Post #599849 by VanTiki on Fri, Jul 29, 2011 1:25 PM

Okie Dokie!

I've been following this tread with interest, and figure it is about time I stop lurking and start conversing. :)
As many have already said - this is a big hot button topic in the art world - and I have experienced it many times in my career as an "artist".
First off - the whole scenario kind of reminds me of when I was stone carving in college. There were two camps back then in the sculpture studio: hand-chisel only, and pneumatic tools. Hand chisel folks felt that air tools took the soul and thought out of the work, and air tool guys took advantage of the speed the tool gave them, and the fact that it let them do more work. I was an air-tool guy. In fact, I feel if I went back in time and offered Michelangelo a compressor and a set of high grade carving bits the last thing he's do is refuse them because they lacked soul. I tend to think he'd embrace them because A) he was a businessman and needed to make deadlines on commissions, and B) he was a creator, and the tool would let him create more work in his limited time on earth. For me, digital art is very similar to the old stone-carver debate.

For those who don't know, the majority of my "day job" time is spent creating on a computer. I do illustration, animation, and game design for web, TV, and iPad/iPhone. I can tell you that I NEVER thought I'd be using a computer for art. It was old-school traditional media in college, and spent years in Hollywood making monsters with old-fasioned latex and silicone. It just turned out that I found I could create so much faster - and experiment so much more - on a computer when producing 2D art. Now, this comes with a variety of caveats. I'm producing commercial work - so time is of the essence, the work I'm doing is not meant to stand the test of time, etc. For many years I would do my preliminary sketches and boards on paper - but lately I find it faster to just draw everything on the computer. If the final work will be viewed digitally - it is easier for me to start digitally.

SO - does the digital work I do have "soul"? I dunno. I'd say the commercial nature of the work - not the digital medium it is created with - has more bearing on its artistic merit. I think digital image creating software is a medium just like paint, clay, or wood - and it is the way the medium is used that defines the work - not the medium itself. A few years ago I was teaching a digital design and animation class at a high school, and I asked the studio art teacher where my students work would be shown at the upcoming art festival. She looked at me with a puzzled expression and said, "oh, but that stuff isn't art." sigh...

Of course, as much as I love the computer, I still like to get my hands dirty with clay. Ceramics and metal casting has a permanence that digital work can never approach, and I love the idea that something I make will be around for many many years after I am gone. Sure - someday when 3D printers get a bit cheaper and the resolution gets a bit better, I'll get one and play with it, but only as a tool to bring my ideas out of my head and into the real world - just like pencils, photoshop, and a lump of clay.

Great thread, Grog!
Henrik "VanTiki"