Today im gunna talk about traditonal art. You see traditonal art means art done with traditonal media such as pencils, paint,etc. As opposed to digital art done entirely on a computer using a digitizer pen.

Back in the 80s, 90s, and early 00s, traditonal art was what everyone did. Now im old enough to remember vcl which was a precursor to todays furaffinity. Around 2003 there was a shift to digital art, people would scan in linework and color on the computer. By the mid 00s wacom tablets were getting popular, and with programs like OpenCanvas which let you draw with someone in real time, all digital art began to overtake traditional, myself included i worked digital only from 2004 to 2014.

Now there were still a sizable amount of people still doing traditonal in that time, I started to return in the mid 2010s, but as I found it more enjoyable, i began to work more and more in traditonal media, copic markers, and even learned to paint backgrounds in watercolor.

As the 2010s came to a close, it seems very few artists work traditionally anymore. Even artists I really look up to, i still do, moved to digital a lot more.

Now digital art has its advantages: less overhead , you have the computer and tablet you can draw an unlimited amount, youre not bound by materials that run or dry out. Its more forgivng when it comes to mistakes, you can undo and erase. Its a lot easier to do very dramatic lighting effects.

Now this is my personal view, to me I find working with the tablet and photoshop has no feeling to it. You dont get that same control and subtle feel the way the pencil hits the paper, or the brush pen and its quirky way of laying down lines. You dont have a tangible object before you that you can hold in your hand.

And as the old school artists retire or meet their makers, and younger artists preferring to work only digital, I worry that this form of furry art may be lost to the history books.

I plan to continue to do marker and watercolor mixed media pieces for many years to come, and to keep my art and character designs with the timeless elegance of the late 90s early 2000s type of style where I first got my start. It may not be what the kids coming into the fandom today that are 18,19,20ish are doing, each decade seems to have its own common design cues among artists depending on where and when they got their start. But thats a discussion for another day.