Filtering your art?

[CrosEl]

What do you think of it? I know some artists use many filters to get the desired look from their art/iron out any problems it had..

(for traditional artists it's usually filtering out real life stuff that was scanned with the picture, and digital artists usually are trying to get rid of weird glitches the software they used had made) but not everybody uses them and in fact some who do feel strong enough about it to include the original thing along with the finished product

So, what do you think? Is it normal to do this, or is it as bad as tracing(when you claim the picture as yours after doing so) or what?

[Czyszy]

Of course it's normal. I mean, just look at how many pieces with a vintage anime/pseudo vhs look there are :P

[RepriseAgain]

Yeah. Can really help you achieve a desired look.

Filtered the hell out of this piece to make it look like a photo from the 90s.

[Skoops]

The issue with filters isn't that people use them, it's that people use them wrong. They're made for minorly tweaking something that's done well as-is, but some amateurs will use them to blow-out a bad piece because they think it hides the flaws. Usually the only person that fools is the artist themself.

You want to make sure your art is what's doing all the heavy lifting, and a bit of filtering towards the end only plays a supporting role. In my case all I typically have are a Levels and Color Balance adjustment layer to better unify the overall look and get a little more contrast out of it. Sometimes I use different blur effects to enhance focus or a sense of movement. It's very rare that I feel the need to do some kind of procedurally generated filter because it tends to hurt more than it helps unless I'm going for a very very specific look.

Overall I think anyone that's still forming their foundational skills should probably steer clear of that stuff until they're solid, otherwise they might get addicted to it as a flaw-hiding method instead of an enhancer of already good things.

[TheBestBroster]

At 12/20/23 02:41 PM, CrosEl wrote: What do you think of it? I know some artists use many filters to get the desired look from their art/iron out any problems it had..
(for traditional artists it's usually filtering out real life stuff that was scanned with the picture, and digital artists usually are trying to get rid of weird glitches the software they used had made) but not everybody uses them and in fact some who do feel strong enough about it to include the original thing along with the finished product

So, what do you think? Is it normal to do this, or is it as bad as tracing(when you claim the picture as yours after doing so) or what?

its ok as long as the underlying art itself is good. Though I'm not a huge fan of art that looks over-filtered, personally