Traditional vs. Digital

MoorDragon · Forum Newbie Joined: Feb 01, 2006 Posts: 1

I agree that both have their place.

Being old school, I was trained in the traditional mediums before computer graphics came along.

Doing a detailed pen and ink illustration or painting one in oils can take as long if not longer than doing a highly detailed 3D piece of art especially if the goal is to achieve ultimate realism.

But for me, I think what has happened is that today it's very hard to stand out as an individual. There was a time when you could tell who the artists were and their styles were exceptionally unique. Norman Rockwell, Frank Frazetta, Arthur Rackham, etc.

Today, since everyone is using the same software and plugins, it's almost impossible to tell who did what. All of the work could have been done by the same artist for all we know. Everyone copies everyone else's tricks and techniques so the work has reached a point of homogeneity. And with the availability of the software and the increasing ease of learning how to use them, you now have thousands of artists out there looking for work who all pretty much have the same skill level. There's a major glut of digital artists now all competing for the handful of jobs at the game companies and animation studios.

Personally, I'm thinking of going back to traditional art. There's a certain comfort to holding a pen or a brush and creating an image by hand on paper. There's a certain tactile satisfaction I get from this, that I don't get from a mouse, digitizer pad and a monitor.

But that's just me...Geezer to the core.

:wink:

Aremis · Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2006 1:31 pm Post subject:

I never gave up on traditional mediums, and still paint and sketch daily.
But as for the digital medium, although I have shared some ideas and tips with others, most of my stpes and methods for design of all my work get kept to myself just for that one reason.
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Nyghtwolf · Forum Newbie Joined: Jul 27, 2002 Posts: 2 Location: NY

I personally have seen numerous artists with their own flair and techniques. Nemirc for example. Anyone seeing a picture knows his style. It is truly unique. Thereby other artists have come up with their own style and are not limited to the everyday, what everyone else does syndrome. Granted the traditional style will still ring out with all of us, but digital has it's place and I think it will bring new light to an old love.

electranaut · Forum Member Joined: Jan 03, 2004 Posts: 91

I think there's a certain element of what's fashionable or trendy that comes into play.

When Jurassic Park came out, which was the first truly landmark CGI film, people were amazed and this was seen as the way forward. It was, for a while, but now there's a certain amount of backlash against the CGI element.

In a very short space of time, people have gone from going "My God, that dinosaur's computer graphics! Wow!" to the other extreme, which is "My God, that airplane crash was built on a set without any computer graphics! Wow!"

I suspect the same will happen with comics, over the long term. When Poser (or it's futuristic offspring) enables a complete novice to create a fantastically intricate and artistically beautiful comic or picture by clicking ten or so options, we'll be amazed and we'll all want to get it. Then there'll be a backlash by the "physical" artists and we'll all warm to them.

A simpler and more basic example would be something like this: When we (as a species) were all dirt poor farmers, a thousand years ago, we all had handmade real-wood furniture, handmade textiles, handmade tools and handmade pottery. Now we enjoy better standards of living in almost every area of our lives; we earn more, we have digital TV etc. but now all those handmade items cost us lots, lots more than mass-produced items.

Sure, that's one of the side-effects of industrialization and competition and all the related mechanisms, but the point is we value that craftmanship above the (often better) mass-production answer.

Like I said- when we can all turn out Hollywood blockbusters with a few clicks of the mouse (and that day will come, surely) then what will we value? Probably homespun, basic skills.

palmers · Forum Member Joined: Jun 07, 2002 Posts: 379

Another ingredient is that most digital users are striving for the same effects, which obviously will mean homogeneity in the results. When I'm trying to make 3D comics which look like hand-drawn, or to imitate the work of a pencil artist by using 3D, I get what I think are distinctive results. I'm not quite the only one, either: when I mentioned to Thip that his work, which is much more photorealistic than mine, handled colour in a way which reminded me of Don Lawrence, he turned out to be a big Lawrence fan.

It's a bit like drawing and tracing. Software like Poser makes "tracing" very easy: it doesn't give you a "drawing" style. That, you have to make for yourself.

IMP.
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