Digital vs Traditional Art
Painting is a well known art form since the beginning of time up to the early years of Renaissance and until now. But nowadays, the traditional form of painting comes to a new form of art – the Digital Painting.
What is the difference between Traditional Painting and Digital Painting? As an artist, I started painting during my early years using oil pastel & watercolor on plain paper. Nowadays, I’m using oil paint on canvass most of the time. Learning different medium is not easy, since oil painting is offered in college. Learning oil painting is very challenging, expensive and time consuming. According to Wikipedia: Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface. The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects may be used. While Digital painting is an emerging art form in which traditional painting techniques such as watercolor, oils, impasto, etc. are applied using digital tools by means of a computer, a digitizing tablet and stylus, and software.”
Traditional painting using oil on canvass
As of now, I’m still learning the aspects of Digital painting and for me, painting digitally makes any Art work easy, efficient, fast and convenient, due to Undo / Redo commands and effects in which you cannot use in traditional painting. In addition, you can paint digitally almost everywhere. As long as you have your own computer and a tablet. And there’s a wide of variety of colors palettes to choose from. Unlike in traditional painting, your color palette depends in the availability of your resources. And most importantly, you are working with a neat and clean workspace. But Digital painting is not easy as it seems, it is not just pressing any button or using a command and you can create a digital version of Mona Lisa in less than a minute. A digital painter/ artist must still have deep understandings in art in order to create painting comparable to traditional art.
Since then, every traditional painting is very remarkable indeed. The painting becomes priceless whenever the artist comes with ideas and techniques very unique and original among other painters. Much like Picasso, Van Gough, Monet in approach to impressionism. Da Vinci, Bouguereau, Waterhouse, Caravaggio, Rubens in approach to realism etc. And it’s really amazing how these artists create photo realistic and one of a kind artworks way before the camera, movies, magazines and internet invented.
The process of creating art between the two medium is quite similar. The main difference is, the Traditional painting process will start from scratch and it requires precision, skills, time and patience. Since it is done traditionally, it includes the materials and tools for the artist to learn how to use it perfectly to execute a beautiful works of art or otherwise, the artwork will end up to waste. Digital painting process is also likely the same minus the materials, tools and how the artwork to be paint. By using a computer and digital stylus, you can create different artworks using different styles and medium in front of your desktop computer. The finished product of Traditional Painting is can be seen hanged in many different walls and museums. You can literally touch the painting to feel its texture and see the artist’s style right before your eyes. And it is not that easy to duplicate, replicate and the value of artwork is depend upon the artist’s ideas and approach. On the other hand, the product of digital painting is by printing the artwork from software or an image format to paper, canvas, etc. And it is very easy to share and to print since it is only a softcopy of the actual digital artwork.
Many art enthusiasts collect traditional paintings because of its value, uniqueness and originality.A traditional artist can be independent and create money from his painting by showcasing his art works through art galleries or museums. The artist gets paid through consignment payment or instant cash after the paintings are being sold from the galleries through art exhibitions. Not to mention, commissioned artworks from different clients. Most of the digital paintings are being used in video game industry, comic or magazine covers, and concept art for movies. Today digital artworks can be printed out in canvas; much likely the same in traditional artworks and it can also hang in your own home.
Some artists still prefer the traditional style but many of the new generation artists today prefer the digital way. Both genres work very effectively and both have their own strengths and weaknesses depending how you create it and how will you use it. I am a traditional artist but because of my work as a graphic designer. I need to learn the digital genre and use it for work purposes. The transition from painting traditional to digital requires a lot of adjustment for those artists who doesn’t have any background on using any graphical software such as Adobe Photoshop. In my experience, learning to paint digitally is quite easier if you are an experienced traditional artist who already knows the basic and fundamentals of color harmony and processes how to paint. For me, learning and using both style is the most effective way.
