Digital vs Traditional Art: Switching Between Both
After a year of switching between digital and traditional media weekly, here is what each teaches that the other cannot. I spent a year alternating between digital and traditional art, one week of each, to understand what the two media teach differently. My assumption going in was that the skills would transfer completely, that drawing is drawing regardless of the tool. The reality was more nuanced. The skills that transfer are the fundamental ones, observation, proportion, composition, but each medium also teaches specific lessons that the other does not, and the lessons sometimes contradict each other. Here is from switching between both. Traditional Teaches Commitment, Digital Teaches Iteration The most striking difference is the relationship to commitment. In traditional art, every mark is permanent. A pencil line on paper cannot be undone, only erased, which damages the paper and leaves a ghost. This permanence forced me to think before drawing, because a careless mark would be with me for the rest of the piece. The result was that I planned more carefully, considered each stroke, and developed a habit of intention that improved the quality of my marks. Digital art, with its unlimited undo, encouraged the opposite habit. More guides are on the Draw Perfect Blog.