Defending Digital Art, Alicia Meehan, opinions editor

My main art medium of choice has been digital ever since middle school. Though I will always enjoy and continue to do traditional art, digital art comes with many advantages that making art physically doesn’t have.

Making mistakes in life is natural, but paper and canvas can be cold and unforgiving. I can be a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to art. I often get stuck behind the barrier of knowing that I’ll probably make a mistake while drawing, which in turn could ruin the whole piece. On paper, especially with pens and markers, the best drawing of my life might get spoiled by one wrong twitch of the hand. Knowing this makes it hard for me to draw in my sketchbooks because I’m worried about ending up with something ugly and wasting my paper.

On digital art apps, the undo button makes mistakes so negligible that I don’t even pay attention to it. I’m way less inclined to give up on a piece early because of a mistake. Tools like the undo button, the lasso tool and the liquify tool are lifesavers. When I’m struggling to draw anything, instead of scrapping it because it’s funky looking, I can shift things around, cut and paste until it looks right. That’s something that traditional sketching can’t easily replicate.

Another great aspect of digital art is its portability and accessibility. Many professional digital artists have a special art tablet and pen that attaches to their personal computer, along with buying a sophisticated art program. But honestly, there are so many great, free programs that you can use on your phone. I recently received a normal tablet and stylus that I uploaded my favorite art program onto, but for a majority of my digital art life, I drew with my finger on my phone screen. The tablet is easy to carry around in my backpack, but if I don’t feel like carrying anything at all, I’ll always have my phone on me regardless of the situation. In contrast, I can’t always say I’ll have paper, pencils or my tablet if I want to draw at any given moment.

Traditional art can be cheap, but if you want a wide range of colors and, it’ll cost you. Fancy digital art programs are also expensive, but in most cases it’s almost completely unnecessary to buy the “best” program out there. Free art programs come with many brushes that you can use to emulate countless textures. All colors found on the color wheel are free as well, which contrasts from traditional art where you have to buy paint, markers and colored pencils.

A grievance that I hear about art programs is how complicated they can be, which I have also experienced. If I open up a video game and it has too many buttons, I get overwhelmed. The same goes for art programs. A more professional program like Clip Studio Paint (CSP), has about a billion buttons, scroll bars and things that confuse me. For those looking to get into digital art as a career, like graphic artists, learning the ins and outs of fancy programs is necessary and probably not as hard as it looks to me. For people like me who just enjoy drawing for the fun of it, simple programs work amazingly.

I use ibisPaint X, which is very intuitive to use. I ignored the beginning tutorial and figured out the buttons on my own, which there are much less of than in CSP. Though I can’t speak on how useful the tutorial is, ibisPaint X has that and many other tutorials within the app. You don’t even need to use all of the program’s features to make art you enjoy. I still don’t even know what a quarter of the buttons do, and I’ve been drawing on ibisPaint X for eight years.

Overall, the barrier to entry for digital art is very low, it doesn’t have to be any more complicated than pen and paper if you don’t want it to be. What’s different between the two is that digital art can be simple, but it always has more options available should you want to use them.

My praise for digital art doesn’t mean that I don’t like traditional art. I regularly carry a sketchbook with me, doodle on class work and I own countless markers and pens. One of my favorite art forms is collaging with my own drawings, which is very hands-on and physical. But digital art is extremely accessible and portable, also being relatively easy to learn and use, which is why it’s my go-to art form.

Defending Traditional Art, Ellie Bossier, copy editor

I want to start by saying that this opinion is not about the legitimacy of digital artists as artists, but rather about my own ability as an artist to work digitally. Namely, my inability to create art through a digital medium. When it comes to making art, I prefer to create the traditional way, with pen and paper.

When I’ve used onling drawing programs in the past, I’ve always struggled. If using a stylus, the surface of a screen is too smooth in comparison to the paper I am used to. Drawing using a mouse seems impossible to me if I want to draw anything coherent. In addition to the physical challenges of digital art, I have difficulty learning and remembering how to use different programs.

In addition to my difficulties that are simply a result of user error, making art digitally isn’t always the most accessible option. While there are online programs that are free to download, like ibisPaint X, they limit your options for the resources available if you do not pay for a subscription. Other programs that are higher quality and more popular, like Procreate, cost money to download. I do not like bringing my devices everywhere, and I leave my computer and phone in my dorm if I do not need it that day. Because of this, needing to have a device on me to work on a piece of art is not appealing to me. Also, my computer is not touchscreen, and I do not own a tablet which limits my accessibility with
digital art.

Aspects of traditional art that I value are the ability to have the physical piece in front of me and not having to worry about accidentally deleting it. The limited colors and types of brushes when working with a physical medium can be frustrating, yet I find this struggle to be helpful in my art. Being limited in materials and techniques can push me outside of my comfort zone and force me to think of different ways to achieve my goal. I value the little imperfections in my physical art because it shows that my art was created by a human, especially in this new age of AI slop that is uncannily “perfect.”

Choosing to create art on paper may seem like it can limit what I can do with my art, but I have found ways to make it fit my needs. If I need to have my art digitally, I will draw whatever it is that I need as I usually do. Then, I use the copier in the library to make a scan of the piece. I have found this to be much easier than attempting to draw online, and I really like the texture from the paper that the copier picks up in the scan.

When I have finished a piece, I love being able to have it in my hands to admire and share with others. To me, a physical product feels more substantial and rewarding compared to a product that exists only when it is pulled up on my computer. There are some works of art that I have created digitally and then printed out so I could have a physical copy, yet I love my entirely analog pieces more. The colors are never the same as they were on my computer, and I’m not a fan of the strangely smooth texture of the printer ink on top of the paper.

People who have the ability to not only navigate digital art programs but to also create amazing art with them are super talented, but I am not one of them. While there are broader obstacles that prevent me from creating digitally, such as not owning a tablet and the pricing of programs, my love for traditional art mainly stems from my own preference and experiences. I love having my art on a piece of paper in front of me (and being able to crumple it up if it frustrates me) and I will continue to make art this way for as long as I can.