1. Ashleigh

    Ashleigh Contributor Contributor

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    Art - Digital or Physical Media

    Discussion in 'The Lounge' started by Ashleigh, Aug 12, 2010.

    I haven't done cartooning in ages, which is what I love doing to de-stress. I've still got them up on my pc, but nothing new I'm afraid. Hopefully I won't have completely forgotten how to hold a pencil when I eventually do some more! D:

    I usually use black markers, and I've done some oil pastel/chalk work before for still life, but I've never been ambitious enough to try drawing animals and such. ;)
     
  2. TerraIncognita

    TerraIncognita Aggressively Nice Person Contributor

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    haha animals are easier for me than people! Maybe it's because I've had pets all my life so I understand their structure better??? My mom says my first word was "kitty". lol

    I keep worrying I've forgotten how to hold a pencil too. :/ It's been so long. I've let life suck me dry when I should have been drawing. It always makes me feel better. :)
     
  3. Ashleigh

    Ashleigh Contributor Contributor

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    Ah, cool. :p

    I used to do alot of portraits and pencil drawings, but I actually find them rather tedius. No offence to anyone who's into that sort of art, but beginner drawings (which mine were, really) just look so samey. It's always: Here's a shaded apple from this angle, here's my rendition of a skull, a hand, a foot, etc. I always seemed to be doing the standard sketchbook stuff, and never really felt like I was progressing.

    So I started looking at some ink comics like Emily The Strange and Tim Burton stuff, and totally found my style in cartooning. I love it. You can have crazy proportions and make up stupid outfits. Cartooning really made art fun for me, as opposed to a serious venture. Which is great, really, 'cause I was never gonna be a seriously good portrait artist :p Caricature maybe, but not fine art.

    I would recommend this art form to everyone, hah.
     
  4. TerraIncognita

    TerraIncognita Aggressively Nice Person Contributor

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    Haha I hear you. I've always sucked at drawing people. Hence all the animal drawings and mixed media artwork. I love mixed media because I can have people in my art without having to draw them. I want to take classes on art. I miss art class at school so very much.

    I really want to get into photo manipulation deeper. I do some random photoshopping like turning one of my cats blue and things like that lol. But I want to learn more complicated things.

    Anyone into that? Any suggestions on how to learn? Well aside from the obvious of doing it. lol That's how I've learned nearly everything I've ever learned. :p
     
  5. arron89

    arron89 Banned

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    There are a few really good magazines on using Photoshop, ranging from photo manipulation to fantasy art to fine art. Finding good tutorials on the web can be kinda hard depending on what you want to achieve. The best way to learn, I think, is just to play around in Photoshop, maybe with a notepad handy, and just work out what all the different tools and filters and brushes do.
     
  6. Ashleigh

    Ashleigh Contributor Contributor

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    Oh god, there are some seriously skilled people on Deviantart who do tutorials, just look 'em up.
    In the UK we have a really cool magazine called ImagineFX, amongst many others, which offers some cool advice and puts some good artists in the spotlight each issue.

    But as Aaron said, ultimately, I guess practise makes perfect; it's just photoshop requires alot of learning in regards to the tools first. Myself? That things loses me immeditately, lol.
     
  7. TerraIncognita

    TerraIncognita Aggressively Nice Person Contributor

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    Thanks guys. :) I'm looking for a magazine or something like that because visual/kinetic learning is where I excel. I learn best by looking at how it's done then doing it. The tutorials sound like something to look into to.

    As for what I want to do. Mostly surreal sort of things. Other stuff too but primarily that.
     
  8. Eoz Eanj

    Eoz Eanj Contributor Contributor

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    Thanks man, and I will definitely look into that, I hadn't heard of it until now.

    And thanks Lav, and I'll assure you there's no layering, infact I'm not even sure what that means (digital art noob alert).
     
  9. w176

    w176 Contributor Contributor

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    Oh. Loads of responses

    Mecurial: Nope, I'm not planning to go into being a pro artist, it is an to insane business. But I try to earn some extra money going to dog shows drawing peoples pets. Being a pro is arout more then pretty pictures, and coming up with nice concepts, about working fast, delivering and figuring out what costumers want, not what they say etc. And haven't really reached pro level yet, i need some more years.

    Nobeler Than Lettuce:
    Oh. I'm more interested someday working fast enough to produce comics. I like the globe, nice work with texture and layers but I was totally charmed by the bird.

    ----

    General:
    I think a fun way to up you game in you traditional media is go onto colored pencils. (And possibly some black marker or ballpoint pen for details, and possible some watercolors. Or somethign else you want to combine in, most things are easily to combine with colored pencils)

    It is cheap. The ones you get at the kids department with just about ten different shades works fine when you are new to the media. Just look for the pencils with a dry feeling to them rather then a oily/vaxy.

    With some basic color theory (like using a bit of purple in the shadows of the light is yellow/orange) you can get a picture on a another level with not that mush effort.

    But colored pencils hurts you poor fingers on a big picture, and filling big areas are boring work. I would as a beginner aim for half a A4/letter sized paper
     
  10. Ashleigh

    Ashleigh Contributor Contributor

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    Agreed about pens/pencils, they're my favourite media. I love the way the pictures I've created have come directly from what I produced with my hands, not what the computer has already arranged for me. I understand that photoshop is still just a tool, but let's face it - there are textures and brushes you could use that would have taken a much longer time to create IRL, and can't just be produced by a few clicks here and there.

    However, pens can be tricky...especially if you have wobbly hands. X_X
     
  11. w176

    w176 Contributor Contributor

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    Well as one of my design texhers said "You can put a lot of much more work to make a digital picture great then you can with a traditional picture"

    A traditional pictures becomes great r not, either way it soon hits the wall where any more work will damage the paper or the work you already done.

    A digital picture you can continue pushing, tweaking, working on for ever and ever. Pretty muck more alike writing.

    In that aspect a traditional picture is a lot easier, since you do it and is done, and it either sucks or not.
     
  12. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    *raises hand sheepishly*

    Digital is the only way for me. I suffer from ican'tdraw, but I am rather good at manipulating found images into other stuff through the magic of GIMP. :)
     
  13. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    This discussion seems to have a life of its own, so I've split it out of the Member Picture Gallery.

    The thing I prefer about physical media is your hand movements are in the same visual frame as the image you are creating. I'm sure touchscreen tech exists to do similar things in digital art, but I haven't seen it. Even working with a pad, the offset, and any angular skew in the orientation, is distracting.

    But with a good scanner, you can have the best of both worlds. Do the bulk of your work on paper, or even canvas, then dcan it in for final touch up and distribution.

    Although, if I start on canvas, I'd prefer to finish on canvas, and only scan as a secondary, distributable copy.
     
  14. Nobeler Than Lettuce

    Nobeler Than Lettuce New Member

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    A lot of people probably don't realize that when you're working with digital images you have the option of mixing up and organizing layers. It's the same when you're painting of course, you have layers that you paint over, and you can always smudge or blend the layers away, but there's nothing quite the same as being able to say "I don't like my sky, lets just delete that whole thing."

    That being said, I have to say I'd rather see a painting on Canvas. Van Gough and Monet have amazing paintings, but in person they're completely insane. They have a texture, since the paint was so thick. They're almost 3D.

    For myself though I prefer to work with a very sharp and very normal pencil. I usually start by drawing a few eyes in various styles then linking them together with plant vines, then I set up a shape and detail the inside of the whole thing. I'm clearly not professional, but it makes for some very interesting drawings. I like that in everything that I do, be it a picture of a soldier or a tree, you can see eyes and faces. It looks very much like Indian Mendhi, which is a style I fell in love with.
     
  15. Ashleigh

    Ashleigh Contributor Contributor

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    My god, I thought i'd been hacked when I saw this thread! :eek: *wipes brow* carry on, carry on...
     
  16. Eoz Eanj

    Eoz Eanj Contributor Contributor

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    I prefer traditional mediums like sketching with pencil/coloured pencil, and painting. My favourite genre is realism because I find it captivating the way artists are able to physically re create an image so precisely - especially one they have imagined themselves. I'm actually trying to teach myself how to do realism at the moment. Whilst mundane to some, for me, drawing landscapes, people and everyday objects, are necessary exercises in shade, texture and shape. I am a creative person, however, what use is my creativity if I am unable to draw what I envision in my head? I am only a beginner, and I will require significantly more time and effort before I feel confident enough to be more adventurous with my drawing - that's just how I operate, I suppose.
     
  17. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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    For me, I will choose photrography when my goal is realism. I can start with one or more photographic images and create something new and unique.

    Not so with painting or drawing or sketching. I do want a degree of realism there too, but I prefer the freedom to simplify and to abstract.

    Even in writiing, I like to reduce a scene to its essentials, to provide only as much as is needed for the reader to see a complete scene in his or her own imagination.

    My mother is a very talented amateur artist. She was a friend and student of Helen Van Wyk in Helen's final years. She's not as accomplishes as Van Wyk, of course, but she has the same love of detail anc accuracy. But my mother doesn't really "get" abstraction.

    I don't have my mother's eye for detail in painting, but I do have more of a sense of the abstract. And I value it.
     
  18. natsuki

    natsuki Active Member

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    I have always loved digital art. I used to enter in DeviantArt and CGhub and see the professional drawings for hours.
    I tried learning realism. I would mostly try to draw people looking at a picture.
    I was able to learn how to use Photoshop, layers, etc. and my progress was really visible after a while, but I have a big problem imagining a face that I have never seen even when I read, so I was never able to draw by imagination, only looking at other pictures.

    I have to try again soon, I really like drawing.
     
  19. madhoca

    madhoca Contributor Contributor

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    The two types of 'art' are becoming more and more polarized. The techinque needed for drawing or traditional fine art as opposed to computer-based art is much more demanding in terms of physical application, like playing a violin and an electric violin.

    My younger daughter has just finished her first year at the conservatoire here. They have a traditional approach to teaching, but it gives them fantastic technique. For example, they draw a slice of apple with pencil. Then they draw the same using pilot pen. Then in market, like a woodcut. Then they map out the shade etc. All together they did about 7 studies of approx 50 things for their final year commission dossier.

    Anything digital is totally different. You've removed yourself from the object with this hands-off method, and at first tend to de-personalise the work, then you add to it to make it uniquely yours--if you're good, or leave it generic techno-art if you aren't. My other daughter is going to study visual communications design which after the first year foundation modules is all computer-based, so I'm not saying one is better than another, they are just different.

    If you don't practice drawing, you'll lose the skill fast.
     
  20. Ashleigh

    Ashleigh Contributor Contributor

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    I think digital art is fantastic for logos, comics and web design; but there's something truly charming about hand drawn work.

    I have alot of respect for artists like Christos Archilleos for example, who create epic pieces of modern, amazing illustrations all by hand. I also love Mark Ryden, who creates very surreal, gothic paintings that reflect his ideas about the subconcious and religion, aswell as being very cute, interesting, and pleasing to the eye. The brush strokes are so smooth it's hard to believe they're there.

    As for me, I love my inking and cartooning. I've been drawing all my life, and have explored as much as I could; I've done alot of still lifes and pastel work, and I actually surprised myself when I found that I was good at watercolours. However, as a child I learnt mostly from 'How to draw cartoons' books, and I guess it's just always stayed with me. :)

    I'd love to learn digital art, but I just wouldn't know where to start....it's a totally new ball game from anything I've gotten my hands on before.
     
  21. madhoca

    madhoca Contributor Contributor

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    Don't practice drawing by looking at pictures. Look at objects and draw them, therwise you won't be able to depict 3-D at first hand, you'll only have seen things filtered by a camera lens or other person's hand. This is why tutorials on the Net are no substitute for still life and life drawing classes. Drawing from imagination comes after you've learnt the basics.
     
  22. natsuki

    natsuki Active Member

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    I started a drawing course a few years back where I would draw objects by looking at then, but I had to stop when I was starting to learn something.

    Even though online isn't the ideal way to pratice I was able to improve my skills at the time, but I agree with you that it is a limited way of learning.

    I would like to take a course again, though. A few months back I was thinking of studying Graphic Design in college, but the few courses available here are incomplete and expensive, unfortunately.
     
  23. TerraIncognita

    TerraIncognita Aggressively Nice Person Contributor

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    Thanks for the idea, Cog. :) I never thought of scanning my stuff. :rolleyes:

    What seems to happen a lot for me is that I will get something perfect in how it is drawn then I am reluctant to color it for fear I will ruin it. :/ I'm a perfectionist and oftentimes have to force myself to stop correcting things I see as flaws in my work. Usually the flaws are no biggie and I ruin/make a mess trying to fix them.

    Ugh I miss painting so much. I need to just go do it! I have tried almost every physical media out there. I want to try digital art next for fun. I am into a lot of different things I never stay with one thing in particular. I have lots of things I go back and forth between.

    I love oil pastels because I like to be able to smear the colors. I'm not a huge fan of overly defined lines in my work. I like things to blend into one another a little yet stay separate. I think that is why I refused to actually try mixed media for a very long time. haha I didn't like having everything so separated then I realized if I did it right it blended well and the separation didn't look disjointed it made certain elements stand out more. I also :love: water color pencils. They're amazing.
     
  24. Eunoia

    Eunoia Contributor Contributor

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    I don't do art seriously or anything, just doodling and cartoons, but I prefer physical media. I tend to just use pens and pencils - I just make a mess if I use anything else and it looks awful. I have this mosaic set that I want to try, and I like doing collages. I'd like to try some digital media for fun, but the software is pretty expensive, although there are ways round that. I think the fact that I write contributes to why I prefer physical media because you actually have the tool in your hand.
     
  25. w176

    w176 Contributor Contributor

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    Mixed media ftw, no matter if it is digital, traditional or any sort of craftmanship.

    When I do art I know my media, use my media and constantly combine my media to archive results. Making a digital brueprint for my leather crafting, mixing markers and water colors, painting and then continuing the picture digitally.

    Know thy tools and use them ffs.
     

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