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~naomi

naomi johanna nowak
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digital art.

Tue Apr 12, 2005, 10:17 AM
i think i'm getting sick of it.

ok, i don't want to be all provocative or anything, but it's starting to kind of scare me that so many talented artists do nothing but computer-made work. i've done digital work these past couple of years, and i sort of feel like drifting away from it. my graphic novel is made digitally; but the one i am planning next will be made with traditional methods (digital colours though, possibly..). and now i sort of feel like if we young people who are into illustration rather than "modern" art don't get a grip and get back to the real drawing board, lots of knowledge and technical skill could be lost in the end. plus there's whole sad thing about originals. the actual painting, the irreplaceable one and only is completely lost in digital art. you can make a hundred copies or prints, and no one will know which was the very first.

with me, these things come and go, sort of. there's been times when i did traditional/digital 50/50 and other times when all i did was one of them for a while. the transition from a digital period to a traditional is pretty interesting. like when, sketching on paper, i think "damnit, that angle is no good.. better hit ctrl-z" or "her head needs to be bigger.. just gotta hit ctrl-t and enlarge it". and then it strikes me that.. i'm not at the keyboard, i'm holding my sketchbook. erase and redo! i might sounds old fashion but i think the whole erase and redo part is really, really important for an artist to grow. of course, once you're a pro and you know the drill, you're free to use whatever medium you like. but i don't consider myself there yet, so i think i'm going to stick with pen and paper for a little while at least. many artists today, really young ones start out drawing in photoshop, which is also really sad. i've seen that loads of times; people actually using their mouse to draw in photoshop rather than a pencil! gah.

i could rant on about this; but i won't. you get the drift.. i'd like to know what people think, too: just how much do you appreciate digital art? do you think it will be as accepted as traditional skills in the future? or is it already?
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=kittehness:iconkittehness: Apr 12, 2005, 10:27:11 AM
I get a little sick of people comparing digital art and traditional art as if digiart is like some kind of easier method to doing traditional. While you use similar tactics to approach both they are fundamentally different mediums with different ideas behind them. Just because you can ctrl-z something doesn't mean it makes it easier than doing a traditional painting. It's like saying that people shouldn't rely on acrylics so much because they take so much less time to dry than oil paints, therefore, you should learn oils before acrylics. Digital art isn't meant to be like traditional in my opinion. Who cares if there is no one original? That's not the point. Digital art is -about- making the prints and having the best display actually on a computer, and not really having the "one true original". Mouse vs pencil.... well, kind of an unfair comparison actually. I think having a solid base in traditional-style drawing and painting methods is very important when doing digital art, but I don't necessarily place so much value in the medium - you can tell who's got the solid grounding or not no matter if they use charcoal or photoshop. Personally I love both and I love combining both and doing each individually. :nod:

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~liankathleen:iconliankathleen: Apr 12, 2005, 10:44:46 AM
I find digital art is more accepted. i'm a traditional artist but it's not like my work is going to get hung in a gallery, so the only way I have to show people my work is over the internet. But Stuff doesn't scan or photowell, especailly watercolour work, so It's never going to have the impact the orginal had, and it's hard to compete with a fairly washed out painting on a digital forum with all this artwork made specfically to be veiwed online. Not that it's a competetion, but it's hard for traditional artists to get much respect online. I check out a lot of forums me friends go on that I can't really participate in because they're digital art forums. It's saad.

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~naomi:iconnaomi: Apr 12, 2005, 10:54:29 AM
if things don't scan well, then that's a real set back of course, but if you manage good scans, i think getting traditional art accepted is not such a great problem. when i asked about digital art being accepted or not, i wasn't refering to the online art community, but the art/illustration world in general, where traditional still has a much higher status. you've got some good points; thanks!

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~naomi:iconnaomi: Apr 12, 2005, 11:08:06 AM
i used say exactly that: "digital art is no easier, it's just a different medium". i've sort of changed my mind on that. there are things you can do very easily in photoshop that would take days on a canvas, or be totally impossible. stuff such as:

*use layers
*move objects/composition around
*flip the painting
*tweak the colours..

etc... all of this does make it easier. that's not to say it's easy creating a piece of digital art, i mean, i'd know that having strugled with so many digital paintings ;). you can do these things traditionally, but it takes much more time and effort - and would probably teach you more in the end. i think fear of failure, and fear of the "no return" element in traditional painting scares many people. it sure scares me.

comparing acrylics to oils in my opinion is more like comparing photoshop to corel painter than to each other, and i think your statement "I think having a solid base in traditional-style drawing and painting methods is very important when doing digital art," is actually proof of that. digital art is a tool you move on to when you've mastered at least some degree of the traditional techniques.

"you can tell who's got the solid grounding or not no matter if they use charcoal or photoshop. Personally I love both and I love combining both and doing each individually"

i'm with you on all of that a 100%.

also, as for who cares if there's an original.. i do. this is a completely subjective thing; but i find it poetic somehow, looking at a paper/canvas and thinking about how the artist worked on that exact one. that might be silly.

wow, this came out long... i won't hold it against you if you don't bother reading it!!! it's just that i've been thinking about this a whole lot lately. thanks for your views. <3

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~Night-Flower:iconNight-Flower: Apr 12, 2005, 1:20:18 PM
I agree with you on this. Even though I've never done digital work. There's something really special in being able to paint something(say a gift for someone) and hand them the real thing that you slaved over. My best-friend's wall in his bedroom is great proof of that(he has 4 or 5 paintings of mine).

Also that you can just hit some buttons to take something away or fix it. I can vouch for the 'scariness' of traditional works as I've messed up 2 quality pieces in the last 2 or 3 months. I got upset about both , but I did my best to fix the one of them that was a friendly gift for someone at school, I still feel bad about messing it up, but he loves it still and I put alot into it, and he has the only one. the other mess up was on a picture of the lead singer of one of my fav bands, I spilled my bottle of ink all over it. It's sad, I cried, but ya know, those are the risks, and there isn't a button that'll fix it, but the risks in traditional work is a big reason I think that it's so much harder.

another thing about digital is that you've gotta be in front of a computer to do it, sure you can scan things in then work on them, but hell I can take everything I need with me to do a complete piece, and I do take those things with me almost everywhere with the exception of paints and brushes(which I only bring along if I know I wanna use them).

I really like and appreciate digital art, but I really respect traditional alot more. One because I'm a traditional artist, and two because I go to alot of art shows and institutes and stand infront of enormous pieces, you can't convey that feeling you get standing infront of a large piece on a computer screen. That doesn't make it better or worse a piece, but just the feelings are SO different. I like the feeling I get standing right in front of something without it being on a rather small computer screen or having to move around parts of the picture with a scroll bar to see it in detail.

so yeah....just some of my thoughts on that.

Byes,
~Hannah

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~Ktuloo:iconKtuloo: Apr 12, 2005, 2:03:22 PM
well... I wrote a whole bunch of stuff, pushed the button "submit" and the server could not find Deviant art... so now.. I wont write the whole thing again, BUT:

I do agree with you!! indeed..
Personally I've only begun doing a LITTLE digital art.. I'm a newbie, but I do agree with you it is so much easier to just push Ctrl+z...
Which is dangerous... 'cause one day as you said, - we wont have any original paintings hanging on the walls in our livingroom... just a print..
+ for some reason, original art/traditional art is honestly the most respected and there's some magic to it, that you just wont find in digital!!!

Ehm... yeah, i agree! :)

:heart:

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~shoppe:iconshoppe: Apr 12, 2005, 2:26:49 PM
Well, I agree but...

I wish I had the time to do traditional artwork, but digital mediums are also less expensive and time consuming.
~paperdragoness:iconpaperdragoness: Apr 12, 2005, 3:08:44 PM
I believe that both mediums have their values and drawbacks. Yes, that sounds middle-of-the-road-pacify-everyone, but it's true.
For one thing, while certain tasks are easier to do on the computer, the raw technique doesn't say anything about the application. Plenty of digital art is subpar. Also, I've found that standards tend to be set higher in the digital world.
Traditional art has a great deal of control and has the advantage of flexibility and an inherently natural look...but I'm sure I don't need to extoll its virtues to you.
I really don't see anything wrong with learning to draw in Photoshop or whatever program. If kids really love art, they'll learn. Creating art with a mouse is in no way less valid than creating art with a tablet or a pencil or a brush or a crayon. Failing to create good art with a mouse is the same as failing to create good art with a tablet or a pencil or a brush or a crayon. Just as I'm better with gouache than oils, some are better with photoshop than pencils. And that is perfectly okay.
So to me, it's absurd to think that one medium is more 'authentic' than another. Digital art has taken a lot of dingo's kidneys from traditionalists, and while I hope it will be accepted in the future I'm not looking forward to the ride.
~naomi:iconnaomi: Apr 12, 2005, 4:03:08 PM
i think you've got some great points and it's good that you have an open mind to both things.

"For one thing, while certain tasks are easier to do on the computer, the raw technique doesn't say anything about the application. Plenty of digital art is subpar."

this i couldn't agree more with.

but this:

"Creating art with a mouse is in no way less valid than creating art with a tablet or a pencil or a brush or a crayon. Failing to create good art with a mouse is the same as failing to create good art with a tablet or a pencil or a brush or a crayon."

that is, in my opinion, impossible. simply for physical reasons - putting your hand to a piece of paper, holding a pencil, can never ever be the same as holding your hand on a mouse (a much clumsier tool) and drawing, having the lines appear in front of you rather than under your fingers. you mention kids learning to draw; when they learn this skill they practice the coordination between the hand and the eye, which is very important to many aspects of their development. and that can't be the same if the hand isn't actually drawing. a tablet is a much better tool of course, but it is still not the same. do you see what i mean? this was damned hard to explain >.<

aaanyways, thanks for your opinion, i love hearing what people think about this.

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