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Why I stopped doing digital art
4 months ago
General
There was a point in my art career where I turned to digital art, using programs such as ProCreate, Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint, however, the last digital upload I posted here was 8 months and I haven't uploaded a new digital piece since. That's because I've decided to drop my digital art career and go back to traditional art, excelling in Watercolor paint, acrylic paint and Prisma color pencils. So what changed? How did I go from being just another digital artist to being well known for excelling at traditional media? Well, to answer that question, I decided to make this journal to explain why that is and I think the best place to start is all the way back to the days I used DeviantART.
Back when I use to use DeviantART, I saw how the majority of submissions were all digital and it's been an issue I've always had since high school. People would take one look at digital art and go "OH MY GOD!!! THIS IS SO AMAZING!!!!! YOU GOT SKILLZ!!!!!" and then they would take one look at traditional art and go "Cool." Despite this, I would always tune in to see the next digital illustration that my favorite artists posted because it was just made up such the majority of content on DA that I had no other choice but to like it anyways and this can't beat em join em notion is what inspired me to get into digital art myself. Now keep in mind, it isn't just Deviants but other outside pieces of media influenced my surrender to Digtial art such as but are of course not limited to Morenatsu, Touhou, Panty and Stocking and most importantly VOCALOID and these pieces even inspired how I envisioned my future as an artist.
When I was in college, I was still doing traditional art but I wanted to turn to digital in order to have a successful art career and maybe even an IT career, maybe even work with companies like Pixiv and Nico Nico. But that was 10 years ago and the stuff that I wanted back then is definitely different from the stuff I want now.
Somewhere along the line of those 10 years, I didn't lose track of my traditional roots entirely. Those who've been following me recently knows my content is focused on Sumo but I also excel at abstract landscape paintings. Examples include Nowhere, Oni Bog, Sunset Forest, Baked Alaska and of course You're the one who holds the Stars and the biggest inspiration for those paintings is Bob Ross. I know pretty much everyone loves Bob Ross but I was a big fan of him before he got commodified into a meme. Infact, Baked Alaska was directly inspired by his Northern Lights painting.
In fact, one of the motivators that got me to continue my traditional career was one of my friends
Velkan-De-Wolfe and the comments he's been leaving on my landscape paintings calling them perfect and professional. Other supporters include people like 
Lady-Butterfree adding the majority of my traditional pieces to her favorites. BTW go watch her if you haven't already, she's a great artist. Another was 
Beast City Art a well known well respected artist who added Escape and Gorilla Toss to his favorites which in turn lead me to make this picture for him. So if I have people in my audience who make me feel like I know what I'm doing then naturally I'm gonna keep using the media I'm considered a professional in.
So what was my wake up call that got me to abandon my digital art career? Well, after my tablet broke, I ordered a new one on Amazon for $200 dollars but I had absolutely no idea how to get it to work. I tried looking up YouTube tutorials on how to use it and I still couldn't figure it out so I just put it back in the box and I haven't touched it since. So instead of wasting more money on technology that I can't figure out, I just thought it best to just drop my digital side and focus on the art career I already have.
After all, I should've figured it wouldn't last considering one of my weaknesses; and that weakness is that I'm an extremely tech savvy person. If you were to try to show me how a circuit board works, you might as well be teaching it to me in Cambodian. Something I inherited from my parents no doubt and the rise of AI is only making my approach to technology even worse than before.
For the past 3 years or so, it's been AI this, AI that and the fact that there have been people trying to use AI to replace people like me shows that I don't have much of a chance to continue digital art anyways. One of my close friends even thinks that people are less interested in traditional art and are gravitating towards AI because it's viewed as accessible. I wanna stress however that this is only his hypothesis and not a grounded statement but I actually find myself agreeing with him. Now are we trying to blame it all on digital artists? No of course not. It's just people have been pointing fingers at Hollywood for years but honestly I'd say that the entertainment industry as a whole is still stuck in this phase where showing off the new technology is more important than expressing physical talent and that we think AI art is an issue that's been paved by this phase. So discontinuing digital art it is my way of fighting against a future that nobody wants. Besides, if there's one thing that AI can't replicate is the perfect imperfection of traditional media.
(SIDE NOTE: I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me on that remark and that's fine. Part of supporting freedom of speech means being okay with what anyone says about the subject matter even if you don't like or agree with it. I just want to remind everyone that this journal is about why I stopped doing digital art. If you're a digital artist and you have no intentions of retiring your media of choice, that's great! I respect that and I hope you continue to excel at what you're most comfortable with. As long as what you make comes from the heart, that's all that matters. Are we clear? Good, back to the journal.)
Like many other adults my age, I do value nostalgia. My favorite pieces of media include but are of course not limited to retro 3D media with a futuristic twist like CNK, Jimmy Neutron and Alien Racers as well as 2D animated shows like Ed Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. But what do these have to do with my apathy towards digital art? Well, the answer has to do with how messy these pieces of media were. One of the biggest flaws with traditional art is that it's messier but I think that's what makes it great. Now again, I'm not saying that digital artists are better or worse than traditional artists but if there's one problem with most digital artists is how clean their line work is and how it all tends to blend together with every other pieces made by different artists but if you make your art messy, it sticks in your memory more. Another issue I can see people having with traditional art is that it requires more time, more resources and most importantly more money to produce. In this day in age where a medium sized meal at Jack in the Box cost $13, it's understandable why people wouldn't want to dabble in traditional art but ironically, money was what got me to stop doing digital art in the first place and instead of wasting more money on a drawing tablet that may or may not work by the time I open it, I'm gonna stick with the knowledge and resources I'm already familiar with and I know I can always go back and get more of at the store instead of waiting for them to be shipped. Speaking of resources I'm familiar with, I think that brings me to my final part.
I've decided that instead of following the crowd in producing content through the trend of chasing technology, I'm gonna pick myself back up and stand with keeping traditional art alive. I've already got lots of projects in mind for 2026. I'm working on a stop motion puppet, I'm conceptualizing a manga mini series and I'm even working on a visual novel that's gonna be purely traditional. Whether what I'm doing is through sculpting, painting, ink painting or anything else I'm gonna continue to stick to my roots in shaping my own path. To paraphrase Sharon Marsh,
"People get older and as you get older you realize the best thing to do is just stick with what you know."
Thank you for reading.
Back when I use to use DeviantART, I saw how the majority of submissions were all digital and it's been an issue I've always had since high school. People would take one look at digital art and go "OH MY GOD!!! THIS IS SO AMAZING!!!!! YOU GOT SKILLZ!!!!!" and then they would take one look at traditional art and go "Cool." Despite this, I would always tune in to see the next digital illustration that my favorite artists posted because it was just made up such the majority of content on DA that I had no other choice but to like it anyways and this can't beat em join em notion is what inspired me to get into digital art myself. Now keep in mind, it isn't just Deviants but other outside pieces of media influenced my surrender to Digtial art such as but are of course not limited to Morenatsu, Touhou, Panty and Stocking and most importantly VOCALOID and these pieces even inspired how I envisioned my future as an artist.
When I was in college, I was still doing traditional art but I wanted to turn to digital in order to have a successful art career and maybe even an IT career, maybe even work with companies like Pixiv and Nico Nico. But that was 10 years ago and the stuff that I wanted back then is definitely different from the stuff I want now.
Somewhere along the line of those 10 years, I didn't lose track of my traditional roots entirely. Those who've been following me recently knows my content is focused on Sumo but I also excel at abstract landscape paintings. Examples include Nowhere, Oni Bog, Sunset Forest, Baked Alaska and of course You're the one who holds the Stars and the biggest inspiration for those paintings is Bob Ross. I know pretty much everyone loves Bob Ross but I was a big fan of him before he got commodified into a meme. Infact, Baked Alaska was directly inspired by his Northern Lights painting.
In fact, one of the motivators that got me to continue my traditional career was one of my friends
Velkan-De-Wolfe and the comments he's been leaving on my landscape paintings calling them perfect and professional. Other supporters include people like 
Lady-Butterfree adding the majority of my traditional pieces to her favorites. BTW go watch her if you haven't already, she's a great artist. Another was 
Beast City Art a well known well respected artist who added Escape and Gorilla Toss to his favorites which in turn lead me to make this picture for him. So if I have people in my audience who make me feel like I know what I'm doing then naturally I'm gonna keep using the media I'm considered a professional in.So what was my wake up call that got me to abandon my digital art career? Well, after my tablet broke, I ordered a new one on Amazon for $200 dollars but I had absolutely no idea how to get it to work. I tried looking up YouTube tutorials on how to use it and I still couldn't figure it out so I just put it back in the box and I haven't touched it since. So instead of wasting more money on technology that I can't figure out, I just thought it best to just drop my digital side and focus on the art career I already have.
After all, I should've figured it wouldn't last considering one of my weaknesses; and that weakness is that I'm an extremely tech savvy person. If you were to try to show me how a circuit board works, you might as well be teaching it to me in Cambodian. Something I inherited from my parents no doubt and the rise of AI is only making my approach to technology even worse than before.
For the past 3 years or so, it's been AI this, AI that and the fact that there have been people trying to use AI to replace people like me shows that I don't have much of a chance to continue digital art anyways. One of my close friends even thinks that people are less interested in traditional art and are gravitating towards AI because it's viewed as accessible. I wanna stress however that this is only his hypothesis and not a grounded statement but I actually find myself agreeing with him. Now are we trying to blame it all on digital artists? No of course not. It's just people have been pointing fingers at Hollywood for years but honestly I'd say that the entertainment industry as a whole is still stuck in this phase where showing off the new technology is more important than expressing physical talent and that we think AI art is an issue that's been paved by this phase. So discontinuing digital art it is my way of fighting against a future that nobody wants. Besides, if there's one thing that AI can't replicate is the perfect imperfection of traditional media.
(SIDE NOTE: I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me on that remark and that's fine. Part of supporting freedom of speech means being okay with what anyone says about the subject matter even if you don't like or agree with it. I just want to remind everyone that this journal is about why I stopped doing digital art. If you're a digital artist and you have no intentions of retiring your media of choice, that's great! I respect that and I hope you continue to excel at what you're most comfortable with. As long as what you make comes from the heart, that's all that matters. Are we clear? Good, back to the journal.)
Like many other adults my age, I do value nostalgia. My favorite pieces of media include but are of course not limited to retro 3D media with a futuristic twist like CNK, Jimmy Neutron and Alien Racers as well as 2D animated shows like Ed Edd n Eddy, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. But what do these have to do with my apathy towards digital art? Well, the answer has to do with how messy these pieces of media were. One of the biggest flaws with traditional art is that it's messier but I think that's what makes it great. Now again, I'm not saying that digital artists are better or worse than traditional artists but if there's one problem with most digital artists is how clean their line work is and how it all tends to blend together with every other pieces made by different artists but if you make your art messy, it sticks in your memory more. Another issue I can see people having with traditional art is that it requires more time, more resources and most importantly more money to produce. In this day in age where a medium sized meal at Jack in the Box cost $13, it's understandable why people wouldn't want to dabble in traditional art but ironically, money was what got me to stop doing digital art in the first place and instead of wasting more money on a drawing tablet that may or may not work by the time I open it, I'm gonna stick with the knowledge and resources I'm already familiar with and I know I can always go back and get more of at the store instead of waiting for them to be shipped. Speaking of resources I'm familiar with, I think that brings me to my final part.
I've decided that instead of following the crowd in producing content through the trend of chasing technology, I'm gonna pick myself back up and stand with keeping traditional art alive. I've already got lots of projects in mind for 2026. I'm working on a stop motion puppet, I'm conceptualizing a manga mini series and I'm even working on a visual novel that's gonna be purely traditional. Whether what I'm doing is through sculpting, painting, ink painting or anything else I'm gonna continue to stick to my roots in shaping my own path. To paraphrase Sharon Marsh,
"People get older and as you get older you realize the best thing to do is just stick with what you know."
Thank you for reading.
I feel you on the way people treat traditional art, I think it has a little to do with there not being a very good way to show traditional art online. No matter how good one of my traditional pieces look in reality I just can't capture that in a photo or scan of my art, colors always look a bit more washed out which isn't great when sitting next to vibrant digitally drawn & coloured art :/
My traditional art just doesn't get as much reach as my digital stuff, but that's fine, I don't make it for views or internet points lol
I still love doing digital art & I doubt I'll ever stop, but I also really enjoy doing traditional art too. In fact, I kinda hold my traditional art a bit closer to my heart. I tried doing commissions with my traditional art once but I just really didn't like it so now my traditional stuff is purely for me. I bring a sketchbook with me almost everywhere so I can draw when inspiration strikes.
I also think its very important that digital artists do take time to draw traditionally, you can learn a lot & improve faster through it as traditional art can really show an artist's weaknesses that would otherwise be easily corrected in digital art without addressing the main problem. All the skills & techniques from traditional art is transferrable and will make you a better artist overall.
The rise in AI has me feeling pretty depressed, I put a lot of time & energy into university for a game designer dream job, only to have it seem like I won't ever get there coz producers & executives want to push AI & pay real human workers less. I try not to let it get to me too much, because as it remains, AI NEEDS human artists to supply its datasets, AI cannot create anything on its own from scratch and AI can never actually understand or apply artistic theory, it can't make intentional design decisions that humans can.
There's also all the other stuff surrounding AI that's pretty awful, like chatGPT pushing people into mental health emergencies, people dying from listening to incorrect advice from chatGPT & most recently, the sheer amount of sexual harassment of women & children done using X's Grok as people use it to generate revenge porn & child abuse material.
I really hope something can be done to restrict the use of AI generation, but who knows.
In the mean time, I'm just gonna continue trying not to let the discouragment get to me & continue to create art, digitally & traditionally. Art was always a way for me to express myself, creating art will always be a part of me.
Happy to hear you speak your truth & I hope this year brings you lots of inspiration & creative energy :)