Digital Art ain’t easy…
This is something I need to get out, simply because, if I don’t, I just might get a brain hemorrhage and pass out.
Digital art is like any other skill: it takes a lot of time, a lot of practice, and a lot of dedication. It’s not something that anyone can just pick up after five minutes of tinkering with Photoshop or Illustrator. There are two and four year schools dedicated to the study of Digital Art, both as a technical skill and as a historical exploration. There are galleries and museums that document the growth of Electronic Media, Video Art, Digital Art, 3D animation, and much more. Any TV show, film, video game, commercial, or cartoon you see has a massive team of people, each with a dedicated task, that helped make that piece of footage possible.
So when someone implies to me that Photomanipulation is not that hard, or fix this little thing here, or whip something up, it makes me want to punch myself in the face just so I can go unconscious for a few hours.
I have dedicated 10 years of my life to Digital Art, both the study and practice of it.In fact, my current reading is New Media Art by Reena Jana and Mark Tribe [link] and next, I plan on reading “Art of the Digital Age” by Bruce Wands [link] . During the 8 years (yes, 8 years) that I attended college solely to learn more about Digital Art, I spent every free moment I had outside of college learning about Digital Art. I didn’t stop. I pushed myself all the time, taught myself what my teachers didn’t or couldn’t, and still today, I know I have room for improvement.
It’s difficult to stop people from assuming that because I’m using a mouse and a keyboard, or that I have “undos” and a History feature, that somehow my artwork is less worthy of being considered art. No matter where I go, I run across someone who thinks that because I know Photoshop well, that I can just wave a magic wand and do something in 2 seconds flat. It doesn’t work that way. Even Digital Art requires an idea, a method, trials and tests, and eventually, a solution.
For a long time, I used Photoshop 5.5. If it were up to me, I’d use that for the rest of my life. But ever since my hard drive failed and I started using the company laptop at home, I’ve been using CS4. Apart from a few features that I nodded my head and said, “Neat”, I didn’t do anything any differently than when I had 5.5. Why? Because I pushed myself to learn new and different ways of doing things. If I didn’t have a feature that could do what I wanted, I came up with a new way. I’d try again and again and again until finally I got the result I wanted. This wasn’t a simple process that took me a few hours. I’d sometimes spend a week, almost nonstop, working out how to achieve the look or effect I wanted.
Why did I explain all that? To reiterate my first point: Digital art is like any other skill: it takes a lot of time, a lot of practice, and a lot of dedication.
I wrote a Tweet recently where I stated, “I want a one woman show during Art Basel. I want to make digital art museum-worthy. I want it all. And I’m gonna make it fucking happen.”
I especially meant that second line. I want to make Digital Art museum-worthy. And yes, I’m gonna make it fucking happen.
Thank you.
*steps off soapbox*
Amen to that! Im trying to learn it now and though it looks easy it is definitely not.
@Fayth Rose
*handshake*
Gah, this bothers me to no end. I remember doing some digital work on Paint Shop Pro 5 back when I was 14? 15? and thinking “nu-uh, I’ll stick to pencil. This is too hard!” ^_^
The fact of the matter is, “traditional” art continues to remain in high value, both in price and in respect. It might be because “digital” media is so new and has only emerged in the last 30 years or so in comparison to traditional which has been around for centuries.
Hopefully as more and more digital artists continue to prosper (such as yourself), that will change and digital media will gain the respect it deserves.
Hell,I specifically remember one of my graduating class mates not passing Thesis class because of the digital work he produced.
These days, he seems to be doing pretty alright
His website: http://pacman23.gutterspaced.com/
Keep your chin up and plugging along. I’m now resuming my attempts at digital art. In comparison to my pencil work, it looks like a 3 year old did it..but I’ll keep trying
@Kathleen
Hehe, I know exactly who that is. AND I remember somewhat what happened at FIU between him and the Digital Art department. Man, that was chaotic.
And, yea, keep practicing. For sure. That’s the only way to get better.