Tried a 100% opacity background for a portrait and it looked totally flat

I was working on a character piece in Procreate and decided to fill the whole background with a solid dark blue at full opacity, thinking it would make the subject pop. Instead, the whole image lost depth and looked like a cheap cutout, even with good shading on the figure itself. I learned that even a tiny bit of texture or a slight gradient in the background, maybe around 95% opacity, adds a lot more dimension. Has anyone else had a simple choice like that ruin the feel of a piece?

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3 Comments

oliviak987mo ago

Honestly sounds like you're overthinking it. A flat background can look clean and modern, not cheap.

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allen.cole7mo ago

It often just looks unfinished to me.

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taraw166mo ago

My old art teacher used to say a pure black background is a dead background. I kinda get what @oliviak98 means about clean and modern, but that flat look just kills the life for me. It makes the whole thing feel stuck to the paper.

3