Realized I was zooming in too much on every brush stroke for months

I was at my computer last week finishing up a fantasy landscape piece and my wrist was killing me. I zoomed out to see the full canvas and my character's face was a blurry mess of tiny lines that didn't match at all. My friend looked over my shoulder and said 'dude, why are you painting a portrait like it's a miniature model?' That's when it clicked I was zoomed in 400% for every single detail, never stepping back to check the whole picture. Has anyone else caught themselves doing the same thing with their digital paintings?

2 comments

2 Comments

samthompson1mo ago

Working in tight on details is how you build sharp renderings that look clean and professional. Zooming out too early makes you lazy about the small stuff and the final piece ends up sloppy. Stay zoomed in and refine each section until it's perfect, then step back to see how it all fits together.

adams.henry1mo ago

Sam mentioned that staying zoomed in to "refine each section until it's perfect" and I have to say, that approach is exactly what landed me in hot water. I spent three weeks on a dragon's eye once, getting every scale and highlight just right at 600% zoom, only to realize when I finally zoomed out that the eye was roughly the size of a dinner plate compared to the head. My dragon ended up looking like a mutant cyclops lizard. I swear if I had a nickel for every time I've had to repaint a whole face because I was too busy fussing over individual nose hairs at the microscopic level, I'd be able to afford a better graphics tablet. Sometimes I think we get so hypnotized by those infinite pixels that we forget the painting is supposed to be seen as a whole, not as a bunch of tiny, beautiful mistakes.