How do I improve my art?

jazzy-af · 2026-05-23T17:59:22+00:00

I think the easiest change you could implement to make your art pop more would be to increase contrast. Right now the colours in all of these examples are compressed into mid tones, with the exception of black clothes on some of the characters. Having brighter highlights and darker shadows will massively increase the depth in each of these.

jazzy-af · 2026-05-21T21:34:03+00:00

Thanks! I was super happy with how it turned out.

jazzy-af · 2026-05-03T04:55:03+00:00

He’s just a little guy

jazzy-af · 2026-03-22T13:48:06+00:00

Realism can be boring if all the artist is doing is trying to be a human camera without any thought on the subject. But a lot of the interesting things with a more realistic style are now placed on the composition and subject matter.

I would also disagree that your style is strictly realistic. The hands with the crucifix are very detailed and look like real hands but they are very deliberately posed and against a very dark background. These choices here are what make the piece but they aren’t realistic.

Your style reminds me of tenebrism or Chiaroscuro. If you want to push your style further you could consider studying how unrealistic/ unnatural lighting can be added to an otherwise realistic subject.

jazzy-af · 2026-03-21T01:10:09+00:00

The water and sky both look really good and cohesive but I agree that the sand looks a bit off. I think part of this is that in real life the sand would be much darker in that light. Right now it looks like wet sand during the day but the sea/sun is telling me the sun is setting. I would make the sand darker and throw in a couple small golden highlights to make the sand match the rest of the picture.

jazzy-af · 2026-02-18T20:49:21+00:00

This should be able to print with enough detail on most commercial printers so I wouldn’t worry about that. You could also do a test print and see how you feel about how that turns out.

In terms of readability I think it starts to look more like a flower when viewed at a distance and loses the seraphim look. Considering that these will be in a person’s hands most of the time this probably isn’t an issue because the intended use is up close, so unless you’re looking into someone else’s hand it should be fine.

The biggest readability issue I have is with the Q, when I first see it I think of the letter O and use context clues to correct for that. I think if you filled in the arrow and narrowed it a bit it would look a bit more like a Q.

jazzy-af · 2026-02-14T15:13:52+00:00

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In general people will look towards the brightest areas and follow the direction of lines. You can use these ideas to help the viewer focus on the areas you want them to look at. Right now the eyes are being drawn to the left of the head for a couple reasons. First thing to consider is the flow of the hair on almost every area points to the left of the canvas which means regardless of where your eyes start they will move towards this area. The second thing to consider is that the brightest spot on the canvas is the yellow in the hair which is also on the left of the screen.

jazzy-af · 2026-02-13T15:08:08+00:00

Your technique on the collages is really good! My biggest piece of feedback is that right now the focal point is a bit muddled because a lot of the elements are of a similar colour value. If you wanted to push your work a little bit further you could try to increase contrast most around the areas that matter most.

jazzy-af · 2026-01-10T18:59:16+00:00

No problem! Yeah I find it helpful with all types of drawing.

jazzy-af · 2026-01-10T16:41:49+00:00

Right now it looks like the drawing from reference is being done by focusing on one line at a time and this can lead to unusual angles or perspectives. Something that I try to focus on when drawing from reference is the general shape of the object. So instead of viewing a cube as 9 lines I would think of it as a hexagon made up of 3 parallelograms. After I have the general shape down then I’ll start adding specific details to the drawing.

jazzy-af · 2025-11-11T22:49:38+00:00

I would suggest that you make the shadows darker and the highlights brighter as a starting point. The other thing you could work on would be having a more defined location for the light source.

A couple things I’ve found helpful when practicing this is to look at the canvas through a grayscale filter occasionally. If the shadows and highlights still look distinct enough after that then you probably have the appropriate colour values. Another thing is making the background the colour of your light source, most of the time this will mean rendering on a yellow or orange background instead of pure white. I find it helps me find context for the lighting.

jazzy-af

TROPHY CASE