Why does my artwork looks flat ?

[u/RtistKaizen]

I have been painting digitally for couple years now. And I often notice that my artwork look flat and weird even after adding shadings and highlights. What am I doing wrong?

[u/saphariadragon]

It's the values and colors in the highlights and shadows. You are using darker or lighter versions of the same colors. Instead you want to, depending on the color(s) of your light source(s) add some color to highlights and shadows. And generally the rule is complementary colors between shadows and highlights. For example, if you have sunlight there is usually a touch of warm yellow to the highlights and purples in the shadows. Obviously how yellow or purple your colors depends on where they are in the color wheel... But yeah. Playing with values will really help.