Does using digital art teach you bad habits?

[kappapeachie]

Just the other day we had a discussion somewhere that using digital art most of the time is seen as a crutch. Do you agree with this statement, why or why not?

Personally I feel guilty for using blending modes for shading cuz individually using darker shades of base colors takes awhile and leaves to a lot of mistakes and consistency problems.

[qwerty]

I think it depends on the relationship you choose to build with the software. Certain features certainly can be used as a crutch. If you always rely on blending modes for shading, and one day you for some reason have/want to paint on a canvas, the skill won't translate. That might be okay with you, or it might not.

I think it's possible that some people (especially beginners) will try to take advantage of every shortcut they find in the software, even if the quality suffers or ends up making the art look "sterile" or lack character. I think that's definitely not ideal, but on the other hand many people grow out of that. Gradually discovering what the "shortcuts" can do and what they can't do might just be a natural part of the learning process.

If you are able to use certain features without relying on them, then there's definitely no problem. You know how to do it with or without, so you can just pick the most appropriate method for the particular case.

[TheAsker]

What do you mean? Even if it simplify lots of things, it is still a tool that requires a skill. And in fact it would be inefficient to use lots of times when in fact you can simply use blending modes. There is a difference between working smartly vs working hardly.

[rmdooley]

For a harmless habit, when I am penciling and make a mistake sometimes I'll automatically try to press ctrl+z before remembering an eraser is needed

[SleepingPoppy]

Every medium has its own unique advantages and disadvantages. Digital art no more makes me less able to use water color than drawing with a pen would somehow make acrylics confusing.

Some skills will be transferable, some won't, but the same knowledge of art (proportion, color theory, composition) will be relevant through out.

And I fully admit to thinking "ctrl + z" when doing traditional art. XD

[droidmonkey1]

No, it's not. hundred of years ago people made their own colors from scratch today you go to a store to buy and they are uranium free. .
Yes digital artist have some tools that helps them to work better and faster, but it still work and it's still takes time.
Look around the web their is some digital artist that do amazing art and they make it old "school" but digitally.
every new development makes some people thinking it's just a crutch but they never saw how people paint digitally.
what they are gone say about VR art.

[Pandastrophic]

Every technique and tool (including blending modes for shading) need practice and skill to use effectively. I'm so sick of how digital art is viewed as 'easy' or 'does everything for you' or seen as a 'crutch' when in reality it takes years to fully even understand the programs you're using and to fully utilize them effectively. I honestly love both traditional and digital art, I use combination of both in my illustrations, I don't think I learned any bad habits that effected my traditional art, in fact I think because digital art helped me understand colours so much better I was able to use colours more effectively when I started watercolouring.

I use blending modes when I make my comic because it's the effect I want to go for but I paint individual shades when I'm creating an illustration because that's the effect I want to go for. Use the techniques that create the effect you want because there is always room to improve on it and learn instead of guilting yourself because other people thing it's a bad habit, even though it really isn't.

[Jenny-Toons]

digital art most of the time is seen as a crutch. Do you agree with this statement, why or why not?

I don't agree at all, and I find it a bit ignorant that some people feel that way. Digital art is just another way to do art. It's another medium. Just like traditional, painting, charcoal, abstract, etc.

Some people believe that just because it's on the computer, it's easy to do and that it won't take as long as traditional. But those same people will forget that not everyone is computer savvy, and not everyone knows how to use the art software they get.

The result of the art has nothing to do with the tools used.

It's the person who does the craft and how experienced they are in it (and how willing they are to improve in it).

It took me a year to better understand and work with Paint-SAI. I was always asking my art friends questions on working with the program, watching tutorials, and watching live streams of people working to get advice and ideas.

It was no different than when I first started to draw with charcoal or when I started inking. And if there's one thing I learned while doing both traditional and digital, it's that they both feed off each other. I was working with both at the same time, and I was able to take things I learned from both to apply to the other.

Sure, there will be moments that we forget we're using digital or traditional and do things like "hit control Z+" for a painting or "write on the tablet with a pen". But when people say one is a clutch, it feels a bit closed-thinking; even if they are speaking from experience (as in doing digital art), for me, it feels like a disregard to how hard it can be.

It's only a clutch if the person chooses not to try and improve themselves.

[zuggarts]

Tools are meant to be taken advantage of. There's no shame in making use of them. That aside, we all have different goals and available time to devote to art--if your goal is to become a veritable master who knows the every little detail of colour and anatomy, then maybe being over-reliant on Photoshop tools and the like isn't good enough for you to grind out the steps you need to achieve your goals. But even then, it's all about how you use digital art--there's no manual saying that you need to use the blend tool, the lasso tool, etc. You can also use software that aims to provide a more natural drawing experience than Photoshop or CSP or SAI.

I used to feel guilty too! I felt guilty using blend, or lasso, or adjustment layers, because I thought that I wasn't really understanding how things worked if I was so reliant on technology. But now I feel as though it's a bit unrealistic to expect that most people today have so much time to dedicate towards sharpening our craft when there's likely not going to be that big of a payoff for 99.99% of us.

[SleepingPoppy]

felt guilty using blend, or lasso, or adjustment layers, because I thought that I wasn't really understanding how things worked if I was so reliant on technology. But now I feel as though it's a bit unrealistic to expect that most people today have so much time to dedicate towards sharpening our craft

I guess I question the idea that understanding how to effectively use blending, the lasso tool and adjustment layers isnt part of sharpening our craft. To me that's like saying you're lazy if you use pencil instead of pen to draw, because the pencil can be erased. Every medium has its own quirks, tricks, and techniques!

Obviously not everyone has to dedicate time to sharpening their craft, but I don't think that has any correlation with digital art.

[yonaremi]

Digital art can't teach you bad habits if you've never done traditional art to begin with.

[punkarsenic]

i dont think the bad habits digital art teaches you is like, shortcuts, creating uniquely digital art in whatever way, using the tools to speed up your craft and reduce labour - its just a different medium with different pros and cons, just like ink, oil, or printmaking.

if theres a bad habit of digital art, it comes from ctrl+z - perfectionism. in meatspace theres no undo, that mark youve made can be erased or painted over, but thats a lot more work for a lot less complete a result than the undo button. in digital art its arguably too easy to keep doing and undoing until you hit something perfect, and potentially lose the intuitive charm of a drawing, as well as like... hours of your life to repeating little marks to be perfect.

and that can lead to someone transitioning from perfect clean digital drawings to incredibly scruffy organic drawings, bc you havent had to develop the care and precision to get it right on the first go - you get used to going at it and going at it and going at it until its right. this is why i honestly think inktober should be with ink (or smth else unerasable) - its about practicing that intuition and precision. idrc if anyone does it in pencil or digitally, its getting you drawing and working from prompts and its all fun and good - i just think the unerasable-ness of ink is part of the exercise.

that said, ctrl+z is also such a lifesaver in many cases, its just easy to overuse it

[dawgofdawgness]

Drawing digitally is more convenient, but you still need to have art skills to actually take advantage of that. You can use the lasso tool to move things and resize things all you want, but if you don't have good perception it's not gonna be useful to you at all, really.
Also drawing digitally does bring up some unique challenges:
- organically creating texture
- fighting the urge to become a perfectionist (control z is also evil)
- digital problems and malfunctions
- LEARNING how to use the dang program. Photoshop has what, hundreds of functions?? But by the time you learn how to master every tool, you'd be in a nursing home.

And unlike certain people who think that digital artists are cheating using technological doodads, there is no Magic Draw Button that exists in any program that creates masterpieces for you.

[shazzbaa]

I dunno man, multiply layers didn't stop me from being able to learn how to colour pick effectively -- for me, it was a step along that path. You can always stop along any point of any art journey and someone out there is going to blame something for being a "crutch" that stopped your development. But like.... I don't think there's anything bad about being content with your art for a lil while.

Like, I started colour picking when I started being frustrated that multiply layers weren't fully capturing what I wanted. I think that means I learned it at the right time -- after reaching the limits of what one technique allowed me to do, I started learning another. That's how art works. I still use layer modes, but now I have them as an option in addition to other techniques that I learned.

[skicoak]

Being an old old old man, this topic reminds me of when painters working in the traditional oils were dismissive of the painters that used the "new fangled" water based acrylic paints.

If there had been a workable internet back then... the flame wars would have been biblical.

[JonRoydon]

One thing I use in digital is the 'distort' and 'warp' tools when character faces got a little bit off. The 'liquify' tool in photoshop is incredible for getting a likeness of someone, shifting and moving bits of the face around. I wouldn't call it a crutch, since it's just using the tools available. In the end its about the finished product, as people have mentioned about the history of painting and traditional art.

However, on a personal level, I feel there is a need to push myself more so that I can get a character that is solid or a face with a likeness in traditional mediums. But that is a personal goal, and its for me alone to master. I think a lot of people have similar negativity inside about their abilities and misdirect it outwards which turns into the argument that digital is cheating or a crutch.

In the concept art and entertainment art world the pace is so fast and the deadlines so tight that it just isn't an issue professionally - whatever gets the job done - and there are some really incredible artists who never painted traditionally. A guy called Borodante did some kind of anniversary video where he filmed himself painting on a canvas for the first time. It made for a funny video, with him using watercolour paints straight out the tube with no water, and his struggles were very obvious. In the end though, his painting looked pretty tight!

So, make sure to study and practice all the fundamentals and it all works out in the end : )

[indigodrawing]

If you aren't a traditional artist then no. Digital art packages are just a tool like any other. Like any other tool they can be used to great effect or used lazily as a crutch. How the tool is used is nothing to do with the tool itself.

Maybe there's an argument that maybe possibly if you work both digitally and in traditional media then digital tools MIGHT POSSIBLY MAYBE encourage some habits which from some perspectives could POSSIBLY MAYBE be considered bad. Like if you make a mistake in an oil painting you have to find ways to paint around it or incorporate it into your painting whereas you can just ctrl-z in a digital painting package (so you could argue that digital painting encourages you to fix your mistakes instead of embracing them. Whether that's a good thing or not is a matter of opinion). However, as with all things art-related it's mostly a matter of opinion rather than verifiable fact.

[inkythoughts]

I don't think it's a crutch at all - I mean getting used to a graphic tablet is a challenge in first place, which I fully realised when I let my mom and at some point my flatmate try it out just for funsies. They struggled horribly because you need a completely different eye-to-hand coordination than if you draw on paper. When I got my wacom I spent 1.5 years completely re-establishing my art style because it's still different to doing stuff traditionally and finding my way. I still need my knowledge on anatomy, perspective and all that jazz in either medium, so I think I am more than deserving of this "crutch" if it makes my everyday life easier.

And about using tools - there's a point they were created in first place. I mean I could also walk to my parents but taking the train makes me go there much faster and more comfortable because the 1-2 weeks I would spend walking are crossed within just 3 hours.
I mean, yes I wish I had a resizing tool, ctrl-z, layers, and extendable canvases in traditional art, too, but that doesn't mean that I can't cope without them or that digital art hasn't taught me a lot either. My colour theory and lighting technique improved a lot by colouring digitally because it's easy to experiment with, and it wasn't even that difficult to translate into traditional media. I also don't need to worry about where to store all my drawings - I got my sketchbook that fits perfectly into my book shelves, and my laptop and tablet. There's no clutter anymore, or at least not as much as there used to when I was a teen.

I think I get the perfectionist thing to some degree, but I'm a perfectionist by nature so I think it wouldn't change that much, I'd probably get more mad if I can't fix it. Also I think the digital style takes away what I got in terms of dynamic in my pencil sketches for example, but I'm working on that, and it's definitely possible to create really dynamic strokes digitally.

[ScribbleJay]

I think beginner artists (myself included) are often tempted to used digital art as a crutch, thinking that they can hide their own shortcomings with fancy tools or digital wizardry. Problem is, digital art is one of the hardest mediums to learn as a beginner. No amount of technical wizardry will hide a lack of skill, and having all the tools and colours in the world at your fingertips won't help you if you don't know how to use them.

Skilled digital artists treat the computer as just another tool, just like oil paints or clay or ink pens, with its own advantages and disadvantages. The computer won't know what colours to use, or how to compose a picture, or how human anatomy works, or how to lay the brush strokes down for you; you are still doing all of the heavy lifting.

By the way, awesome resource for learning digital painting is https://www.ctrlpaint.com/, a free library of videos posted by Matt Kohr. Just gonna leave it here, hopefully you guys are quicker learners than I am.