love traditional.. tough times with digital?

[blazinwolf]

I have lurked around this forum for awhile now. I've been having one problem lately, though, and I'm curious to whether anyone has ever felt like this before. I could really use some advice.

I'm a freshman at sva, for graphic design. I love to draw on the computer using my tablet and photoshop/painter/etc. But since I started school, I've been taking core art classes, like painting and drawing. I've been all caught up in the past couple of years with digital art, that I really haven't done much traditional art lately. At first I found it frustrating, but now I really appreciate using different mediums.

But one thing has occurred to me in the past couple of months. I really feel more proud of my traditional drawings than I do of my digital drawings. I know it sounds silly, but when it comes to digital paintings, it almost feels like I'm cheating? Digital has the advantage of layers, filters, ease of colors, crop, lasso tools, resizing, liquify tool (i completely refuse to use this for any of my paintings), textures, eraser, zoom, you get the point. Since I have started oil painting, I have witnessed how much hard work and time goes into creating some paintings. If I paint something, and the eye or something it off, I have to wait for everything to dry, and try again next week and hope it comes out decent. In photoshop, I just use the lasso tool and move it over.

I'm not saying digital painting is easy to create either. I have some drawings that I've spent nearly 40 hours on. But despite the amount of hours I put into it, I'm still happier with something I drew in 5 hours with paint or charcoal or whatever.

My point is, every time I try my hand at digital painting, I almost feel guilty. I don't know why, but I can't seem to shake this feeling of guilt. I feel bad for using layers or whatever. Has anyone ever felt like this or am I crazy? The small guilt is giving me huge art block when I do anything digital. But I have absolutely no art block when it comes to traditional. All my digital drawings are like half done, and my traditional ones are complete. I'm not lacking inspiration or ideas. Just feel weird. When I try to explain digital paintings to people who aren't into these things, they all just assume that I press the art button on my keyboard and create a painting. While that's not true at all, it just feels like more people appreciate my traditional work than my digital work and it kind of discourages me from even starting a digital painting. Also, artists that I have looked up to in regard to digital mediums, I have found out that some used photographs and etc and claimed that they actually drew the entire thing when it was really a photomanipulation.. Idk, little things like that have been a downer on me. Holding a drawing/canvas in your hand makes the painting feel more alive. I know I should be proud of all my work, but I feel kinda eh.

What do others think? I could really use some input. Thanks!

[Nrx]

I know exactly what you mean, i bought a wacom (bamboo luckily) but rarely use it because i prefere to work traditionally when i can.

for me its because i can actually hold my work, take it around and show it to people etc were as digital thats all quite removed and it also seems to generate less respect from non artists.

Ultimately i'll do what i enjoy the most, but ill keep pushing my skills at the things i dont enjoys as much too to make sure i can do it when its required.

my 2 pennys i guess

[___Hm____]

excuse me the computer,photoshop and wacom are just tools!
the drawings does not make themselves, the need they artist,
] if you can do it easily in computer ,that is no cheating ,
is to take advantage of what you for doing a better draw, maybe non artist dont value that. it doesnt matter .along you are happy with what you do.

[___Hm____]

sorry for my english

[Jason Ross]

Digital painting is just another medium. It's only cheating if you lie about the process. If you take a photo and add some filters and say," i first started with a sketch then thumbnails to layout my palette then....". Which some people have done even in these forums. When artists started to use watercolor or even pastels as their main medium of choice oil painters refused to except it as "real" paintings. These mediums were just used as studies for the "real" oil painting. I remember when airbrushing became popular and I was young and refused to use it because "it's not real painting". Spraying through masks and other such nonsense...I was just too young to look past my own self righteous ideas. I use an airbrush now when I want to. Digital painting is fun, clean, cheap, and fast. Don't let pride get in the way of progress.

[Black Spot]

I’m a recent convert and I treat digital just like I would traditional – just with a few more bells and whistles. Drawing from life digitally is so much fun.

Also I think it depends on what the end object is. With fine art, you’re probably better off with trad, but illustration, which should be mass produced, is fine with digital.

Then there is the idea that you can improve in both areas by doing both and factoring in the limitations of both.

[dose]

It's just a tool! Look, maybe I can burst your bubble:


Graphite pencils are a relatively recent invention. Do you feel guilty when you use them instead of chalk or silverpoint?
Michelangelo felt oil paint was cheating since you could correct mistakes. He preferred fresco. Maybe oil paint is cheating too?
Metal paint tubes allowed artists to paint on-location with much more ease rather than staying studio-bound, and made mass production much more viable. Maybe you should grind all your own paints instead of cheating and just buying that tubed stuff?
Artists for years have taken all kinds of shortcuts we might consider cheating- apprentices might do much of the legwork for prep & cleanup, assistants might paint backgrounds or furniture or less important figures, and sometimes artists would hire other artists to paint figures or work out complex perspective problems. Many famous illustrators skipped drawing altogether and traced from slides & photographs. We assume they did it all by hand, by themselves- but the fact is that in many cases they didn't. Is using layers or undo really any worse than that?


There's nothing wrong with using digital any more than it is to use a pencil or a brush.

For the record, we all have this kind of dogma about art but all it really does is cause us trouble. The only use for it is worthless, unfounded pride. Watch for it and get rid of it whenever it rears its ugly head. Figure out what you enjoy, do it, and ignore anybody who gives you trouble about it. Life's too short for anything else.

[Bill]

Maybe you are comparing what you can accomplish in digital to what someone else is accomplishing in traditional. I look at Stephan Martiniere's site* and the unbelievable digital work and the idea of "cheating" certainly doesn't come to mind. I think in certain ways it is a little bit of a different game to work digital vs. traditional but both offer opportunities to produce great, if slightly different, work.

[AgentAlpha]

Unless you paint over actual images digital art is not cheating. :) You have the tablet the photoshop or whatever program, the pen for the tablet then you do the art. It depends on your abilities just like the traditional. Just think about it doing thing quicker but not really easier.

Then once again if you shouldn't do and are not obliged to do digital for your work and you don't like it or you feel too uncomfortable just stick to traditional media.

Then once more if you want to work out your relationships with the digital art just do it step by step and a step at the time. And if you really can't work it out just do the traditional .
Whatever you choose you should feel comfortable with it. :)

If you ask my opinion about myself and the digi art...I think that digital artwork is awesome, it is just not my thing to do. ;)

Then I'm not proffesional so my opinion doesn't really count. :D