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Ainu-kun — 20: Talking about: digital and traditional drawing
Published: 2014-12-04 19:11:53 +0000 UTC; Views: 706; Favourites: 1; Downloads: 0
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Hey peeps! Long time no see!The objective of this journal is knowing your opinion about a phrase that I read some time ago. I guess there's some people who argue that traditional art is harder than digital, or vice versa, but I'm not particularly interested in that general discussion.
As I mentioned before, some months ago I was browsing some group/image board/I-don't-remember and there was a guy who asked for advice for drawing digitally because he really wanted to get started on it. One of the replies was something like this "learn to draw on paper first, because your skills will always be reflected on how well you can draw traditionally". Sincerely, I had never thought about it that way, but then I realised that, in my case, it made perfect sense.
- But before I tell you about my experience and thoughts, what do you think about it? How often do you draw on paper? When you practise or sketch just for fun, do you do it digitally or traditionally? Does the Ctrl+Z give you more freedom to experiment? Do your traditional drawings and digital drawings look different? Please note that I'm always talking about drawing, not painting.
In my case, if you take a look at my sketchbook, you'll see it's full of trash. Even the best artworks of my gallery resemble almost nothing to their respective sketches that I drew on paper. That is to say, the sketch only seems like a poor attempt at copying the finished artwork; you can't actually see that sketch as the foundation of the last stage of the artwork. For those who don't know, I feel quite uncomfortable drawing digitally so I usually sketch on paper, then scan the drawing and correct it in Photoshop; then I paint it, etc,etc. Well, after reading that anonymous comment, I realised that I make an awfully big amount of digital corrections to my sketches. That is to say, when I draw on paper I make A LOT of serious mistakes, meaning that my real skill is below where I thought it was or below what my artworks show. For quite some time, I pondered on this fact and I realised that maybe that's the reason why the artworks that I finished during the last two years didn't satisfy me, the reason why they lack dynamism, the reason why they lack innovation. As drawing is the foundation of the artwork, no matter how confident I am in my colouring technique, the artwork will always lack that extra spark of creativity if my traditional drawing skills can't live up to my expectations.
So I concluded that I really need heavy practice of traditional drawing (anatomy, proportions, foreshortening, NOSES, etc) before I can properly move on with my improvement. Otherwise, my colouring might get more crispy and nothing else. But hey, I'm not fishing compliments here. I'm actually really happy that I found a potential reason of my lack of true improvement during the last year. Besides, I have some cool pencils now, so I'd like to practise some shading and stuff.
To sum it up, yes, I agree with the phrase. Drawing traditionally is a very important ingredient to improve. I'm not saying that it's harder to do it traditionally than digitally, I just think it's a very very good exercise.
Thanks for reading!
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Comments: 10
Hey Ainu ^^ maybe my opinion is not so deep as others because I simply don't have the digital art comparison, but I would like to say a few things I noticed on myself.
Drawing Traditionally I often feel trapped. I feel trapped by the idea I can't go back once it's done. That is for all the lining and colorings I do.I feel encaged by the fear of making mistakes and once I do because maybe I used the wrong color ,or I pressed too hard, or simply the light and shadow relation ist completly wrong, I can try to earse it but it's difficult on paper and damages the drawing more. Sometimes I am that stubborn that I just redraw it! I make several sketches of one and the same drawing before, than trace it (I am a happy owner of a lightbox) on a fresh paper to line it and color it. Most of the timesI use the other sketches to test out colors, which sometimes helps with the actual drawing, but somehow reduces my happyness of coloring. Lately I have been trying to fill up one sketchbook entirely, for some reason I have several started but neither of them completly finished, so I am trying to fill up one. I am going back with just sketching whats on my mind because that is what I enjoy most! I actually often find myself drawing with a simple pen too because this is what happens in my mind: sketching with pencils I know I can erase as much as I want and I get frustrated, but sketching with a pen knowing I can't go back makes me happier and more free to experiment!
I just noticed I have a lot of contradicting feelings xDD I just know that while I feel sometimes restricted with my traditional art coloring I feel too overhelmed by digital colorings! The simple fact I have endless possibilities of color options makes me sick. to sum it up I think this 'no turn back' factor is the thing that makes traditional art more thrilling? Mabye? I don't know. I am not sure wether to agree or disagree with the comment of the anonymous person but as said before the skill of an artist is not necessarily dependand on the medium.
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Hey Dusty! Sorry for the late reply, I've been away from home for a couple of days!
I must say that sometimes I feel the same about traditional art. I'm afraid of screwing up the whole drawing. For example, when I draw a face and then I notice that I could have drawn the nose bridge better, I think "WELL, I'LL FIX THIS IN PHOTOSHOP" because I'm afraid of screwing up the whole face 
The methods you use to avoid that problem are very interesting indeed. But I totally agree on the fact that sketching whatever comes to your mind is an excellent exercise to get rid of that fear. I'l definitely try to draw with a pen because it sounds quite thrilling and other people has also recommended it.
Thanks a lot for your comment and for taking the time to explain your opinion! Much appreciated!
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It's not only more thrilling but say you want to impress a certain person sitting next to you in lectures and you can magically draw with the first pen you have next to you a stunning sketch then there you got it xDDDDDDD (okay let's be real the students sitting next to you in lectures either sleep or are too focused on their smartpgones to pay attetion to your efford xDDDD)
Bad Joke apart, I am excited to maybe see some of your traditional work in the future >///Yes I admit I have really strange and unconvetional methods of drawing which ends up in severl paper sheets having teh samething over andover again and sicne I am a collector i keep them, but yeahhhh I am trying like I said to fill up a whole sketchbook and maybe afterwards start a coloring sketchbook, where i sketch and color on the same paper! Which will be a major challenge forme since I am used soo much to trace. Don't get me wrong tracing my drawings on fresh paper is a good thing I just feel more 'motion' in my sketches then in the finsihed work. On some abstract level my tracing could be compared to digital usage of layers.
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yeeeeeea that's exactly what I'm talking about! Having nice traditional drawing skills lets you show off more! When I draw in college people always tell me that I draw nicely, but that's just because they don't draw at all. I mean, my sketches in my books look really crappy
Sure, when I get confident enough, I'd like to show some sketches or drawings. Maybe upload some to Tumblr, although I'll never get used to that website, so it's more likely that I upload stuff here.
Good luck with that sketchbook! I've only filled like one and a half since I joined dA (at least since i created this account) because I'm damn slow. But it's a nice challenge to try to complete one, so I think I'll get down to it too!
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I've always told you, and will continue to say until I grow old and have a reason to beat your head with an old person's cane, that you should finish up your traditional sketches more.
I too agree with that anonymous poster. My personal experience is a bit on another way, thou, Sure, in the beginnin when I wasn't used to my tablet [and later on to my touchscreen and pen] I'd sketch traditionally, take a picture and edit it from there but, as I grew more used to my digital pen, I started to sketch right off the computer. Of course it was hard in the beginnin, but everythin is. The thing is, I'm adept to the phrase that if you start somethin somewhere, you finish it there. Thats the reason my sketchbook has either very finished pencil drawings or anatomy studies. Obviously, I rage now and then at the lack of a laso tool or a ctrl Z, but I think thats what makes it more challengin. It IS a very good exercise, one everyone should practice now and then, because your sense of where things belong is much harder to achieve traditionally but, once you do, drawin digitally becomes much easier.
AND i don't think the tools you work with have that much of a change. I've never bothered buyin expensive pencils and, in fact, I prefer drawin with mechanical pencils [CHEAP mechanical pencils] more, or with pens. Drawin directly with pens is a great exercise too, because once your brain knows you can't erase it, it finds funny and nice way to correct your mistakes.
//goes off splurtin more nonsense
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I'm already an old folk so.. //beats your head with pimp cane
Although I have never experienced drawing on a screen, I always thought that it would be more similar to drawing on paper than drawing on a tablet. I guess that what annoys me about digital sketching is that I can never have a full view of my drawing. It's hard to explain, but the need to zoom in and out makes drawing very uncomfortable to me. Painting is a different thing, obviously.
But you're completely right, I should finish sketches on my sketchbook. Actually, that's what many pros do. I mean, they scan it later and do their magic in Photoshop, but then you take a look at their sketchbooks and the sketches themselves are really amazing artworks. So I'll definitely take that advice. That's why I bought those pencils: the idea is to achieve a nice shading and cleaner lines before scanning the drawing.
I disagree on the fact that the quality of tools don't make a relevant change. At least in traditional art, quality is quite important. It's true that for sketching anything is good, even those pencils that we used at school. I mean, you don't need to buy fancy stuff to sketch. But if you want to go beyond that, say for example shading that drawing with a variety of greys, what you use makes a difference. The pencils I bought are medium quality because it would be silly to buy the best pencils out there while being a complete noob at it. But i didn't want to buy cheap pencils for kids either because that may hinder my progress. Anyway, cheap mechanical pencils ftw, I've been drawing with one of them during the last years and I regret nothing
Thanks for commenting Sky!
now show me wips
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While I agree that it's good to start traditionally, I don't think it's the medium itself that reflects your skills better. Rather, I think that people's skills show up more because its harder to correct mistakes quickly.
On digital platforms, there are many ways to alter a sketch or drawing easily, even when it's almost finished. You can't tamper as much with traditional - you either get it right at the start, redraw the whole thing, or leave it. So in a way, it does reflect your skills, but if you didn't use ctrl+z or the like while drawing digitally, I think you'd get the same effect. (if you were familiar with the technology)
As for your questionsssss; like you, I tend to start my works on paper then finish them up on the computer. Though I've kind of made it my personal goal to get sketches as best as I can. So if I spot very few mistakes once I've scanned the pic in and mirrored it however many times, I feel a sense of accomplishment. =w=;;
As for practicing and sketching, I use both, but I guess I prefer digital since it saves on paper. |D Yes Ctrl+z is my savior, and I don't know whether my traditional looks much different from digital (since I barely do any completely traditional art anymore). .A.
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So in a way, it does reflect your skills, but if you didn't use ctrl+z or the like while drawing digitally, I think you'd get the same effect.
I totally agree there! I know that many professional concept artists paint their character ideas on a single layer with background and everything and sometimes they don't even use the ctrl+z, they just correct the mistakes by painting over them, which is quite similar to what could be done in traditional art. However, digital art still frees you from having to mix colours, for example. Say you have a certain saturation of blue in your mind, digital art allows you to get it in a matter of seconds (even if you want to correct it later, you can use some adjustment layers), but maybe you should have a little more knowledge of colour mixing if you were working traditionally. But then again, my point isn't that digital is easier than traditional; for me, it's just another medium and, like everything, it has its advantages and disadvantages.
I feel the same when I see that my sketches have only a few flaws! I guess that the most thrilling moment is when I open the scanned image in Photoshop and mirror it for the first time
Thanks a lot for taking the time to comment! It's very appreciated!! (:
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Man oh man....I agree with you Ainu. It makes me feel terrible when I draw on paper and compare it to my digital stuff. I stop and think, Man, this would be so much nicer if i had a Ctrl+z on this sketchbook lol. but anyway, I guess more practice helps. Best of luck to you, Ainu. I'll try my best as well. I BOUGHT A REALLY NEAT PENCIL FROM TOKYO PEN SHOP! www.tokyopenshop.com/ It was expensive, but its very well worth it trying out the .3 lead pencil to see how it goes. I just am looking forward to really thin, neat lines. Tokyo pen shop probably isnt the best place to find your own materials though, and Im sure you already have satisfactory stuff from somewhere local- its just a little difficult to find anything like .3 lead in the states so it excites me AHAHAH. BUT YEAH, GOODLUCK AINU!!
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That's exactly what I meant! Sometimes I try to draw something when I'm bored at college and it takes me like 25 MINUTES to draw a semi-decent sketch of a portrait, and it's full of flaws OTL
Thanks for the recommendation of the shop! A .3 lead is so thin that it must be amazing to draw details! I should try to get one of those around here. However, I recently bought some old-school pencils for shading, so I'll experiment with them before getting fancier
Thanks a lot for the comment Sarim! Best of luck to you too!
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