Is digital drawing making us worse artists?

[Rai_Muffin]

Bit of a clickbait title, but something I've been thinking about.

My older comics were drawn old school on paper; pencils, inking, then digitally touching up.
Now I'm totally digital, drawing onto a cintiq and colouring without leaving the same program.
While I don't miss erasing lineart and spending money on new pens, I feel like I was actually happier with some of the older stuff despite not being as good, and I think the reason is scale.

I find with drawing digitally that I'm zooming right in to draw each panel, trying to get each tiny detail right.
Meanwhile looking at works for inspiration you can see a tonne of little mistakes by professional artsists; lines not quite right, overlapping lines, stuff like that.
And I think the reason is because they don't zoom in that far to notice.
Plus, lets be honest, the reader is going to be paying even less attention!
How long do you look at a single page when reading? Couple of seconds?
And how far do you zoom in?

Honestly I've lately been letting a lot of little things slip because its honestly not as big a deal as I was making it out to be, and I've been feeling a lot more positive about my work as a result.
Not letting my work get slap dash or anything, but is it nessessary to draw each individual zip on a jacket for a far shot that only I'm going to be zooming in this close to see?

Anyone else feeling that?
Or am I just overthinking as a way of procrastonating?

[moontokkym]

I mean, zooming too much is just one of those beginner mistakes artists grow out of with time and experience, in the same way oversaturating colours or only using the soft airbrush tool are common mistakes for digital artists who are just starting out.

They're mistakes that are specific to the tool, sure, but they're not "making you worse" any more than common tradi mistakes are. "Pressing too hard on the paper while doing the first bit of prep sketching" and "relying on the premade paint colours rather than mixing" and "overloading your ink nib with ink so noticeable blotches form on the page" come to mind as common tradi art rookie mistakes that are tool-specific. I wouldn't say that those are "making you a worse artist" but more "your base state as an artist is not knowing how to use your tools that well", but you'll learn.

[NGChloe]

no, I found that digital art has made my art much better. Layers have been really helpful for preventing mess, planning out poses more. All that stuff. I find that being able to zoom in and out is also very helpful. If I have to get some little details right(especially with paint) I zoom in a bit. If I need to paint more broadly I zoom out.

It also removes the problem that I'm wank at erasing. I would always end up turning the piece into a mess with an eraser, but digitally I don't have that problem. the undo button as well as digital erasers have also been quite helpful. I tend to make mistakes very easy because of my more lopsided vision, so being able to flip around images or undo mistakes cleanly.

So no, I'm not seeing what your saying. Traditional can certainly be better for you, but also I recommend giving it more of a chance. Its something that takes some getting used to, that's for sure, but once you get used to it. Your abilities and options can be quite expanded.

Also seriously though, LAYERS fixed everything for me. I would always have to draw backgrounds and charas together, not I can draw them separately and edit them together. Its bloody brilliant!

[SugarCube]

funny enough, digital art work is one of the few things that technology actually improved rather than took over

even if you go back to the analogue ways, your art would look the same, or maybe with small hiccups. the ability to zoom in or zoom out and other small features that these techs give you access does not limit the skill sets that you build by using them

[KevinReijnders]

No, digital definitely made me better.

The main benefit digital has for me is that I don't need to be precious with pyhsical resources, so I have more liberties to try stuff out and see if it works or not. Whereas in the dark ages, when pencils and paper was all I had, I greately limited myself, because everything I did was pretty mucb permanent.

As for zooming in, yeah I zoom in uptil the pixel haha. I turn off that aweful grid thing in photoshop that pops up when you zoom in too much.

That said, the initial sketching is done without zoom. So it's a bit of both I guess.

[thepenmonster]

Yes. But only for a way of comic-making that demands you to get good and know the ins and outs of your craft as an artist.

Good news! That way is long dead so don't worry about it. Fire up some GenAI like you were working for Webtoon and laugh all the way to your deadline.

[Oriflamme]

"Is the camera obscura making us worse artists?" Some painter in the 1600s, probably.

[Leyelle]

I don't think digital art is making us worse artists. it's just a different medium with different mistakes people are more likely to make/traps we are likely to fall into. I enjoy drawing traditionally more, but there are advantages to both forms.

[ThunderChicken]

I think it's made me a better artist because of the tools available: Layers, different brushes, the "undo" button... But I started my digital transition back in 1990 or so using a mouse and ZSoft Paintbrush.

Layers are actually the biggest Godsend for me - if I want to change something on a drawing, or add to it, I create a new layer and make my changes on that. If I'm satisfied with the changes I'll usually merge them onto the main layer. If I'm not I'll either make the layer invisible (if it's something I feel is worth keeping even if I didn't particularly like it) or delete it entirely (if it is truly atrocious)

[DokiDokiTsuna]

Maybe it's because I currently have a hybrid process like the one OP started with, but I think I understand what they're saying. ^^;

Zooming is kind of integral to digital art in a way that it just isn't in most physical art-- unless you're painting something huge like a mural, you will usually be able to see the entirety of a physical piece at any given time. You're always seeing the forest for the trees; always aware of how much or how little each new addition affects the overall picture.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of digital artists I've seen (those who use screen recordings as opposed to timelapses, anyway) zoom in to work on details, making the portion of the image they're focusing on take up the entirety of the screen...and thus, their field of vision. They literally lose sight of everything outside of what they're currently doing.

Now, ^that's not a criticism. In fact, it's...literally the point, for many artists. :T

But not for all of them, especially artists like myself who are kinda forced to zoom in order to maintain control over our equipment. I simply don't have the same level of dexterity with my pen mouse as I do with an actual pencil; I have to zoom in just to make half-decent lines.
Which makes me acutely aware of how much I'm missing, and how easy it is to get sucked into a recursive loop of shading a single pant leg over and over and OVER again before realizing that it's been half an hour since I even looked at any other aspect of the drawing, and I'm not even sure if the improvements I'm trying to make in that singular spot are actually important in the grand scheme of things.

With that said, I don't think it's that digital drawing makes us worse artists, it's that switching to digital drawing can cause us to form bad habits that make us feel like worse artists, if we don't watch ourselves. And I'm sure it works both ways; plenty of digital artists avoid physical art specifically because its limitations make them feel like they're less skilled. But it's not really a question of skill, it's simply a matter of figuring out how a new medium will affect your particular art-brain, and learning to adjust.

[kyupol]

I can't really say... digital has made it easier to correct mistakes and speed up the process.

Even though sometimes I've been told my trad art looks better than my digital art

[BoomerZ]

I will say digital made more average artist not become better. The use of "control Z" and layers can be a major crutch for artist. Same with vector art where people use control points to move lines until it is perfect. By doing this you lose the loose rough work and line weight taught by using traditional pencils (or a good program/tablet that allows that.) I see most art is now so polished that is doesn't have any character left to it. I also find "same body" problem in most webcomics as everyone traces over Clip body 3D assets so they all end up looking the same build. I don't see anyway to change this as it's way easier to get results by using these techniques. It just makes everything very much look the same.

[wolflu66]

Digital art 'perhaps' causes artists to decline in certain abilities, such as the ability to mix colors by hand, pen control skills, etc. In terms of these operational technical aspects, digital artists generally really can't match traditional artists. An artist who specializes in digital art but never paints with oils may indeed be inferior to traditional art masters of the past in certain fundamentals.

Because of convenient layers, masks and Ctrl+Z, as well as mirroring, zooming the canvas, layer modes, filters and other convenient functions, what digital artists need to consider is no longer problems at the operational technical level.

But whether it's digital art or traditional art, I think judging whether a work is good or not ultimately depends on looking at the finished product rather than the process (although I do really enjoy that process, but that's the artist's personal matter).

No matter what method you use to create, good work is good, so I don't think digital art makes us worse artists.
The emergence of digital art has greatly increased the possibilities of art, but the uniqueness of traditional art means its value will never decline.

Of course, if you ask me which I prefer, I would say I like traditional art more, even though I haven't drawn it for several years XD. The brush strokes produced when drawing by hand are truly fascinating to me. Although many software programs, especially Procreate, can also achieve amazing brush stroke effects, they still can't match the feeling of drawing on paper.

[simplykit]

no dude. any medium for art new or old can enhance our potential!

we should be more open minded and not limit ourselves.

traditional/ digital, doesn't matter, its how we express ourselves with the art we display that counts

cheers!

[jwabeasley]

I'm primarily a traditional artist, I don't think artists are worse just for working in digital. It is a versatile tool, and it takes a lot of work on the traditional end to compete. The only thing we have better is a physical product to sell, but most of my stuff has to sit between various digital arts anyway.

[hakei]

For me, my draftsman ship is definitely lacking because I'm used to ctrl+zing any mistakes. If a stroke looks bad? No problem, I just undo it.
But in physical art, it doesn't work that way. So my sketches/inks tend to look worse because I'm not used to it.

[Lensing]

I never stopped drawing traditionally and I know that I got better since I started drawing
digitally.

Here is an example which was only possible for me on the computer:
I did a lot of portrait training and traced over the faces, then copied the traced planes,
constantly checked with the reference by holding shift moving the freehand lines over
the portrait and over the traced lines and then corrected the freehand lines. It´s not
realistic to do that with a lightbox. I own a lightbox for traditional drawings but it
wouldn´t work like that. This training method made me improve a lot.

I also draw straight lines without using a ruler, I draw circles without using the circle
tool when I draw digital and stuff like that. When I trace over poses on the computer
then I freehand the poses and change them / make them more dynamic.

You have to use all tools for your advantage and then you´ll get better

[svlyisanliu]

I definitely can say that only because of digital I got the courage to draw—not now, but around 25 years or so (yes, I am that old xD). I lived in a small town back then, in another (poor) country, and seriously, the blessing was my older brother was a fan of Amiga, and I started to draw using a very old and primitive tool Amiga offered. Why it was a blessing? Laugh or not, to buy - to afford and to find - art supplies in the place I lived in back then was out of my reach. Of course, school paints and pencils I had, but I dreamed about different brushes, different strokes, and it was not to obtain.

... and I got sentimental now!

[Lensing]

The glory days of Deluxe Paint

[svlyisanliu]

right? funny times