“Digital Art is easy!”

That’s what many people say when you explain to them, you’re going to take up digital art. “Pen and paper is always better!” is also another common remark made. Digital art is definitely a new and upcoming medium starting from the 1950s/60s whereas traditional art has been around since cavemen using earth pigments (rocks, bones, charcoal etc) to paint. However, this doesn’t mean that digital art is any easier though.

I understand the hesitation around digital art because to an outsider it may look really simple and easy however there is a lot of work and time that goes into digital art. When I say digital art, I refer to mediums such as photoshop, illustrator, 3D modelling on Creo or Blender, all of these and many more are all time consuming and contrary to popular belief the computer does not do “all the work”. In fact, graphic tablets are often used to mimic pen and paper because of the limits of a simple computer mouse. My generation grew up with computers and technology so I understand we may have a slight advantage because of the predisposition we have towards technology, meaning it may be easier for us to get a hang of than say, an older generation.

“Digital is not here to put an end to anything. Rather it is here to expand all things, to combine and to make more things attainable. For the artist, it is the edgiest work of all; the biggest, most exciting challenge in a long history of the synthesis between technology and hand and mind and heart”. - J.D. Jarvis

What many people fail to understand is that digital art wasn’t created to compete with or get rid of traditional art but rather to work with it. Many examples of digital art could not be completed without an original plan or outline set out on paper, so digital art is simply a derivative of traditional art so I don’t think they should be regarded as two completely separate things. Having said that, technology has become such an important part of our lives that it was inevitable for art to not become a part of it, digital art is implemented everywhere from adverts to packaging and should be embraced.

In my experience, I attempted to learn how to use Photoshop and Creo coherently in order to partially design and show a 3D render of a car. This was definitely easier said than done, it was extremely time consuming and if there was no “undo” button to correct my mistakes I would have given up in the first go. This brings me onto my next point of “errors in traditional art makes the work more authentic”, I think that errors in traditional art do truly add to the piece but that shouldn’t discredit the work of a digital artist simply because they prefer to remove their errors.

In conclusion, I evidently believe that digital art should be treated as an equal and trying it myself gave me a newfound respect towards digital artists.