liminalandluvlh

[liminalandluvlh]

some traditional artists need to stop preaching that art has to be painful

okay so this is a rant from a very tired sleep deprived digital art uni student who learned the fundamentals a long long time ago, but has to retake the classes cuz for some reason my high school’s credits didn’t count.

this is something that I’ve noticed in my professors at my art university. My current drawing professor is an older man who was clearly trained more traditionally. Let me preface by saying he is a nice and funny guy and does have some good tips. However, all the stuff we are doing and have been doing is old review for me.

the issue I have with him and many of the drawing professors here (many of who are also on the older side) is that they have very little regard for forms of art that aren’t traditional, or use strictly “physical” mediums.

now, I’m a digital artist, and I know a lot of my friends and classmates are as well. But because our medium is digital and not “physical” these professors often look down on it.

some of us learned a lot of fundamentals through digital art. And to hear the professors just disregard that entirely is very disheartening. they have very little respect for the tools digital artists use, like effects, sizing and liquify tools, and probably the biggest one: photo references (or picture references). when people online were yapping about how using picture references is “cheating” and “not real art” I thought this was just a pissy corner of the internet. But now that I’m in uni I see that this is a very real sentiment these people have, and they are very in your face about it.

my teacher will completely fail someone if they use photo references. He tends to demonize digital tools as “shortcuts,” always talks about either drawing something right in front of you, like a doorway or a still life, or just drawing from imagination with no reference, even in professional work and outside of classwork. Does he not realize that still lifes still use references? Even if they’re not photo ones?

also, I’m sorry I don’t want to sit on the cold hallway floor for two hours drawing the bathroom doors. I’m sorry for wanting to be in a more comfortable space where I can be more efficient and not get frustrated as easily.

I’m sorry I haven’t been to Bali and didn’t memorize the mountains while I was there, so that I wouldn’t need a photo reference for a project backdrop.

my big thing is, my professor does praise my work a lot, and obviously I’m not gonna “cheat”and use a photo reference just because I don’t want to risk it. But the things he constantly praises me for in front of the class, I learned through digital art, and through using photo references. Now, he doesn’t know that, but whenever he compliments me only to demonize the methods that I actually used and worked for me just feels so backhanded.

digital art is supposed to make certain things easier. It prevents messes, gives you far more creative control, can save you a lot of money, and you can use tools as lot easier instead of having to spend time hand drawing them.

while there is value in learning to do things the “analog” way, once you’ve learned it, and understand it, and can apply it correctly, why spend so much time on it when you could be rendering? like genuinely how do these people think animations are made? Or webtoons? People working on stuff like that don’t have time to spend on painstakingly hand drawing every single line of convergence.

often, their rhetoric is “it’s supposed to be difficult and tedious.” I know that certain parts will be tedious. If it was easy, anyone could be da Vinci.

but the whole point of technology is so that you can focus more on the creative part and not the rigid parts. These traditional artists, who clearly had to learn everything the hard way, just want to perpetuate that without realizing how toxic it can be.

like listen, I’m sorry you had to spend 400 hours in a dark corridor or in the cold to learn perspective or haze rendering. But we don’t have to, and I’m not sorry for not wanting to.

I don’t want to have to worry about not being seen as a “real” artist. Or that I’m not as skilled as the traditional artists. I’m aware that I have a long way to go, but to completely discredit the immense visible progress I’ve made over the years as “just a digital shortcut” is extremely rude and disheartening.

if you want to complain and stick to your painful methods, then fine. I don’t care. I never had any issue with you doing things your way. All I asked was that you don’t bother me about doing things my way. Frankly, I shouldn’t have to asked for that, because so much of art is meant to be subjective.

It’s not cheating to use a photo reference or a perspective guide. Or use Color Dodge, or some other effect.

these are meant to be TOOLS, not replacements. And most of us use them as tools. The majority of us know that you still need to learn the fundamentals in order to create cohesive pieces.

We work just as hard to improve our art as you do. We just do it differently.

so respectfully, you can go back to your cold floor and continue complaining. I’ll be in my pajamas working on my next piece surrounded by plushies, thank you very much.

[liminalandluvlh]

hello world