Is it normal for digital artists to be bad traditionally?

[keac]

Traditional art is widely known among many artists. And I've seen that digital art is belittled and is sometimes described as being "not real art".
Computers are widely used nowadays, and it's a convienient way to draw.

But I do wonder... Are there artists who grew with digital art turning out quite bad when drawing traditionally? (Vice versa) And is it normal?

[spadesart]

lol i got pretty much disqualified from a scholarship contest because i submitted digital art and the judges "didnt think it was real art" (it wasnt TECHNICALLY disqualification but they said they didn't consider it for that reason ://////////////////////////// there weren't any rules against it either )

I used to do traditional art all the time until I moved to digital and I'm definitely not as good with watercolors or copics as I am with like, Paint Tool SAI. I also have that whole issue where I forget ctrl+z doesn't exist on paper and I tend to be less careful with my sketchbook stuff (I use pen only because my left handedness makes a mess with pencils) so kind of?? I wouldn't say I'm bad at it but I'm less skilled than I am with digital.

[hushicho]

Art is art; fixating on "traditional" art/media and disparaging digitally-created art is nothing but elitism, much the same as the "fine art" delusion. Art is art, expression is expression, and drawing with a graphics tablet does take getting used to. One cannot just seamlessly transition into purely digital production, in much the same way that one cannot expect to seamlessly transition into more traditional media from a purely digital medium.

Personally, I can do a variety of traditional media, and I don't generally prefer it. It's less expensive to do it digitally, and at this point the effects are pretty much exactly the same visually. Or if you don't have a good enough scanner or camera, they're most times inferior; you will be showing your work online regardless, in this day and age. Besides which, digital production has a handy undo command that can be the difference between a masterpiece and a ruined work!

You have to adjust to any medium, even if you are going from digital to traditional. Just adjust to the tools, learn, give yourself time to train. You can apply the techniques and approaches you learned digitally, but of course you'll want to learn how to adapt them to the new medium, depending on what that is. Digital media do not always behave the same way even the same sort of media do traditionally. It doesn't mean you're a bad artist. Just give yourself time to learn.

[miesmud]

I've had my drawing tablet for a very long time, and never really made traditional art before I got it. So I can say my traditional skills are a bit lacking compared to my digital skills. I learned anatomy and color theories via digital art, those can be applied in traditional art too. So without drawing traditionally I did get better at it, but I'm still a lot better at digital art. (Also because I don't own fancy traditional art tools)

The problem I have, is that at my art school there is this teacher that is basically against digital art. He thinks you can only learn to draw when you draw on paper. He says "you'll get better at digital art when you practice traditionally", and while this is partly true, I think you'll get even better at digital art when you, you know, Art digitally and stuff. OH WOW

I think the two don't compare, digital art has a totally different feel and is used for other things. And I don't want to do traditional art because the thing I study for is a digital medium anyways! I mean, try making sprites for games with acrylic paint, or 3D models? NO THANK YOU

[Devika]

But I do wonder... Are there artists who grew with digital art turning out quite bad when drawing traditionally? (Vice versa) And is it normal?

Every medium takes practice to get used to and to learn the intricacies of, that's natural. And therefore everyone has their better and worse medias, just like some prefer inking with brush over inking with pens and vice versa. It depends on how and what you like to draw!

However: Drawing with pencil can mercilessly expose your weaknesses if you're "digitally dependent", and at the same time is the best, cheapest tool for improving those. Don't know values? You can't hide that with nice shinies from the dodge tool. Abusing the ctrl+z combo? You gotta learn to place the lines right from the start on paper! Once you learn, however, where to place the lines (anatomy, perspective, composition, all that jazz), this knowledge translates directly to your digital work!

This is coming from personal experience, I've really been forcing myself to draw more traditionally and it helps immensely. At first it totally crushes your confidence, but if you press on and become more proficient with a pencil, it makes your digital work so much better too.

Basically: Fundamentals are transferable knowledge, if you don't know them, no medium will cover that up for you. But if you buckle down and learn them, all your medias improve!

[Mharz]

I gotta say, I'm one of those artists that is waaay better in digital than traditional. My traditional inking can go on par with my digital inking but when we talk about painting, my digital skills are far superior.

So here's a comparison (in case you're curious):

I'll be honest that I'm not practicing that much in traditional media. If I given ample time in studying and practicing for sure I can level them but I'm not that patient. Plus I'd much rather draw my comics than practice. Lel...

lol i got pretty much disqualified from a scholarship contest because i submitted digital art and the judges "didnt think it was real art" (it wasnt TECHNICALLY disqualification but they said they didn't consider it for that reason

Okay, this just pissed me off. I hate it when traditional artist think they're superior to digital artists. Sure traditional media takes effort and have less room for error but digital media takes just as much effort as well (albeit it can be more forgiving to mistakes thanks to ctrl+z and ctrl+T).

Guess what? There are artists who are good in traditional media but not as well in digital. So no one's is superior than anyone.

Also, I've been taught that as long as you know the drawing principles you can draw in any medium or software. You just need practice and a lot of getting used to. : )

[akkoneko]

For me, the issue is not really being bad in the other medium. It's more like...what you produce in the other medium looks way different from how it usually looks in the medium that you're used to. It's like listening to a recording of your own voice and not quite recognizing yourself.

I do both traditional and digital, but I am more used to traditional art. The beef I have with my digital art is that I've found a style that I like using traditional materials, but I couldn't quite replicate it when I draw digitally. This, I think, is the point where people think it's bad, but I figured, since there are these little factors that inevitably make digital different from traditional, I've gotten to thinking that maybe I should just work on a look that I like for each medium rather than forcing a certain style on both.

[UrMom]

It depends on how the person went about it. If they went straight to digital without learning the fundamentals of a traditional medium first, they will naturally be bad at working traditionally. Same can be said for the other. Since I'm traditional first I won't say I'm great at digital but I can do it competently if I really wanted to, only because I have experience with it. Digital is just a medium like every other, no one is ever good at one straight away.

As far as not seeing digital as real art, I can understand the mindset even though I don't agree with it. There are more shortcuts and cheats you can use on a computer program that you can't with paper and paint/ink/pencils/etc. Personally I don't think it takes as much skill to create a decent digital piece as it would be to created something traditionally thanks to those tools. It does help that digital is also shinier, making it more appealing to the general public. BUT being able to paint or draw digitally without the use of cheats takes as much skill as learning with their material counterparts, just without learning to mix colours or scrapping your work. Generally people see the fact that digital artists don't have to worry about learning certain skills you can only get traditionally, making them not be "real artists".
Despite all that you still have to learn how colours works, anatomy, perspective, blah blah blah if you want to create something of a certain quality. You just don't have to worry about messing up ever, except with layers.

[AnnaLandin]

I do both digital and traditional art, and I can tell you that the only real difference between the two is the tools you're using. Being skilled with both methods still require knowledge of anatomy and proportion, composition and colour theory, etc., etc. And those are things no tool or medium can grant you; those you acquire by experimentation and learning.

If you can draw a human figure in Photoshop, you can draw a human figure on paper. The only difference is the tool in your hand.

Is there a learning curve to picking up a new tool or medium? Of course there is! But if you can draw, you can draw.

[LoboSong_Hitaka5Ever]

When I draw, I have to do it traditionally first and THEN digitalize it. I've tried many times to do 100% digital but my brain wants to see the actual pen make the drawing, if that makes sense. I have a steadier hand with a real pen not a tablet pen

[indagold]

I'm very good at traditional art and enjoy it despite being 100% digital artist. I grew up since I was 8 using photoshop, it's basically my element. For me blowing hundreds on art supplies that will just run out or dry up in under a month or just make everything messy is just not anything I want to do. The most I do traditionally is just use whatever cheap pen or pencil I have lying around.

As for elitist fine artists who act like digital art, cartooning, etc. is "low art" or not "real art" can go suck it. They probably call shit on a canvas high art anyway.

[nessiefynn]

I do both digital and traditional and I honestly think digital art is easier. With traditional art you have to invest more time into learning the medium's techniques, how to mix pigments, and so forth. Digital art has all sorts of shortcuts like pen stabilizers, color-picking, and so forth that can make the process easier. While digital art won't make you a master of anatomy, color theory, composition, and so forth, it provides a lot of tools to make the overall process easier.

[hushicho]

As for elitist fine artists who act like digital art, cartooning, etc. is "low art" or not "real art" can go suck it. They probably call shit on a canvas high art anyway.

This brought a smile to my face and a light to my heart! Thank you.

Something that was mentioned too was "cheats" and other things that people know to do from experience; traditional and digital artists both know these sorts of things, it's important to note. A lot of elitist types wouldn't admit it, but whenever you study any medium, you learn ways to "cheat", or at least ways to cut corners, ways to cut time, ways to make work look better through easier methods. Work smarter, as the saying goes, not harder -- this is true universally, for every proficient artist. Like many of these other people have pointed out: art is art, but it does take some getting used to different media. Other than that, though, once you've learned the fundamentals of anything in art, you can apply them.

[Mocha]

As someone who does an equal amount of traditional art and digital, I'm not bad at one or the other, but rather there are certain things I find easier to do one way over another. For example, I find it much easier to do line art and inking traditionally, and have a much easier time painting digitally over traditionally. (Also there's less mess without the real paints) : P

[lunaartemisasama]

I feel it is easier for an artist with a traditional base to learn to draw digitally, but that doesn't mean that artists that started to draw digitally are bad. Both of them will struggle at first when trying learn a new area, like everybody.

Also art can be a toillette in an Art Museum if you can explain why is that there lol. I feel like art is not just about being good at drawing or painting but also about making people think, being controversial, performances is also art. So I don't think there's something like being good or bad in art. I mean, there's always people that will say that something is not real art (people said that with photography a t the beginning), but in the end that's just subjective, what it is important is what you believe.

[marygold]

Yes! You and I are alike! I can't start a drawing on Photoshop to save my life unless I first draw a base with pencil and then scan it :') then I have to draw on my iPad. I will never be able to understand people who can look at a screen and not their hands while drawing. I have zero skill, and believe me, I've tried. Many times.

[Michelle]

I'll admit my traditional drawing skills have been a little shaky lately because I've been doing so much digital art. It's not for a lack of knowing the tools, but more that I've gotten lazy knowing that if I mess up a line in photoshop I can undo it/warp it into place. So it's made me a lot less decisive with my lines when drawing in my sketchbook. ~n~ Of course, knowing this, I'm trying to get more sketchbook time in between comic pages and storyboard jobs.

I don't believe one is better than the other! But I like to have a balance of both. For me, it's a matter of being able to draw confidently whether or not I have a computer available.

[Kura]

It just different tools it's all art. (for reference I used to do both traditional and digital art, though my arthritis has made it so I no longer can do traditional art so I stick to pretty much digital now)

I wouldn't say that digital artists being bad at traditional (which is a rather questionable statement and dependent on what part of drawing you are talking about) and vice versa isn't as large an issue as people seem to think it is when it actually does happen. As you can say the same about switching from different traditional mediums in art. If your good at acrylic painting that doesn't mean you'll automatically be good at watercolour painting as well by default. Though some skills and use are universal between the two there are still a lot that aren't, they're different sets of tools with different ways and requirements and methods to using them. And that example is still within the painting medium, markers, pencil crayons, graphite, pastels, charcoal there are so many different mediums and they don't all work the same. You need to learn how to work with them to properly take advantage of what you're capable of doing with them.

When I first started digital art, honestly the hardest thing for me was colouring, it's just very different from how I would colour in pretty much any traditional medium I was versed in using. It took a while to get used to but that was the same for any new art tool or medium I was learning how to use. You need to learn how to and take the time to learn get it to work for you, it's never going to be automatic just because I know how to use another art tool or medium.

As for the differences, the largest differences between the two for me are these things, and none of these things really have a direct affect on the quality you are able to produce.

• Digital is much cheaper over all, EVEN if you invest in a cintiq or high cost drawing programs. It's still cheaper than the accumulated cost of traditional art tools and supplies.

• Clean up after using your tools is practically not a thing.

• Maintenance and care for longevity of your tools is also a million times easier and less time consuming.

• No mater what method on the computer you are using to colour or ink you don't have to worry about fumes.... holy crap some of those paints, glues and markers (just to name a few) can get harsh I tell you man...

• Digital also requires a heck of a lot less space in your house, both for storage, work set up, and storing your finished results.

And these are the most notable differences between the mediums I notice, the only one that could directly affect your art being cost, (because sometimes you don't have the money to justify the price tag to get that shade, colour or hue of paint/marker/whatever that you know would work best but can't get, so you have to do a work around to work with what you have or do without it) Aside from that. It's just different tools. Just like any art tool it's gonna require different method and skill set to use, you just need to learn how to use the tool.

[MissMagicGirl]

I feel like my comic style and my traditional style are completely different.

Like this is my comic art style:

And this is my traditional style:

When I make traditional stuff I usually go for realism. But with digital art and comics I go for more funny and cartoon like I think it is natural to be better at one or the other. After all, it is very different techniques but they are both art and amazing in different ways

[briadawson2014]

I started out as a traditional artist for years. I was pretty good with mostly marker work and I still am to a degree since going digital earlier this year. Ever since then, my traditional quality has gone down a bit but it's still where it once was. Recently I have been doing a lot of black and white ink drawings on any type of paper I can get a hold of. I've mostly been spoiled by the shortcuts and ease of digital that I barely do traditional unless I don't feel like/can't use my cintiq.

I think if someone started with digital out the gate I feel they shouldn't have too much trouble with traditional as long as they learned fundamentals while doing digital art. While the feel of a pencil and paper may be a little foreign, it shouldn't be a huge stretch.