What type of art you are going to pursue (traditional or digital) or both - Part I

Are you a traditional artist or a Digital one? Is there a difference really?

Do you have to be one or the other, you can of course be both.

For years I worked with newsprint, and pastels, and charcoal sticks, and conte crayon and pencils and erasers (and sometimes I still do). However, nothing is easier to and control than using a computer and software program like photoshop. On top of that the combination of both tools can get you great results. 

So do you need to be a traditional artist over a digital one? Why not be both at the same time?

Traditional Art

I didn’t have a computer growing up, at least not the kinds that are available today. I spent a lot of time drawing and copying comics as a child and also coloring. The painting bug came much later.

I am a self taught artist, which means that I never went to art school or graduated with an art degree. 

Instead, I took a few art classes in school and after school would practice artwork whenever I got the chance. In college I took my first drawing class and fell in love with it. I got a lot of practice learning other types of drawing styles and using other tools. At that point I had never had access to live model before. 

The only downwside to the traditional drawing method was the process felt laboriously slow and messy. 

On top of that, I was wary of making a mistake. I would come to the end of an hour long drawing class only to find one detail was off, or the model was not symmetrical or something else was wrong. 

I was more impressed with artists who were able to get wonderful results without using a computer (such as all of the old masters). So I stuck with it I loved it that much. 

Digital Art

Enter the computer. I didn’t get my first computer until I was in my late 20’s. We had access to design programs in college at but nothing like the programs that are available today. 

What I loved about using a computer (esp. on a Mac) was the ability to create anything you wanted. There were no limits, and that was really liberating. I still continued to practice in addition to taking several online courses. I have gotten better over time, and I still continue to experiment with different programs. 

As I have said there are many many ways to get to the end result, and none of them are the only way, 

this allows for a lot of variation and experimentation. 

Using Both

The one thing that I don’t like about digitial work, is it felt like a lot of the natural gestures and hand movements were not being captured. There is a way that the final work can look a little artificial, 

and after a time I missed the natural look of traditional work. I also was frustrated that I could not always have a computer with me 24/7. I would not be able to capture ideas when I had them. I did have a sketch book with me at all times, but I had to wait until I got home to finish the idea.

So, I decided to combine both approaches, and started sketches traditionally and turning them into digital work when I got home. I will get a little bit more into those details for next time.