The Real-Digital Debate Part 1 : Painting

This is a multi-part post based on my perspective of how digital advancement has changed some analog/traditional things. Here's Part 1 based on what I've noticed how people look at and react to Artwork these days.

Traditional Art
I grew up surrounded by art. I think I made this clear in a lot of posts prior to this. Among the most noticeable things in my house, are my Dad's paintings on the walls. His work is purely traditional - Oil on Canvas, and many many watercolor paintings. My sister too has quite a good eye with art and has made chalk pastels her specialty - another traditional medium. Now coming to me, I would consider myself a traditional artist in graphite drawing. I have some works posted here on my blog and on my deviantArt page. I'm a little new to the art scene as an artist, but definitely not from an observer's point of view.

Right, so I've been hanging around traditional paintings and drawings ever since I was a kid. Obviously I picked up on that, later than sooner, but I did. I must say I absolutely love traditional art. When I look at a drawing or painting on wall (even if not a realistic kind), it gives a sort of rush that I never feel looking at a gallery of photographs. I don't know why this happens, but it happens to me. So personally I put traditional art very high in my list.

Digital Art
Now, coming to the other side of debate. Digital Art. One of the first names that comes to mind when one says digital art is Photoshop. Yes, there are lots of other Digital Art software like, Corel Painter, Adobe Illustrator, etc. each unique in their purpose, but Photoshop really has become a household name unlike the others. "This image has been Photoshopped". How many times have we not heard that term? Photoshop has become an action word - a verb! Well I have been doing stuff on photoshop for quite a few years now, but recently found a whole new side I never knew existed despite being so familiar with the software.

What I'm talking about is that brush tool! No I don't mean the really complicated but beautiful brush sets painstakingly created by artists to make life easy for others, but the simplest round brush! Digital Art with a round brush? Had someone told this to me a couple of years ago, I would've laughed. But now, I own a Wacom tablet and I know what exactly a round brush can do. It can create wonders. I had almost never started any artwork on photoshop with a blank canvas. There was always an image and stuff got overlaid on top. But after acquiring the tablet, photoshop starts with a blank canvas and stuff gets painted on top! How awesome is that! Digital Painting is one of the most amazing things I've been lucky to learn and grasp. A big bow down to the awesomeness of Photoshop - my respect for it grew 10 fold after getting a Wacom. All this and after coming across some unbelievable concept art and beautiful renders purely painted with tablets, I must say I suddenly HAD to put digital painting very high in my list!

The Face-off

Let's breakdown the face-off into 3 parts again based on Effort, Feel and End Result.

Effort :
This is a category which is actually confusing to describe. Still, I shall try. Let us assume an example where I would like to paint a realistic portrait in both oil and digital media. Let us also assume that I'm skilled enough to create such a piece of work, which means I have the knowledge of colors, values, etc. So now the only difference is painting on a real canvas and painting on a digital canvas. What takes more effort? In Photoshop, I have a choice of millions of colors with unlimited supply, whereas I have a decent set of oil paints but to create more colors I'll have to start mixing and my color supply is limited. So mixing/creating colors requires some work in oils (or any such painting medium). My digital work has been painted in layers, so now I can individually alter a certain layer's (example background) colors, shapes, etc without affecting the rest of the painting. Obviously, I need to put in a lot of 'effort' to make such a simple change in the oil painting. Even if the digital painting was done on a single layer making major changes to colors, etc would not be as difficult as with oils. Moreover in PS, if I realized one eye turned out bigger than the other, I can quickly select the eye, reduce the size and patch up the area around the eye to blend it back in. If I had to do the same, I'd most probably have to repaint the entire eye with smaller dimensions and patch the area around anyway. So again digital painting has the advantage. Now to add details. PS has enough zoom levels to see each pixel, so we can literally add details the size of pixels. If the image is extremely high res, we can details which may not even be visible to the naked eye. But with traditional painting, I'd be limited by the size of the brush I have and I can't zoom in, so I'd have to be extremely careful while doing this work, in other words, more effort. So clearly, if I am well versed with a digital tablet in my hands, I'd find it far more easier to use and finish than a traditional medium, avoiding all the mess of colors and oils spilling, cleaning palettes, smelling like turpentine, setting up a workspace, lighting, etc. Digital Painting wins this round.

Feel :
If you try to convince a traditional artist to switch over to digital because it's faster, better, more efficient and takes less effort, he'd still be hesitant. Why would that be? It's simple, he wouldn't get the feel of doing the real thing. That's where digital art really loses out. Most tablets do not have a screen on them, so you're practically scratching a blank surface hoping for the right kind of line or shape appear on the screen. The feel of actually drawing that line isn't there. That problem is eliminated with a tablet that has a screen, but still doesn't feel like the real thing. You're trying to draw on a glass surface hoping to create something that looks like an oil painting or a pencil drawing. So to be clear, the feedback isn't completely realistic. A person used to the traditional ways would be reluctant to switch over. Traditional media win this round.

End Result :
A lot of people may not bother to find out how you did it, but what you did. So the end result is pretty important. The advantage of digital art is, you can create a piece that resembles any traditional medium quite accurately. So if you'd print a nicely simulated digital work onto a canvas, most people would be convinced it's an oil painting. What's the fun in that? I don't know. But if you wanted to create a digital painting to look like an oil painting or even a pencil drawing for that matter, you'd be able to do it. The reverse is not possible though.

Conclusion:
So what medium is better? Well, my analysis says digital has quite a few advantages over traditional, but in the end, the opinion is of each individual artist. If you've always liked drawing with real pencils and would like to continue doing that, nothing's more awesome. If you're a beginner and would like to see which medium seems easier to grasp, you can use some of the points above to help you decide. If you've heard a lot about digital art but never understood why it is so popular, especially with concept artists and illustrators, again the above points may help.

As far as my personal opinion goes, I've found switching between digital and traditional now and then actually helps me look at things in a fresh way, so I've shamelessly married myself to both media and wouldn't be ready to let go of either any time soon.

Wacom Bamboo Create Pen and Touch Tablet Review

So I decided I HAD to buy something on Cyber Monday and I ended up buying the Bamboo Create Pen and Touch graphics tablet, even though it wasn’t really on a deal. Before buying it, I read a lot of reviews and saw a lot of videos of how it functions. It looked quite positive with some people even replacing their Intuos tablets with this one. I was hoping it was worth the buy, and I opened it up with a lot of excitement.
After the first few seconds of use, I could tell this tablet was quite awesome. The feeling was very realistic. The response time and the accuracy of the tablet was stunning and I did not expect that from it as it looked more like a ‘fun’ tablet than a serious one, by the look and marketing.

My experience with digital art is almost zero. I can do some graphic designing but none of it includes work on a tablet. Infact I’m so used to traditional graphite pencil that even using colored pencils for a drawing (still WIP as of this post) has been one of the most challenging works yet for me. I definitely was quite skeptical about the tablet’s performance reaching my expectations. But it really did, and surpassed. Within 24 hours of opening it, I’m already very comfortable using it. The touch functions are fun too, adding a Mac-like experience to Windows with the 2, 3 and 4 finger swipe functions, converting the tablet into a giant trackpad.
The pen is alright to hold, it took a while for me to get used to it. Noticed the 2 buttons on the pen and I love the fact that these buttons plus the 4 on the tablet can be programmed to almost any keystrokes and combinations, including opening applications. It’s pretty handy for some quick uses like undo, increase/decrease brush size, etc.

The accuracy like I mentioned before is quite brilliant. It’s the part that impressed me the most. Once I get used to the size of the pen, I’m sure I can write and draw as comfortably as doing it on paper and that shouldn’t be too far in the future.

The cable length is enough for my kind of usage and I don’t think I would need a wireless kit as of now. I just need to get used to one other thing. Adjusting myself to the angle of the tablet. While drawing with pencil on paper, I move around or move the paper around so I can draw some tricky lines at odd angles more comfortably. But on the tablet, if I try to change the angle, my lines go way off. I have to draw even the awkward lines keeping the tablet at the same angle and that’s something I need to get used to. As of now, my strokes aren’t very confident, so I end up drawing a bunch of small lines all connecting and overlapping each other.

The pen pressure sensitivity is pretty natural. I don’t usually press too hard while drawing on paper, so I’m kinda doing the same even on the tablet. Maybe I should adjust the pen firmness in the settings to see if it helps. The tablet does not detect pen tilt as far as I can see, but that’s ok because it has already given me more than I asked for.

Downside : The nib is definitely and visibly wearing out. It’s only been a day and I can see it clearly shorter than yesterday although I must admit I used it quite excessively in the last 24 hours. I’m hoping my habit of not applying too much pressure will save the nib a little while longer. I don’t wanna end up changing a nib every week. I heard of a protective cover that works well and preserves the nib. Should get that.
Apart from that, everything is brilliant and I’m very sure I’ve added another medium of art into my interest list. I’m only getting started but it’s already going very well. Hopefully I’ll post my first artwork on here very soon.

Taking the Leap of Faith

I've begun exploring new techniques in graphite drawing. I never thought this specific type of art has so many different styles and techniques that one could use to create realistic effects. My latest craze has been blending with ear buds and "painting" with graphite powder. In the end I have realized there's very little usage of a pencil to actually "draw" something. Most of my drawings these days are requiring a higher usage of erasing, brushing and blending. It has resulted in a much smoother and nice finish on the drawings which give a more realistic feel to the whole drawing.

What's the point in drawing from a reference photograph just to make the drawing look like another photograph? I don't know. The sheer pleasure and the end result I guess. The fact that a human can make use of 'tools' and his eyes to recreate something on paper as exactly as possible, is something we have to appreciate. Nobody put a sensor or any kind of device in us to be able to read highlights, midtones and shadows and replicate them with our hands. It's all in the brain and eyes and we must be proud that we can tune our them to observe such details. I bow down to some of the artists' realistic sketches i've come across on deviantART which are detailed to unbelievable levels, down to the texture of the skin. It's something I still need to develop patience for, but I'm slowly getting there.

So here are some of my more recent creations. My friend gave me an orange colored paper and asked me to draw something feminine. I picture a scene on a desert with sunset orange lighting and a girl looking away into the distance. I found a reference that matched the picture I had, so I started off. I tried drawing with a charcoal pencil and it created a pretty interesting vector style effect with a good amount of contrast. I'm sure i'm going to do more of this kind of work.

Abstract Vector Girl charcoal drawing (reference internet) : 04-Oct-2011

After listening to tracks by the fresh and upcoming band VersaEmerge, I became a fan of Sierra Kusterbeck's singing style and her unique photographs. So i chose one such brilliant photograph to draw.

Drawing of Sierra Kusterbeck of VersaEmerge : 14-Nov-2011

 My attention then turned to the Internet's favorite model Susan Coffey. I've seen hundreds of drawings of hers, and I felt kind of left out. I wanted to be in that league that was lucky enough to live in the same era as Susan Coffey and have the pleasure of drawing the fine features that she possesses. This was my first drawing in 2012 and I used quite a lot of eraser and blending tools like ear buds to get the image I wanted. Still haven't perfected that technique though. More Susan Coffey drawings to come for sure. One can hardly suffice with a single work!

Susan Coffey drawing: 15-Feb-2012

My next project come in a sudden dreamy flash sequence. Here I was, an Aerospace Engineering - with lofty dreams - drawing pictures of models on the internet. No. I had to draw something that was related to what I was planning to pursue. And the picture popped in my head like how a blub suddenly glows over the head of a cartoon character. I saw a rocket taking of in the distance and the hand of a passionate watcher pumping his fist in excitement. I saw it more like a photograph, with a distinct depth of field. I sat down to draw that next. Here's when I found out this new style of "painting" with graphite powder. I took a nice dark 9B pencil and used it on a sandpaper to get graphite powder. It wasn't the finest but it did the job. Almost the entire drawing was quite literally painted. It wasn't very easy but I tried my best. I hope to be able to create more of such original art inspired by my life's progress.

The Hand that Launched a Dream : 10-March-2012

More of my works are featured at my deviantART page.

Music. Drawing. Pleasure with Passion.

I knew I've always been on the creative side ever since I remember existing. Right from that day when I actually won a prize in a 'drawing competition' at the age of 2. Well, technically, I won that because I had the sense to draw on my paper and not the tables and chairs and others' papers, plus, I had happily managed to use all colours, including some that my parents borrowed from other 'budding artists' after I had used up all of mine. I still laugh to think of that memory I was reminded of.

But my affinity toward drawing, music, graphic design, etc. is not just a one off lightning strike hitting an 'unlucky' - in this case, lucky - person. I did attempt to get trained in these when I was younger, but I never actually showed true interest in them. I realized, I was just trying to follow my father's footsteps.

But suddenly, out of the blue, it clicked. It was a different kind of realization. Something that came from within. It was an energy stored inside that just wanted to flow out in some form. I found music and drawing to be the perfect hobbies to release this inner energy. It was not like a tennis champion personally training his kid right from the age of 3, to create a champion of the next generation. It was an artist's son, discovering an artist in himself at a time when he wasn't pushed for it.

So, I finally gave in to my inner energy and let it flow out. The results are astonishing, something at one point in my life, I never believed I was capable of. As the energy flowed out by itself, in the meantime, the brain was absorbing useful knowledge and experience. I always thought composing music was something only a highly skilled genius could do. But it happened with me and I love the tunes that I make. How did I make them? No idea.. it just came from somewhere inside of me. It completely changed my definition of the word 'musician'. I was one, and here I was, all this time, thinking they are extraordinary people who play in front of thousands and make loads of money. But it's also true that the people who go out there and do this are in fact, extraordinary people! So there are hobbyist musicians, like me, and extraordinary musicians, like say, Joe Satriani.

Along with music, my interest in Drawing has gradually evolved me from a line artist to a serious but still hobbyist, portrait artist. Of course, I still have a long way to go in that direction but I know I'm heading the right way. And who showed me the direction? No one, it was a compass built inside of me. That's all I can say. I had the interest and the eye for such detail, and the inspiration from my dad, and all I had to do was develop the skill. And I'm working on it in quite a satisfying way. Today I just feel like sharing some of my recent artwork that I am pretty sure, I hadn't dreamed of being capable of 4-5 years back..

The Guitarist - Date Drawn : 11th Jan, 2009

Audi R8 - Date Drawn : 4th August, 2009

LedaMonsterBunny (reference from internet) - Date Drawn : 21st August, 2011

Michael Schumacher (photo reference - internet) - Date Drawn : 4th September, 2011

David Beckham (Photo reference : Internet) - Date Drawn : 9th September, 2011

Sachin Tendulkar (Photo Reference : Internet) - Date Drawn : 24th September, 2011.

So clearly, in the last one year, my interest and skill in drawing increased greatly and it feels good to be heading that way. I hope there's much better stuff to come in the future...