Transitioning from traditional to digital drawing & painting
I have done both traditional and digital art and I am comfortable in most types of the art mediums.
Many folks who are competent in traditional mediums find it challenging to move to the digital medium. I will try to give some important tips that will make this transition easier and faster.
Your art skills are what matters not matter what medium
This is one of the most significant points to keep in mind when transitioning from one medium to another. Many forget that to become a truly great artist, the pursuit of skills in each medium is critical to their success.
When we move from say acrylics to oils, we automatically know that we are going to migrate some of our inherent artistic skills to this new medium. We don’t feel we are beginning at the bottom since we already possess some painting and drawing skills. However, we need to become familiar with the new medium and the properties of the oil medium as compared to the acrylics. We need to deal with the new media having a slower drying time and mixing properties. The application of the medium with the brush also differs in the way it spreads on the canvas etc. We need to retrain our thinking with this new medium.
We continue to practice in this new medium until we become more confident and eventually we bring our inherent ARTISTIC SKILLS to bear onto this new medium. We use our creativity and flair to translate these new found skillsets to finished works of art!
Many of the artists are aware of the artistic skillsets they possess and can move to new mediums with relative ease. There are many who become too comfortable in a specific medium and don’t attempt to explore other mediums.
When it comes to the digital medium there is another big block that challenges traditional artists. This has a lot to do with the technical nature of the medium and can be off putting to them. This has arisen due to the sophisticated software/hardware that accommodates digital drawing & painting.
The purist traditional artists mistakenly assume that the sophisticated tools are required for the creation of digital artwork. This is a myth and I have provided solid reasons for this and practical demonstrations of my own digital artwork.
If we consider the purest form of creating art, it involves an applicator like a brush/pencil and then selecting paints or colored pencils and applying this in a controlled manner on paper or canvas.
The various mediums such as acrylics, oils or watercolors have different properties and artists will develop sufficient skills of each medium and apply it to their art creations. If you look at the works of Constable or Turner really close up on the canvas, you will see very loose strokes and you wonder how such a visually impactful painting can be created. It is due to the skills developed by the artists in understanding the process of painting intimately that they often see a visual representation of their painting even before creating it.
Digital Drawing & Painting
Digital drawing evolved over four decades to support the demand for digital art in graphics, illustrations and was spurred on by the growth of the internet. This resulted in software incorporating many of the tools to support this growing industry. It wasn’t intended for the art community. Today, digital drawing/painting has become mainstream and popularized by devices such as phones and tablets. You will find many drawing apps available in the Google and Apple play stores. Read my article on the historical significance of digital sofware development since the advent of PCs over four decades ago.
Most of these apps found in Google and Apple play stores have taken on the functionality and features of the software originally made for PCs and Macs. Users were naturally attracted by these apps and have come to accept the features and use them for their art creations. A majority of these users become very accustomed to the use of these tools and hence much of the artwork appears ‘digital’. This is entirely due to the many short cut tools that are designed to ‘correct’ imperfections in the drawing strokes and make use of layers, blending etc. Remember the original aim of the software was to create graphics for the web etc and was designed to make it easy for them. it is only possible in the digital world, since you can do a lot with computers and programming. A natural result of painting this way, means that the final artwork will appear to be digitally enhanced or manipulated.
I have written a Quora post that describes the differences in oil painting and digital.
The process that I use for drawing and painting in the digital medium is very similar to the traditional mediums. I stick to the brush and select colors from the color palette and yet I am able to make impressive pieces of art. This approach is different to the many of the artworks produced by digital artists. My artwork is often mistaken for something made with traditional materials.
Take a look at the example below. It was made on my Samsung tablet using the Paintology drawing app. The drawing took me around 2 hours and I was using simple tools such as the shade and line brush along with selecting colors.
My experience in traditional painting/drawing has allowed me to carry the skills learnt into the digital medium. I am not swayed by the myriad of tools found in the digital app, all I need are the brushes and the color palette.
At first, I was puzzled why other artists didn’t produce art in this manner and then it occurred to me that they rely heavily on the tools of the software appliction. As a result of my findings, I decided that I should let other artists understand my approach and technique. I have also spent a great deal of my time in the last few years developing the Paintology Drawing App available on the Google play store. The app has been designed with the same philosophy of drawing and painting that I use for my drawings/paintings in the traditional mediums.
The philosophy that I speak of is based on the skills developed over centuries for drawing and painting in the traditional mediums. It is the reason why I can make drawings in the digital medium unlike most people and with relative ease and speed.
The approach that many beginner digital artists take are skewed and the fundamentals of drawing and painting needs to be restored to the digital medium.
As I have indicated, many digital artists resort to the tools of the application rather than pushing their core skills in art. There is a definitely a niche where the approach to digital drawing & painting needs to shift. Users need to be taught the core fundamental skills that has been the foundation for traditional mediums for many centuries.
You can read more on this subject in the post below.
I have also broken down the myths surrounding the digital medium in order for people to understand the real natural process of drawing and painting with the medium.
In order to grasp the nature of what I am saying and the reason why I can draw so well in the digital medium, you need to appreciate a few things.
Take a look at the table shown below. It is a comparison of the main tools used for drawing which are the brush and colors as used in both traditional and digital.
If you compare the traditional and digital brushes, you will see that there is a higher bandwidth or latitude of what is achieved with digital. The brush size on a traditional medium is limited whereas the digital brush tip is unlimited. This is the key to why I can actually make better drawings than traditional.
Also, in the digital medium the colors have a higher latitude and you are limited in colors available from traditional.
The greater latitude of the digital brush and colors allows for an increased versatility in the final drawing or painting. This has led me to create photo realistic drawings relatively easily. Below is one of my first photo realistic drawings created on a Samsung tablet using the Paintology app.
Summary
We live in an exciting world where great advances in technology have opened more doors for the creative artist.
The digital medium offers more opportunities for traditional artists to create works of art that goes beyond the traditional mediums.
The approach to drawing & painting in the digital medium is not that different to traditional mediums. I have demonstrated that we don’t need to shift from our original skillsets developed and refined through the centuries in the traditional mediums. In actual fact, we can transfer these skills to the new digital medium and that should be our primary focus and aim.
The transition from traditional to digital has never been easier than today!
Expect to see great works of art when more traditional artists jump to the digital bandwagon!
Resources:
YouTube channels:
Quora profile:
Paintology Apps:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Paintology
Paintology — Six myths of digital drawing:
Paintology — Beginners drawing with Paintology:
Crash course in Paintology: