I'm Abandoning Digital Art
I'm tired of this grandpa (and by "this" I mean staring at a screen all day)
Guys, I just can’t do it anymore. After years and years of working from the convenience of my iPad (only delving into my pencils and paints when I’m feeling spicy and adventurous), I cracked. Ok, maybe this all sounds a bit dramatic, but I experienced one of the most paralyzing art blocks ever a couple of weeks ago while working on the rough illustrations for my book on my iPad.
I stared at the screen, and it stared back at me. I’d make a mark, then undo it. I’d zoom into the canvas, rotate the screen, turn layers on and off, and nothing. I was so frustrated; there was a disconnect between my brain and my hand. Nothing was going right.
I’ve had days like this before, so this feeling isn’t new to me. Usually, my solution is to take a couple of days away from the tablet and recenter myself. But there were a couple of things keeping me from stepping away this time: anxiety and a looming deadline.
My deadline for this book is a little tight. While I think it is achievable (I have around 6 months to complete the final art), I told myself (and my publisher) that I wanted to do the art for this book traditionally. Since I have plenty of experience finishing projects digitally, I have a pretty clear instinct of how long each illustration will take me to complete. Now that I’m working traditionally, I’m treading new waters, and all of that is thrown out the window.
So there I was, staring at my iPad screen, absolutely paralyzed. I thought to myself, “Wait if I am going to be painting each spread traditionally, why am I still working on the iPad? Shouldn’t I be moving to paper by now?” I quickly grabbed my sketchbook and doodled my character with a pencil I had lying around.
It felt incredible. It was so incredible, that I shot up from my desk, drove to the local art store, and picked up an 18x24 drawing pad. I returned home and began drafting the spreads.
It was like night and day.
I was able to confidently make decisive marks. I grasped the scale of what I was drawing so much easier. I entered the flow state for the first time in what seemed like forever. And most surprising of all, I felt comfortable.
I’ve always associated traditional art with discomfort. Messiness. Inconvenience. Why would I take the time to cut paper to size, transfer a drawing, and set up a paint palette, when I can just input the measurements and set up a file in less than a minute?
But something about this inconvenience made me feel more connected to the art process. When every part of the process requires care and craftsmanship (including the prep work) I am more intentional about the piece as a whole. I have to spend time picking up my paints and deciding the color of my underpainting, rather than picking a random color from a wheel to drop on my canvas and thinking, “Oh, I can just change this later.”
I spent an extra hour or two on this drawing than I would’ve if I continued this piece digitally. This helped me build a solid foundation that made the whole painting process go so much smoother than it would’ve if I had struggled with the drawing throughout the entire process on my iPad.
As my friends can attest, I have been hemming and hawing about wanting to make the switch to traditional for many years, but I could never pull the trigger. So why now does it seem like this switch is finally sticking?
The Process is Fun Again
It’s so fun to watch the paint spread in the water, to feel the scratch of the colored pencil on the paper. When I am working on a painting I feel almost guilty - like I am getting away with something. Even if I am doing contracted work or stuff for my portfolio, I am having so much fun I feel like I am procrastinating the “real work.” But jokes on my brain, this is the real work.
“I Can Fix This in Post”
A major thing that held me back from finishing a piece traditionally is the lack of control. What if I mess the whole thing up in some irreversible way? Well, it turns out that if you’re well-equipped with digital art, it’s actually pretty easy to make changes to a traditional piece after you scan it in. I’ll take a scanned file and take it into Procreate to do some final paintovers or fix some errors. When I first started, I worked about 80% of the final traditionally, and the finished the remaining 20% on my iPad. Now, as I’ve grown more confident, it’s more like 95% to 5%, but knowing the option to fix anything is there makes me feel less on edge as I paint traditionally.
Screen Fatigue
In retrospect, it’s no surprise this sudden rebellion against digital art is falling around the same time many people have been feeling a general disdain around digital media and smart devices. I’ve seen so many people experiment with replacing their iPhone with a “dumb phone,” collecting physical media in lieu of paying for a streaming service, and breaking free of the doom scroll of social media. I have personally deleted almost every social media app off of my phone and turned off all notifications aside from necessary apps. In a world where you are always expected to be glued to a screen, any choice you make to push against that feels rebellious. And in our modern convenience culture, choosing an objectively more inconvenient way to do something feels empowering.
While I still opt to use my iPad for certain projects, it’s nice to know I am not chained to it and I have the option to switch up my media when I want to. Maybe this is a flash in the pan and I’ll return to the convenience of my iPad in a few months, but I haven’t gotten tired of the paintbrush yet. All I know is that I am excited to sit down at my drawing desk - a feeling I honestly haven’t had in a long time. And I love it.
Gah this is amazing I’m so happy for you and makes me want to paint now too
I returned to traditional in full for my current comic project and had exactly the same reaction. Full days of working in flow, creative joy, exploration, lively beautiful drawings and art full of energy. No going back for me!