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to whom it may concern
4 months ago
to digital artists who yearn to do trad art:
keep trying!!!!
believe me, it can be a rough transition, but even if you have never touched real pencil to real paper before, believe me, it is possible. it will feel like shit and it will probably feel like starting from square one, but i think it's worth it.
of course, there are those who adore digital and really thrive in it, im not talking to them, and i'm not encouraging you to give it up (i actually think being able to do both is a very valuable skill), but if you find yourself really drawn to traditional art or you feel really badly that you'd like to make traditional art but you just DONT for some reason!, please dont get caught up in the fear of messing it up, or not buying the right supplies, or not being consistent enough to fill a sketchbook with beautiful drawings, or not being able to unlearn the undo hotkey or whatever it is,
KEEP DOING IT!!!
i really really implore you. if you want to build a good groundwork for enjoying the act of creation, lose the ego for a second and fuck it up!
it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do it, but i guess i can give a few pieces of general advice.
it is difficult, genuinely, to produce an image with some concrete idea or vision, in traditional mediums. its just that, a skewed line, a new idea for the pose, a disastrous mistake-turned-genius-creative-decision will shift that picture a lot as it gets made, and if you try to fit it too closely youll never get anything done and it will kill the life in the finished product. my genuine advice would be not to think much about what the end product should look like at all while you work. instead, just focus on what it IS. its a lot more fun that way, and you can get more in tune with what the picture youre making needs at this moment, right now. go in with the intention to make "a painting of x" or "a drawing of x and y smoking 12 packs of cigarettes in an indoor climbing gym" but let that just be the starting point, it doesnt need to "Look like" anything, or look, like, good, even. its not really important. if you wanna get more specific with the aesthetic details, please dont just say "it should look like this artist and this artist and this artist's work", try to understand what it is that makes that art compelling to you and why, write it down with immense detail, pick apart everything you like and dislike, until you can actually tell somebody else what it is you appreciate about art IN GENERAL! what kinds of lines do you like, what kinds of colors do you like? what kind of shapes do you like? do you know? once you have that down (it should only take 2 or 3 years to get it just right), it should be easy, in the course of any drawing youre making, to just attempt those things in art that you like, and avoid those things in art that you don't like, with your new vocabulary at your disposal. research and writing is really really helpful, so don't take it for granted.
this all goes for new artists in general i guess, too. sorry, but you guys can really come up with the most infuriating and mind-numbing reasons to ignore and belittle your genuine, innocent passion, its like a hungry dog inside your heart. you know, if you feed the dog, if you really treat it well, it will love you forever and ever, but youre scared, right? scared that thing will bite you if you come close!
i'm not gonna expand on this any further, but seriously, its just about the most annoying and saddening thing in the world. you need to be responsible for yourself. its not gonna kill you to do the thing you wanna do more than anything in the world. jeez, get a clue!
keep trying!!!!
believe me, it can be a rough transition, but even if you have never touched real pencil to real paper before, believe me, it is possible. it will feel like shit and it will probably feel like starting from square one, but i think it's worth it.
of course, there are those who adore digital and really thrive in it, im not talking to them, and i'm not encouraging you to give it up (i actually think being able to do both is a very valuable skill), but if you find yourself really drawn to traditional art or you feel really badly that you'd like to make traditional art but you just DONT for some reason!, please dont get caught up in the fear of messing it up, or not buying the right supplies, or not being consistent enough to fill a sketchbook with beautiful drawings, or not being able to unlearn the undo hotkey or whatever it is,
KEEP DOING IT!!!
i really really implore you. if you want to build a good groundwork for enjoying the act of creation, lose the ego for a second and fuck it up!
it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do it, but i guess i can give a few pieces of general advice.
it is difficult, genuinely, to produce an image with some concrete idea or vision, in traditional mediums. its just that, a skewed line, a new idea for the pose, a disastrous mistake-turned-genius-creative-decision will shift that picture a lot as it gets made, and if you try to fit it too closely youll never get anything done and it will kill the life in the finished product. my genuine advice would be not to think much about what the end product should look like at all while you work. instead, just focus on what it IS. its a lot more fun that way, and you can get more in tune with what the picture youre making needs at this moment, right now. go in with the intention to make "a painting of x" or "a drawing of x and y smoking 12 packs of cigarettes in an indoor climbing gym" but let that just be the starting point, it doesnt need to "Look like" anything, or look, like, good, even. its not really important. if you wanna get more specific with the aesthetic details, please dont just say "it should look like this artist and this artist and this artist's work", try to understand what it is that makes that art compelling to you and why, write it down with immense detail, pick apart everything you like and dislike, until you can actually tell somebody else what it is you appreciate about art IN GENERAL! what kinds of lines do you like, what kinds of colors do you like? what kind of shapes do you like? do you know? once you have that down (it should only take 2 or 3 years to get it just right), it should be easy, in the course of any drawing youre making, to just attempt those things in art that you like, and avoid those things in art that you don't like, with your new vocabulary at your disposal. research and writing is really really helpful, so don't take it for granted.
this all goes for new artists in general i guess, too. sorry, but you guys can really come up with the most infuriating and mind-numbing reasons to ignore and belittle your genuine, innocent passion, its like a hungry dog inside your heart. you know, if you feed the dog, if you really treat it well, it will love you forever and ever, but youre scared, right? scared that thing will bite you if you come close!
i'm not gonna expand on this any further, but seriously, its just about the most annoying and saddening thing in the world. you need to be responsible for yourself. its not gonna kill you to do the thing you wanna do more than anything in the world. jeez, get a clue!
I've put off on drawing traditional but now I feel inspired and I might do it someday. Thank you a lot!!
I actually first started with traditional art, and just some months ago I began doing digital stuff. But still, I understand what you say in here very well. Doing art can be really frustrating sometimes, and being in an art school (where inevitably there are expectations to how your art should look like) can make it even harder. But it's all worth it in the end, it's all part of the learning process.
I never get tired of the effects and textures traditional art makes. It’s really something special
Also makes me realise that there's now a number of artists who have indeed started art digitally and never tried traditional, like that makes sense but I'm old so it's a harder thing to picture (born in The 90's so back then the most you had for digital art tools on average was a mouse and MSPaint) /<3<\