Creating Artwork That’s True to You
In a digital world where many of us are using a lot of the same tools such as the iPad, and even similar digital brushes, it’s a fair concern that some of our collective output might become a bit uniform.
While the more tech-savvy of us have spent useful time personalizing digital brushes, I’ve leaned into a more simple and analog approach: incorporating frequent hand-painted elements into my process. For me, utilizing the unpredictable nature of paint combined with the unique way each of us makes a mark is a great way to begin an illustration in a distinctly original way.
More and more, I will begin an illustration by painting out my base elements in gouache and then finish off the piece digitally using my iPad + Procreate.
It’s fun to think of it as a custom recipe. Consider these unique “ingredients”:
-The Type of Paper: Is it watercolor paper? Fancy or cheap? Canvas or wood?
-The Amount of Water: How much transparency or opacity are you working with?
-Types of Brushes: Are they old and scrubby? Or are they soft and absorbent?
-Pressure and Speed of Your Hand: Is the resulting mark-making delicate or bold? Are the shapes carefully crafted, or quickly painted?
-Colors Mixed: Is there a lot of shifting color and hue? Or do you find unique mixes of colors that happen to be on your palette?
All of these “ingredients” used in your recipe will combine to make a unique pie (or soup!) that only you could have made. Even trying to re-create the same painting conditions from the week before can be difficult. This temperamental nature of traditional media can sometimes be frustrating and hard to control, but the unique variables are also what makes a painting authentic to each artist.
. . .
The digital world is not going anywhere. Now more than ever, it’s incredibly important to be adaptable to a changing environment and evolve with the present day. I will be the first to admit that the iPad has been one of the biggest game-changing additions to my illustration process.
Nonetheless, part of me has concern about the over-use of digital painting. As one who doesn’t spend time (and lacks the technical skill) on creating and fine-tuning my own digital brushes, I default to popular options that thousands of others also use.
Going back to traditional media, even if it’s just for the base painting, simple shapes, or scanning in textures, has been a great solution to this. Keep a lookout for my first Skillshare class next month, where I go into further detail how I approach this process. To me, nothing can easily replace the lovely tonal shifts, gritty textures, and organic forms of real paint and paper!
Happy Art-Making!