PSA: A comment about my color palette made me rethink my whole process
I posted a fantasy portrait here about six months ago, and someone pointed out that my skin tones looked a bit flat and 'samey' across all my characters. They weren't mean about it, just said something like, 'Your lighting is cool, but maybe think about subsurface scattering for different ethnicities?' I had to look that term up. It made me realize I was just picking a base skin color and adding a single shade, which does look fake. Now, I spend way more time on my color layers, adding blues and reds under the skin and really looking at reference photos for how light passes through ears or noses. It added maybe an extra hour to each piece, but the difference is huge. Has anyone else gotten a piece of technical advice that completely shifted how you handle a specific part of your art?