Sometimes I feel like I am the one artist alive who hasn't ever bought a drawing tablet to do digital artwork... With that said I just ordered one. I love pen and ink, I love the simplicity and skill in knowing that, with any writing implement and a piece of paper; I will be able to communicate any idea, even if words won't do. The problem, however, in the modern professional market is the fact that traditional artwork is vastly more limited and devastatingly under-supported. I am by no means a master of the craft, but I am already butting up against the limits of traditional artwork.

Problem number 1: Scale and time

In drawing traditional, something I have found to be an absolute is this relationship between the size of the canvas and the level of detail you can achieve. There is also a distinct relationship between the size of the canvas and the time taken. Let us say for example, that filling up a quarter-inch of space takes about 15 minutes. This actually holds true quite steadily, as even big areas of blank space have to be manually filled, and care needs to be taken to make the fill even and consistent. With that said, let us imagine a character drawn in 2 square inches. It would be roughly a 30-minute time investment. We could charge say "$20" for that. Of course; doubling the measure of any dimension will result in 4x the area to draw in. That is, if we want to draw the same 1x2 image of the character, but blow it up to a 2x4; suddenly we are dealing with 8 square inches to fill in with details. Even though any given distance is only 2x; that 2x detail compared to the tiny image is now 4x the overall time investment and 4x the cost. It only gets worse the higher we go as this relationship is exponential; 3x the detail is 9x the time cost. 4x the detail is 16x the time cost. Granted, this argument is a little hyperbolic, but even then it holds more true than not; case and point; the madcat mech drawing is about 6 square inches and took 3 hours; I have been drawing the latest installment to the pen-and-ink mechs for over a month worth of hour-a-day drawing, because this one "fills a page" or rather is a 6x9 and taking 9-10x longer than the 2x3. it does not look like a 30-hour piece, but that is how long it has taken between all the re-draws of various parts (keep in mind the madcat had similar % of redrawing) To actually achieve a quality I would like to produce as an artist, I would have to charge exorbitant amounts of money on my commissions.

Problem number 2: Applications

Traditional artwork is limited almost exclusively to center-stage illustrated works, rather than the majority of applications for artwork in the modern day. Most artwork in the modern market has little to nothing to do with being stand-alone pieces meant to be observed on their own merits. Any budding artist such as myself does not even have the level of skill required to produce a work of art which can stand on its own, hung up on a wall and taking center stage. (I am not dogging my own stuff, I am just being realistic; I'm not that good yet) What traditional artwork cannot do, without a disproportionate amount of digital aid; Be a logo, transparent icon, emoji, sticker, User interface, etc. Most artwork in modern day is presented and used in a digital format, to a specific purpose. Traditional artwork of a quality that will compete alongside digital sources has a much higher time cost initially, not including the fact it will have to be digitally edited to be used in a digital application. Case and point; I could easily draw a set of custom stickers to use on Telegram or other programs. Said stickers being drawn digitally could be immediately exported and used, however my pen-and-ink works will have to be scanned and edited on top of the drawing before they can be used, and when applied as stickers will be unfitting for the platform, hindered by natural imperfections that make traditional worthwhile in the first place.

Problem number 3: The true cost

While traditional artwork at its most basic; a pencil and paper, can be obtained and used to their fullest for very little money, doing anything beyond that gets very expensive very fast. Let us say we want to work with colors, it is very easy to say x or y colors are cheep but good, however; find the cost of doing 10 specific colors on a piece (which is absurdly low, by the way) which is meant to become a 24x36 poster. using a 24x36 paper or canvas is going to be minimum, and good luck finding a scanner for that that will be under $5,000 or so. Most readily available art scanners only go up to a 12x17 and will still run you $2,000-$4,000. Every color you use is going to have a cost to how much ink you put on the page, even the pencil you use for initial lining is going to go through a few sticks of graphite, which isn't much but adds up. Beyond the work hours that will be spent on this piece, significant in their own right, there will be an added cost of a few hundred in machine and tool wear, as well as consumable items such and colors/inks/paints. My example is a bit hyperbolic, yes, but even as an artist with my tiny portfolio; I am actually seeing the costs.

problem number 4: Time savers

These are the things that make digital cheaty; ctrl-z, drag-and-drop, skew, scale, overlays, auto-fill, complex brushes, the ability to draw white, the ability to color-pick, etc. etc. etc. digital art is EASY and no one will ever convince me otherwise. The issue is, when we are talking about the difference between making a living and not? Time savers are what make it or break it. I cannot count on all my appendages the number of times I have erased, moved, and completely redrawn the same things on one piece. The shortcuts and jumps in quality that are achievable in a digital medium are astounding.

problem number 5; my personal health.

I have found in the last few weeks, while streaming longer hours doing traditional artwork; that the desktop lighting rig I am using is exponentially more straining on my eyes than looking at a screen. I am not one to have headaches often, but I have been having them daily or even semi-daily lately. The cost to upgrade the streaming rig into being something that will not be a strain on my faculties is prohibitive compared to simply buying a digital tablet and the few peripherals I need to run it fully. This is on top of the fact that I personally want to branch out and away from pen-and-ink and explore other mediums, namely trying to paint and add some color to my work. Getting a good set of paints on top of completely re-doing my whole rig? no, I can't afford that.

Also, I have been experimenting with how much detail I can actually achieve with what I have. The inability to make white lines (as in drawing realistic fur) fine enough to draw a full-body character in a 9x12 means that I am functionally barred from actually pushing forward to try that level of detail... until of course I exhaustively buy and use a number of mediums until I find one that can achieve what I want in the space I am limited to.

Furthermore, I have been asked by friends to do emotes, logos and other things that with my current non-digital skill set am totally incapable of doing, but oh do I want to do!

note; As an aside, combining cost, scale and time. There is a minimum size of details that can be drawn with traditional implements. Doesn't matter who you are, you cannot draw a tiny image as well as a larger one, To achieve a level of detail that is expected in modern day illustration; being able to draw and scan in something larger than a 8.5x11 is going to be paramount, to compete in the traditional artwork market online.

note; Traditional artwork can absolutely accel in a physical space. If you are combining it with something like framing work and selling the originals, people will rightfully pay hundreds to thousands, but if you are not doing that, like I am not doing that, then traditional artwork is not likely the best route.

Benefits of traditional:

With all of that said, and however many people want to argue with the above. I want to make something else very clear; do I believe that newer, non-professional artists should buy a digital drawing tablet and practice on it? NO, not in the least! The amount that I have improved in such a short amount of time just pencil-and-pen drawing mechs is astounding. Traditional mediums pull no punches and offer no aid. They force you to slow down and actually understand what you are doing when pen hits paper. They force you to develop your eyes to see things as being right or wrong. I would suggest no other thing for practice than drawing mechanical, geometric things with traditional mediums.

Nonetheless! I am now waiting on a shipment of some parts with which I can start my journey on digital art.