Took a commission for a color scheme I'd never pick and the whole thing came out weirdly good
client asked for navy, cream, and blush pink. my entire body recoiled. i paint like a highlighter exploded, i do not do coastal grandma. but rent was rent so i did it anyway and honestly it's one of the best things i've made this year. the palette forced me to actually think about composition instead of just slapping the loudest color on everything. hate that. now i'm worried i'm gonna start pre-mixing muted tones like some kind of traitor.
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I love this. It's the exact same thing that happens to me every time I do a commissioned portrait in colors I'd never touch on my own. I complain the whole time and then I finish it and think, oh no, this is actually working. Pastel is already soft and muted so I don't usually get to learn that lesson, but I did one in mostly greys and burnt sienna once and it taught me more about value than a year of studying did.
The traitor worry is real though 😅 I think you should do one more muted piece on purpose and see if it's a fluke or if you've actually got a second mode. Either way you're not losing the loud one, it'll still be in there. It's not like you can stop being a highlighter person on command.
ok the greys and burnt sienna one is exactly the kind of thing that would wreck me. i'd be so mad the whole time and then quietly obsessed with the result. value work is genuinely where i'm weakest too, loud color hides a lot of sins lmao.
and you're right about the second one. i'm scared but i think i have to do it now. just to see if i've actually unlocked something or if the navy cream blush thing was a one-off fluke. if i come back posting a muted landscape in three weeks pretend you never saw it.