That harsh critique about my backgrounds actually fixed my whole process

I've been doing digital landscapes for about 4 years now, mostly posting fantasy scenes. Last March, a guy named Derek in this very forum told me my backgrounds looked like "messy dishwater" because I was throwing too many colors into the sky gradient without any purpose. At first I was pretty ticked off, but I sat on it for a week and realized he had a point. I started limiting myself to just 3 or 4 colors per sky and really planning where the light source sits before I even open Photoshop. The change was huge after maybe 3 or 4 pieces. Now I actually get compliments on my atmospheric depth instead of people just scrolling past. Has anyone else had a piece of feedback that burned at first but turned out to be exactly what you needed to hear?

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henderson.mason4mo ago

Yeah my first critique basically told me my trees looked like broccoli and honestly they kind of did.

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harper_smith4mo ago

@henderson.mason the broccoli tree thing is a rite of passage for most landscape painters. What nobody talks about though is what happens when you switch from one brush type to another. I started using a flat shader instead of a round brush and suddenly my foliage looked less like produce and more like actual leaves. The tool makes way more difference than practice sometimes.

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