Traditional or Digital?

While in the process of creating artwork and exploring ideas/ sequences through drawings and doodles in Procreate I couldn’t help but feel a yearning to attempt and experiment drawing in a traditional form. I was spending a considerable amount of time experimenting with various brushes in an attempt to obtain a realistic look or even a believable one. I thought to myself, “Why not instead of just trying to make it look realistic, draw with a pencil on paper and see what you think”.

I have previously been in constant conflict when it comes to trying to blur the line between what is digital and what is traditional. Having kept that thought in mind I decided to create one drawing in Procreate using a selected brush and the other using a physical pencil, comparing and contrasting between the two and going with what my instinct was dictating to me.

What I found from drawing traditionally is this frustration and difficulty to get the marks and strokes I wanted, i.e. the energy and the feeling in the drawing. For me I can only move onto the next drawing stylistically once I am convinced by it and unfortunately I wasn’t when drawing traditionally. What is even more unfortunate is I believe this frustration comes across in the drawing. Whereas the digital drawing has an element of freedom and vitality to it the pencil drawing felt more restricted and rigid. Ultimately I decided to use the digital method.

What I have learned is if there is a process which works for me then I should embrace it, not fight it and more importantly do not allow others to sway my artistic choices. Only I know what works for me and if I can feel it in my work then I need to follow my intuition.

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