Digital Art and Physical Art

 Digital Art and Physical Art

October 13th, 2022

My experience in other mediums is limited. Up until two months ago, I had only worked in a handful of them. I have extensive experience with graphite–pencil on paper. I have only lightly touched other mediums, such as watercolor, pastel, colored pencils, and charcoal. I always fall back to graphite because for me, it's my most reliable and consistent tool at my disposal. Illustration is, after all, my favorite thing to do with art.

The last drawing I did before moving to digital programs

At the beginning of this school year, I gained free access to Photoshop due to one of my classes being CAGD 110, Computer Assisted Art. From there, I had no excuse but to put effort into learning how to use the tools in Photoshop in order to draw digitally. 

If I’m being honest, it was not that hard to switch from physical to digital art. Maybe I believe that because I still don’t fully know all the tips and tricks to Photoshop, but other than the slight learning curve of figuring out the basic tools for painting and drawing, it was very easy. The skills I had been building for months prior transferred seamlessly onto the digital canvas.

To many, due to the flexible nature of Photoshop and digital art programs in general, digital art is considered superior to physical. I believe that there is a lot to be learned from both mediums.

For physical art, it’s not as if there is an undo button to quickly delete a poor brush stroke. Physical art taught me that I have to move on from trying to get that “perfect” line. I began to recognize that I can keep trying and trying to get the line or shape that I’ve visualized in my head, but more often than not, getting that line does not satisfy me and only reveals that my dissatisfaction lies in a different part of the art that I’m working on.

Digital art encouraged me to explore using color and breaking down my drawings into simpler structures. Admittedly, breaking down my drawings into simpler structures is something I should have been doing a lot longer ago. However, I skipped over that step due to me being self taught and not deeming it necessary.

My latest in-progress digital drawing

With the ability to create as many disposable layers as I like in Photoshop, I’ve noticed that I am less discouraged to draw over my own drawings with guidelines to explain to myself the mechanics behind why I might draw something a certain way. In addition, I am more encouraged to use colors as it is not limited to what colors I have in my supplies, and the color picker makes it easy to see how some colors appear relative to others.

(473 words)