Digital Art VS. Traditional Art

Traditional or Digital Art? Now there is even AI art, but that’s a whole other topic for another blog. Some people prefer traditional over digital or vice versa, some can utilize both mediums and are proficient in both.

Traditional

Personally, I feel more comfortable doing traditional art. Whether it was painting, clay, sketching, etc. I felt more comfortable using traditional art mediums. I find that I like a more tactile approach. I like to feel the paint or when I’m using my fingers to shade in a sketch, I feel like I am more a part of the process. I also like the experimentation aspect of it. While I haven’t mastered one art medium, I have enjoyed trying out many different ones in school, which I am grateful that they made us try out.

I wasn’t a big fan of clay, I found it quite messy, but in later years, I have made little figurines with polymer clay and found this easier. I have tried both acrylic and watercolour paints. I like both. Acrylic is more convenient for a quick painting. With watercolour it takes more time to layer because you have to wait for the paint to dry. I find both relaxing and it really depends on the look you are going for in your art piece. I have to say though, I prefer sketching the most. It was just always the easiest medium for me and I would always be sketching in school, out of school, whenever I had free time.

I am not against digital art though. I am actually still learning digital, but I don’t think I’ll ever truly master it. Back in the day, there was DeviantArt. I was amazed at what people could create with their computers. I could hardly draw a stick figure using my computer mouse.

I could draw portraits by hand, but could not even fathom using my computer to draw one. Even now, using an apple pencil and a tablet, I would still find it hard to draw a portrait of someone. I find it amazing the things that other artists can do using this art medium.

Digital

There are advantages that I really like about digital art. Number 1 for me, is the undo button. I love the undo button! I wish I had one in real life. Things like watercolor are very unforgiving. You can make happy mistakes with your traditional art like Bob Ross taught us. But sometimes being able to undo something right away is really great. Or if you aren’t sure of the colours you would like to use or you realize later that you actually don’t like the colours you used and you would like to change them, you can do that instantly with the undo button.

The second is the use of multiple layers that you can use in a digital art app. I was amazed when my husband told me about this. You can have each part of your drawing be on separate layers and work on each individually. Instead of having to erase everything or start all over again if you make a mistake or change your mind, you can work on each layer separately. Those are just two of the pros that I enjoy when using digital art.

Your Choice

So, how will you know which one you are better at? You won’t know until you try, as cliche as that sounds. You may excel in digital or traditional. Try both to see what you like. And if you may not like one at first, (like I didn’t like making digital art at first), you can always come back to it in the future. Try it again another time and you may be surprised that you do enjoy it.

Using Both?

Some traditional artists today actually use digital art first, to figure out how they want to do a composition, colour scheme, etc before actually making the piece with traditional art. So, if you do find that you prefer traditional art, it also doesn’t hurt to use digital art to your advantage as well.

What are your experiences with digital or traditional art? Which do you prefer?