Monday 3 June 2013

Week Special: Traditional vs Digital


Hi guys sorry for not updating in a while, I just want to take a little break from doing tutorials so I thought this week I start talking about a topic that most people are and still are debating about picking a medium between drawing traditionally and digitally.

I’ll admit when I first went into the subject I thought that digital artwork made everything look awesome and cool and that in itself was impressive, digital could pretty much be a more cleaner way of creating great artwork without the mess that you’d usually have with a more traditional medium like paint and other works.

So in this Weekly special I’m just going through what I myself think about the whole Traditional V Digital, now both traditional and digital mediums can be used in a degree where you can create the most breath taking artwork but also when not used correctly it can really create an eyesore.

I should know, I use to be a big offender of this myself, just to let you know that I’m not trying to deter people from taking up the artistic arts but pretty much giving advice on what to expect.

Like I mentioned on an earlier post, before you can expect to be great at anything you should first go through a serious of trials and errors and learn how to draw before even attempting to take the more digital approach.
Sure there are useful tutorials online on how many other artists and what their drawing, artist processes are but you should work through a process that suites you and not anyone else.

TRADITIONAL

First I’ll go through the pros and cons of Traditional Media. Like I’ve mentioned before, I grew up with a sketchpad and a pencil before even going into the more digital tools and even though digital is useful, it just doesn’t give me the freedom that I feel with a pencil and a piece of paper.

Some artists on DeviantART might tell you very differently but most of the good artists will tell you that they would start traditionally before they even went digitally.

Again this is my opinion so I’ll try and not be biased, well too biased

            Pros
·      You have freedom to draw whatever you want in a sketchpad
·      The tools and materials you use aren’t as expensive as their more digital counterparts
·      You can improve your character designs
·      Learning new ways to draw these characters and backgrounds
·      Gives you more control on how the artwork you do will look and even gives you more control to change it.

Cons
·      The tools you use do take up too much space in your room or studio, it spends how much room you have to store
·      I also find that I go through a lot of sketchpads and at times that can be very expensive, especially when your favourite make of sketchpad is either sold out or they just don’t make them anymore. Same with any tools you use.
·      When dealing with paints, charcoal and the more arty tools, it can get a bit messy.
·      When you spill something on your artwork it can’t go back to normal

Like most artists, especially in the Manga/Anime Style, I started out drawing in a sketchpad and then gradually went from traditional to digital. I still draw traditionally but that’s when I’m making new character designs or creating a storyboard for a future project.

DIGITALLY

I have to say when I transferred from traditional to digital, the change was a little bit tricky especially when it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. Digital when used correctly can open a world with many doors opening however when used poorly, it can have the opposite effect.

Some people skip learning traditionally and just go straight into the digital stuff without knowing much about how to draw but if they do then it does get a bit easier for them later on in life.

I have to say for years I have been and still consider myself to still be a novice when drawing in programs like photoshop and paint tools sai but in a world where there’s more than one programs and especially since the Adobe programs are in such high demand, brings in itself another few trials and quirks to get through.

            Pros
·      Some of the programs are pretty straight forward in some of the tools they use
·      There are many programs to chose from in creating their pieces of artwork
·      Working digitally doesn’t create a mess, especially when your using it for painting and even making it easier to mix colours together and blending them
·      They allow the user to create artwork in a higher quality
·      Basically they can do anything, providing they know how to use the program properly
·      Some of the programs can be obtained for free

            Cons
·      Some of the programs are expensive, for the Adobe Design suite your basically looking at nearly $600 give or take.
·      It does take a bit of time to learn what all the tools are used for, half the time you might not even be using some of the tools because there is no point to them.
·      When drawing in the programs it can be a bit tricky to get the artwork looking the way you want it too, for years I was obsessed with having my artwork have very smooth lines.
·      Sometimes it will crash, especially when you don’t have much memory on your computer system. So make sure that you have enough memory on your computer before using it.

This is my opinion from my own experiences, there were so many programs I went through before deciding on which one I should use.
It was kind of frustrating, especially when all I wanted was a way to make my artwork look more professional but at the time I didn’t realise that obsessing on things that I myself can not change was no way to be creating artwork, it actually got to the point where I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I wanted it too.

But then a year ago I realised that I am basically good at what I do and shouldn’t be obsessing with every little thing because that’s not what I strive to do, I strive to have fun and create some work that people can enjoy with me and whether I can accomplish that is a totally different subject as I’m still in the process in finding out what it is that I want to do and what programs I feel more comfortable with to do it.

If there were some things in this blog that you want me to take a look over, like programs in general then don’t be afraid to send me a message but don’t expect me to have the same opinion as everyone else, like some people I have processes I love and then processes I hate, same with programs and other things.

So that’s this weeks special in the No Talent Café, come back next week for hopefully another entry that deals with tutorials or on genres in general especially in the Mangaverse.



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