How To Get Used To Digital Drawing
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In and then many ways, engineering science has made our lives a lot easier. Nosotros can magically edit photos with ane click, make designs from endless amounts of stock photos, and create cute pieces of art. Wait, expect, expect; that final one isn't piece of cake. Digital art is surprisingly hard. Perchance we love drawing with pencil and paper and retrieve that volition be an easy switch to the computer or iPad. Then, nosotros're sadly disappointed.
Digital art is so hard because it relies on a completely dissimilar skill prepare than traditional art does. Many skilled artists realize that they're beginners once again when they switch to a digital fine art platform and have to relearn the nuts.
Making digital art can be really fun once yous get the hang of it. Even though it's challenging at beginning, the rewards for all of your efforts can be great.
Call back back to the commencement time you held a pencil or a paintbrush and how far yous've come up since so. Digital fine art is the same manner. Afterwards spending some time getting a strong foundation in digital art, you'll be well on your fashion to enjoying this medium.
Let's first off past talking about why the heck digital art is hard in the first place. Then, we'll dive into means that you lot can speed up the learning curve and jumpstart your digital art skills.
Your Materials are Completely Different with Digital Art vs. Traditional Art
Plainly, y'all won't be using newspaper, pencils, pens, and brushes for your digital art. Not in the traditional way, at least. Before you dive into digital art, information technology'southward important to sympathise which tools you want to use and how to utilise them. If you're like me, yous dearest any excuse to buy new engineering science and play effectually with information technology.
This tin can be a downside though. Instead of grabbing some inexpensive paper and pencils, y'all have to vanquish out some serious money to even make one digital fine art stroke.
You as well have to learn how the technology works before yous'll be able to become started with whatever art. All of this adds some complication to the state of affairs that y'all simply don't have with traditional fine art.
Here are the types of technology you'll probably be considering:
iPad and Apple tree Pencil: this is my become-to for digital art. I bought a Like Paper screen protector for my iPad, which gives my iPad a textured surface that feels a lot like paper. Given how precise and quick Apple Pencils are, they really do experience like traditional pencils. I've tried all of the other options on this list, but my iPad and Apple tree Pencil is what felt the most natural to me.
Graphics Tablet: a graphics tablet connects to your computer. Y'all draw on the tablet's small surface with its included pen and your drawing shows up on your computer. I used a graphics tablet when I first dove into digital art.
They are really cheap in comparison to an iPad and Apple Pencil, which can make them a good way to examination bulldoze the digital arts. That said, I plant them to be really awkward and have a completely unlike learning curve than the iPad and Apple Pencil. And then, if you get a graphics tablet and don't similar information technology, don't let it completely discourage you lot from learning digital art.
Drawing Tablet: there are drawing tablets that look like iPads that are made just for digital cartoon, Some of these are very high quality and pricey.
Like the iPad option, you tin draw correct onto the tablet and see your art come up to life right there. A lot of professional artists use them, but I don't propose them until you're actually committed to digital art. At least you lot tin use your iPad for emails or Processed Crush if y'all want to. With a drawing tablet, the simply thing y'all can do is digital art, so you want to make sure you're going to use it enough to justify the toll.
Computers: y'all can describe just with your computer. A lot of people do this with Adobe'southward Illustrator using whatsoever type of laptop or desktop you accept. Microsoft's Surface Pro is a really interesting option in the digital art world though.
The Surface Pro is ane of those computers that has a touchscreen and can be turned into a tablet at any fourth dimension. What I like about the Surface Pros is that they're big, beautiful, and have the ability of a computer in something that y'all tin can utilize as a tablet. The Surface Pro is a really absurd selection for digital fine art, simply similar I said with the iPad option, information technology's nice that you can use it for other things as well.
Later reading all of that, peradventure y'all're excited to buy a snazzy new piece of tech. Or, maybe you're annoyed that in that location'southward this extra hurdle you take to bound over to fifty-fifty get started with digital art.
Whichever military camp you lot autumn in, there's no incertitude that diving into the tech side of things is a necessary part of digital art that merely isn't in that location with traditional fine art. Depending on how tech savvy you lot are, this can add a varying degree of challenge to your digital art life.
A Lot of Techniques Don't Function the Same Fashion with Digital Art vs. Traditional Art
When you learn traditional art you figure out how to shade, color, crosshatch, stipple, and blend your materials on your paper. It takes some time, only you lot get the hang of it. You switch over to digital art and expect things to piece of work the same way, only they don't.
Maybe you hop onto YouTube and watch some tutorials and get totally confused by the techniques they're using. Why are they shading that way? How did they brand those colors and then vibrant? Things look so dissimilar in the digital world than they do in the traditional 1.
A lot of digital artists utilize things similar layers, opacities, and hex codes to reach their shading, blending, colors, and other artistics effects. Basically, they employ the tech to their advantage. When you're merely getting started, this can exist Actually tricky.
Instead of just rubbing your pencil lines to go the shading you're looking for, you create a bunch of layers with different colors that all lay on top of each other in a sure fashion. Yep, information technology can be a lot.
A lot of these techniques are complicated, but they're also what makes digital fine art so distinct. It'southward why you tin look at a piece of artwork and feel like it's glowing or that the colors popular in a certain manner. In a lot of means, these techniques are what make digital art so special.
Simply, like all art, digital art can be whatever you lot want it to be.
There are a lot of complicated things that y'all can do with digital art platforms. At the finish of the day though, it's just another canvas that'southward open up to your imagination. Learn some complicated techniques, or don't. It'southward your selection. Just brand art you like.
Information technology's too important to be clear that you CAN utilise the same principles for shading, blending, and color mixing on a digital platform every bit you would traditionally. Actually, this is what I do well-nigh frequently with Procreate.
I love shading with paper and pencil and wanted to effigy out how to exercise that digitally. With a little trial and error, I was able to replicate the same outcome and feeling I get from traditional shading with my digital shading. I do experiment with Procreate's more avant-garde features, but I'm a happy camper with my digital shading.
I have a full guide well-nigh shading with Procreate that y'all can check out if y'all want to larn more!
Digital Art IS Easier Than Traditional Art for Certain Things
Digital fine art is easier than traditional art when erasing, resizing, undoing, copying, pasting, coloring, and animative your work. With traditional fine art, yous are limited to what'south in front end of you. With digital art, you lot can brand thou changes to your art and canvas in just a few seconds.
Information technology's a HUGE luxury to be able to erase and change your canvas as much as you'd like on your iPad or tablet. I used to get and so stressed out making traditional art because information technology felt so permanent.
What if I wanted to experiment or test something out? What if I fabricated a mistake, which I seemed to practice ALL the fourth dimension?
Well, there'south no demand to worry about that with digital fine art! By default, this makes digital art easier than traditional art in these important ways. In the question of whether digital art is easier than traditional art, these are important factors to consider:
- instantly erase without leaving any marks
- disengage anything you need to
- instantly copy and paste any part of your work to a whole new canvass
- instantly change your pencil, pen, or brush to an near countless amount of choices
- instantly choose whatsoever color you can imagine
- apply a number of unlike "mediums" in your work without having to get any more supplies or tools
- make certain parts of your work invisible while you work on other parts
- completely starting time over with parts of your work
- animate your cartoons
- resize and crop your sheet
This is just a short listing. As someone who hates devious pencil lines and making mistakes, these things are really cool. The power to erase things alone would go on me using Procreate.
That said, you nonetheless need to learn how to employ all of these features and make the most of them. It'due south nonetheless some other thing to learn when you lot switch to digital art.
All of these features don't necessarily make digital art more than difficult than traditional art, but it does force you to think outside of the box, which can naturally be more difficult. When yous swoop into digital art, you'll want to spend some time agreement everything that information technology tin can do.
If you don't, yous tin still use the platform, just you'll exist missing out on a lot of what makes it then great.
At the end of the day, engineering science is a lot more than complex than a piece of paper. From my experience, yous'll love all of the horsepower and available features in one case yous figure them out, but it's hard at first. Tech comes with as many challenges as it does perks.
Get in with the mindset that yous'll need to acquire the tech along with the art before you get started and you'll make your life a lot easier.
You Need a Different Understanding of Colors for Digital Art vs. Traditional Fine art
Digital art platforms like Procreate give you lot access to well-nigh any color you lot can think of. If it has a hex code and tin can be found on the color cycle, it's off-white game.
This means that you'll want to expand your cognition of colors. Maybe you want pink, but what shade exactly? There are countless numbers of them. Maybe you want black, but how dark and rich? At that place are a lot of different ways to conform the opacity.
With digital fine art, gone are the days of mixing red and blue to make royal. Merely get choice any one of the countless regal options.
To be clear, you lot don't NEED a huge education in colors to get started with digital drawing. Procreate, for example, has a agglomeration of pre-made palettes yous can use based on different tones and moods. You can also but choose colors from the wheel without beingness overly particular almost the exact hue.
Merely, information technology'southward really piece of cake to become overwhelmed and to dive into a rabbit hole of all of the color options that Procreate can brand possible for you. Color matching; creating color palettes from photos; in that location'southward so much Procreate can practice!
To make the most out of your digital art experience, you'll want to play around with colors and offset to understand how they work on your digital platform.
Yeah, red and blue make purple, just how do you choose the exact right royal now that y'all have an endless number of them? How practice you manipulate it to go your highlights and your shades but right?
When I beginning started with digital coloring, my hues were all over the place and a complete mess. I would choose a majestic that was besides bright and then darken it also much to make a shadow out of information technology and somehow turn it into a strange pink color when I went ahead to make the highlight. Ay caramba.
What's actually cool almost digital art platforms is that you have access to an endless amount of colors for the toll of the platform. For Procreate, that's simply $10. Y'all don't have to spend a lot of money on expensive art supplies that only requite you 8 colors to mix from. That's a HUGE benefit of digital art over traditional art, but it does come with a learning curve.
Brushes, Pencils, and Pens Act Differently on a Digital Platform
Digital art platforms like Procreate are admittedly incredible given how realistic their brushes, pencils, and pens are. I've done tons of digital artwork that looks like it could have been washed traditionally. Experimenting with all of the different tools and seeing what they tin do is i of my favorite pastimes.
Did you know that Procreate has a brush that can instantly make clouds? See, their brushes are actually cool.
Even though Procreate does a great job replicating dissimilar types of brushes, at that place are just certain things that can't be done digitally.
For instance, the texture of acrylic pigment is something that many painters know and beloved. Procreate's acrylic tool can't give y'all those luscious clumps of paint yous become with a heavy castor stroke, nor can it give you that same shine.
To be fair, Procreate's acrylic castor is one of its weakest, in my opinion. Their watercolor paint brush is pretty spot on though and all of their pen and pencil options are extremely accurate.
When using the paint brushes, you'll need to go used to the fact that you don't have access to h2o. Instead of making a lighter watercolor wash by adding water, you'll be toying around with the castor opacity and the amount of pressure yous put on your stylus.
This can accept some getting used to. I was also surprised by how lite the get-go stroke of the acrylic brush is. There's definitely a learning curve with using digital fine art tools, peculiarly paint brushes.
Aside from your materials looking different on your digital canvas than they would in real life, you also need to realize that all of your tools, regardless of whether information technology'due south a paintbrush or a piece of charcoal is being manipulated through your stylus. I don't know virtually you lot, but I agree charcoal differently than I exercise a pigment brush.
Information technology'south not simply necessary from a logistics standpoint, it too creates different effects. Laying the charcoal on it'due south side and sweeping it beyond the newspaper tin make a prissy, gravel background texture. Flicking a paint brush can give a squeamish flair to the end of a line. You can't do these things with a stylus.
With digital art, you'll demand to effigy out how to brand a lot of unlike effects with a lot of unlike tools, all while using the same stylus that you lot're consistently holding in the same way. Styluses, particularly the Apple Pencil, are really cracking.
That said, they aren't smashing plenty to permit you apply the side of it or agree it in any type of creative mode. You lot have to brand sure that the point is touching your digital canvas. This can make it catchy if you're used to getting artistic with your materials.
Another important thing to keep in listen is that manipulating the thickness and saturation of your strokes will work differently with digital platforms than traditional platforms.
The matter that they both accept in common is that pushing harder or lighter with your pencil, pen, or brush will create lighter or darker lines.
Procreate is actually really amazing at recreating this in a manner that resembles the real world through sensing the pressure from the stylus. For example, pushing hard on Procreate'due south pencil selection won't do very much because pushing hard on a pencil will do little bated from breaking the bespeak and denting the paper.
On the other hand, if you push hard while using Procreate's marking option, it will expand in the same fashion that a real life marking would when you squash its tip. And similar you would expect with real life paint brushes, with Procreate's pigment brushes, the lighter you push, the lighter your stroke volition appear.
This is really not bad, but information technology can likewise be disruptive because of two of Procreate's other features: it's opacity slider and brush size slider. Through Procreate, you can adjust your strokes both through your stylus' pressure and the opacity slider and brush size slider.
The tricky matter is that y'all can use them both at the aforementioned fourth dimension. This isn't a trouble for pencils that don't airship when y'all button on them, but they can be confusing for markers. You lot set up your brush to a certain size, just then you push too difficult and the brush size expands. You then go for a thin line, but because yous aren't pushing very difficult, it comes out very light. Goodness gracious.
Personally, I don't mess with the opacity bar very much. I use pencils with Procreate a lot, so I do find the brush size slider useful. It can get confusing when I switch over to paints or markers though.
It'due south really pretty great that Procreate and other digital art platforms give you so many ways to customize and manipulate your brushes. It just takes some learning and trial and mistake to get used to.
Digital Fine art IS Easier Than Traditional Art for Erasing
Digital art is easier than traditional art when erasing your work. With traditional art, you can't erase permanent mediums. Fifty-fifty pencils can leave marks backside. With digital fine art, yous can erase everything without leaving a trace, which makes it easier to accept risks and experiment with your art.
The Moral of the "Why is Digital Fine art so Hard" Story
At the end of the day, digital art is so hard because it'due south different. Even if nosotros bound into digital art knowing that it'southward going to exist challenging, we don't usually view information technology as starting at square 1.
Nosotros're artists. Information technology's art. Right? Right?!
Whatsoever of us who accept jumped into digital art have learned the hard way that there are some traditional methods that transfer over and some that don't. Nosotros besides learned that many of the amazing digital artists that we adore have mastered skills we didn't even know existed. Basically, digital art is a completely different creature than traditional art.
Yes, digital art is more hard than traditional art for those with more skill and practice with traditional art. But, traditional fine art is more difficult than digital fine art for those with more than skill and practise with digital fine art. Information technology depends on the game we're used to playing.
A lot of the confusion about whether digital art is harder than traditional art or not comes from thinking that they're equivalent things.
Yes, there are some similarities and carryovers betwixt the two, but they're basically two completely different skill sets. In the same way that a pro softball histrion can't wait to instantly be a pro baseball histrion, digital art and traditional fine art are too like styles that have a lot of different nuances.
Think about digital art as a completely dissever thing than traditional art and it volition help with your digital fine art learning bend.
Instead of banging your head against your tablet trying to figure out why the paint doesn't function exactly like existent world paint, you'll be open to the idea that things work differently in this digital world. Basically, you'll be more willing and able to learn. But how, exactly? Let's talk about that next.
How to Learn Digital Fine art
In that location'due south a lot of value to formally learning digital fine art. This doesn't mean y'all need to go a degree in it or anything, only you'll gain a lot past doing more just experimenting with different tools and settings. Getting a strong foundation in the basics of whatever platform you choose will have yous a long way and speed upwardly your learning curve.
If you're hoping to dive into either Procreate or Illustrator, my suggestion is Skillshare. Skillshare offers TONS of skillful-led classes on everything you'll need to know to effectively use these programs, from beginning to advanced.
I actually learned my foundational Procreate skills through Skillshare and really enjoyed it. I didn't experience like I was learning something challenging or hard at all. The teachers on Skillshare have a knack for breaking up topics into seize with teeth sized pieces that are actually like shooting fish in a barrel to manage and conquer.
They're likewise professionally made and prissy to sentinel. Non to mention that these teachers are some of the elevation experts in their fields and they often teach you lot how to recreate ane of their pieces of work with some groovy tips and tricks yous wouldn't learn elsewhere. Yep, it's pretty bang-up.
Taking a form can practise wonders for your digital art skills. It gives you a step-by-step way to improve your skills and experience like y'all're in a community doing so. It can feel really alone in that digital sea of astonishing Procreate features. Get an expert-guide on your team through Skillshare and you'll run across a huge improvement to your motivation and skill gear up.
Click the banner or click hither and you lot tin can go a trial of Skillshare for free. That's definitely plenty time to proceeds a lot of great digital art skills.
Digital art and traditional art are both hard, only in different ways. They are both really fun, just in different ways. If one or the other is giving you lot a challenge, that's slap-up. It just ways that you lot'll take some dandy rewards coming your way one time you lot figure it out. Spring into a class and encounter how you can work on your skills and amend, digital or traditional. Whatever you choose, simply have fun and make art!
Diana has been an artist for over 25 years and has training in drawing, painting, digital drawing and graphic design. Diana's latest obsession is digitally drawing with Procreate and creating t-shirt designs with Canva. Diana has experience selling her art across a number of platforms and loves helping other artists learn how to make coin from their fine art as well.
Source: https://adventureswithart.com/why-digital-art-is-so-hard/
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