5 Ways to Perfect Your Digital Paintings

Most artists will tell you that there is no such thing as a perfect painting. There are always parts of a painting that can be tweaked or improved. The best an artist can do is to bring the artwork as close to "perfect" as possible. That is because, in art, there is no right or wrong, everything is subjective; different artists have different opinions about what looks good and what does not. With that said, there are a few guidelines that you can use to help you produce better art. So in this article, we will present you with a list of 5 tips that you can use to help you make your artwork as close to perfect as possible. Let’s take a look!

Planning the Focus Point

The best way to make your painting stand out is to make sure your audience sees what you want them to see. So one of the most important thing you can do is to establish a focus point. One painting can contain multiple focus points, so it is important to establish a flow that guides your audience through your painting.

A good flow can keep your audience looking at your painting for a few moments longer than they might have if you did not establish one. Tonal values in paintings are the most effective way to indicate focus points. Elements in the paintings such as rocks, rubble, trees, or machinery can also help establish a focus point, these techniques are also known as compositing. Let’s take a look at the following images, as an example.

In the first image, you can see how I have established top-down lighting onto the subject and used only one light source, the bright reflections on the helmet also help to bring out the focus point.

The second focus point would be the cigarette. Take note of how I helped accentuate the cigarette using the guns. All of this helps the viewer look at this painting from the top to  the bottom.