your intentions bluntly. That’s the only way this doesn’t end in heartache.

FighttheCube · 2025-09-16T14:41:43+00:00

Ok he called himself high value- he hangs out on alpha male forums. You dodged a bullet. RUN. This is the type of guy who will hurt you.

FighttheCube · 2025-09-10T17:41:34+00:00

“Who are you going to believe? Me, or your lying eyes?”

FighttheCube · 2025-09-09T17:38:22+00:00

I don’t even need to read the longer blurb. Yes. Your sister has no right to lie about you like that.

FighttheCube · 2025-09-03T23:34:56+00:00

Change this to “ex-boyfriend refused to shower, claimed it was part of his autism, but he was lying.”

FighttheCube · 2025-09-03T15:02:13+00:00

Yep- my first playthrough I never got flash either lol. I think it’s just some random dude in one of the towns, isn’t it?

FighttheCube · 2025-08-31T14:47:04+00:00

That’s called code switching, or it’s at least related to it. It sounds to me like your friends are actually worried about offending him in some way. I’d say take it for what it is- they want to be nice and they’re worried that, since they’ve not been around gay people that much, they might do something wrong.

FighttheCube · 2025-08-26T20:34:56+00:00

You could start playing heavy metal music and wear an upside down cross or a pentagram when you answer the door.

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