My uncle told me to stop using black outlines on everything

Back in 2017 I was doing these late night marker drawings of monsters and every single one had these thick black lines around it. My uncle who does watercolors said hey maybe try coloring without the outline first and just let the shapes blend. I thought he was nuts because how would anyone tell what it is without the border. Finally tried it on a drawing of a cat at 2am and it actually looked way better like softer and more real. Has anyone else had someone give advice that sounded wrong but turned out to work?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_joseph7d ago

Had a buddy back in high school who was convinced his digital art needed to look like a comic book with bold outlines on everything. His teacher told him to try a painting without any line work at all and he straight up said that's not real art. He tried it for a week just to prove her wrong and ended up switching his whole style to soft blending and lost edges. Now he does these atmospheric landscapes that look like they're glowing from inside. Still cracks me up how stubborn he was about it at first.

fionarodriguez6d ago

My cousin tried the same thing back in art school, swore up and down that charcoal was the only "real" medium. Three years later she's doing watercolor petals that look like they're floating on the page. @the_joseph your buddy and her would probably trade stubborn art teacher stories for hours.

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