If you could only use one medium from now on, what would it be?

**FourTonMantis** · October 27th, 2008, 10:35 PM

Pick one! If you picked other, tell us what it is.

**Medelo** · October 27th, 2008, 10:37 PM

....... oil paints.

Even though I love digital painting, I would die if I could never ever again feel the poetic give of a brush on fresh canvas.

**FourTonMantis** · October 27th, 2008, 10:41 PM

Originally Posted by DDream

....... oil paints.

Even though I love digital painting, I would die if I could never ever again feel the poetic give of a brush on fresh canvas.

You were a little early...I hadn't even finished the poll.

**Medelo** · October 27th, 2008, 10:41 PM

Sorry! Was just browsing around in my spare time

**jvgig** · October 27th, 2008, 10:56 PM

The near identical final product and added convenience and versatility of acrylic over oil make it my top choice.

**Ilaekae** · October 28th, 2008, 12:40 AM

...?...

Exactly why/what/who would ever make it necessary for me to choose only one medium? I can't even conceive of it happening...

To answer your question anyway, it would have to be acrylic. It's the only medium that allows me to "draw" (due to fast drying), use color as either glazes or opaques, on any surface, make some form of prints, and allow me to create sculptural forms (only medium that can be used on both solid and flexible sculpted forms, to create three-dimensional forms using it as both adhesive and color/texture). There is no second place...

**waranghira** · October 28th, 2008, 01:10 AM

Sumi? isn't that ink and watercolours?

For me, anything liquid that is manipulated with a brush.

**Grief** · October 28th, 2008, 01:51 AM

ink.

i can't do my printmaking with paints too easily...

*cough* add camera *cough*

**bhanu** · October 28th, 2008, 03:48 AM

acrylic
it can act as oils and watercolors...and its fast.... wats better???

**HunterKiller_** · October 28th, 2008, 04:41 AM

Hard one, but had to go with good ol' graphite.

**Jazz** · October 28th, 2008, 07:49 AM

Since computers and I have had the friendliest "relationship", I stuck with digital. I can do better work on there, minus sketching outlines. Mind you, I would miss using coloured pencils and markers and regular pencils...and stuff.

**dark eagle** · October 28th, 2008, 08:28 AM

Digital because it can imitate the rest, its the fastest, cleanest, easiest, manipulative-st, I've never heard of a pen that can re-size warp erase paint blur colour balance your paintings for you, well except wacom's.

What else can digital do?

**dark eagle** · October 28th, 2008, 08:31 AM

Originally Posted by Ilaekae

...?...

Exactly why/what/who would ever make it necessary for me to choose only one medium? I can't even conceive of it happening...

To answer your question anyway, it would have to be acrylic. It's the only medium that allows me to "draw" (due to fast drying), use color as either glazes or opaques, on any surface, make some form of prints, and allow me to create sculptural forms (only ...

A cintiq(for the hand eye co-ordination bit) and photoshop,gimp,artrage,painter, sai, can alldo that too,

**sodAp** · October 28th, 2008, 12:24 PM

the joy of working with traditional mediums... or the convenience of digital? I voted digital mainly because I want to do this for a living, but I wouldn't like to be in such place, its great to experiment with paints, brushes, markers, etc.

**Ilaekae** · October 28th, 2008, 12:33 PM

"To answer your question anyway, it would have to be acrylic. It's the only medium that allows me to "draw" (due to fast drying), use color as either glazes or opaques, on any surface, make some form of prints, and allow me to create sculptural forms (only ..."

"A cintiq(for the hand eye co-ordination bit) and photoshop, gimp, artrage, painter, sai, can alldo that too,"

...so, basically, you're screwed if you consider "...and allow me to create sculptural forms (only medium that can be used on both solid and flexible sculpted forms, to create three-dimensional forms using it as both adhesive and color/texture)...." is important to you.

**J Wilson** · October 28th, 2008, 04:57 PM

Has to be digital for me. Nothing else offers as many options. With technology constantly improving, it just gets better and better at coming close to the look of traditional media.

Discounting digital, it would go to pencil then oil paint.

**Black Spot** · October 28th, 2008, 05:06 PM

You can’t make me choose; I keep looking at the choice and remembering a nice piece I did in most of the mediums given. I might disregard a few as I’ve never worked in gouache or tempera, but given a chance before I pop my clogs I might well do. Whatever is in my hand for now will do.

**Chris Bennett** · October 28th, 2008, 05:39 PM

I voted acrylic and Ilaekae has summed up the reasons beautifully.

Digital can certainly ape all the other mediums and is the supreme collaging tool. However, it has one huge drawback: The relationship to what you are doing on it is by proxy and the printed result is by proxy also. To put it another way, there is no metaphoric meaning in the relationship to your tools.
When painting you are arranging coloured mud in such a way that the surface throws back the light in a particular configuration - by putting the paint in certain places I have the physical sensation of 'sculpting in light'. I have my hands quite literally 'on' the light itself as I carve a particular patch of colour thereby controlling how much of that particular wavelength is being bounced off the support. The finished work is thus a sort of light distorter fashioned by my own hands.
With the computer I am pushing arround pixels on the other side of a goldfish bowl. I have no visceral contact. And when I print it out I only have an ink jet version of something I was arranging on a screen.
I certainly use the computer to make images with, but it is for convenience. For communion I need the actual contact of real coloured substance lying on a cool, hard, white surface and that will throw back the sunshine in the way I have specified long after I'm gone.

**Anid Maro** · October 28th, 2008, 05:50 PM

I voted ink, mainly because it is a great drawing medium and I'm quite familiar with it. Though if I were more familiar with acrylic then I'd likely lean that way for the reasons both Chris Bennett and Ilaekae outlined.

**Nam** · October 28th, 2008, 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by J Wilson

Has to be digital for me. Nothing else offers as many options. With technology constantly improving, it just gets better and better at coming close to the look of traditional media.

Discounting digital, it would go to pencil then oil paint.

Same.

**septomin** · October 28th, 2008, 06:00 PM

Although it's nice to have your artwork be an actual physical thing, being that art is foremost an attempt to communicate, it strikes me as somehow appropriate to reduce it to raw information, freely available in it's intended form to anyone (barring weird monitor settings).

Also, I think it was mentioned that digital is the only medium that will actually change/improve with time, so I think that's the least restrictive choice.

**Opilione** · October 29th, 2008, 12:30 AM

Menstrual blood.

You'd be a bit limited with colour, but the gross-out value would totally make up for that.

**waranghira** · October 29th, 2008, 04:24 AM

Originally Posted by Opilione

Menstrual blood.

You'd be a bit limited with colour, but the gross-out value would totally make up for that.

Piss Christ, anyone?

**Farvus** · October 29th, 2008, 05:31 AM

I choose digital. It's beacause I would have oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache, oil pastel, chalk pastel, conté, tempera, ink, graphite, charcoal, marker, sumi and many other mediums in one. Nintendo DS or some other gadget would solve the portability problem.

**ikken** · October 30th, 2008, 01:19 AM

Originally Posted by J Wilson

Has to be digital for me. Nothing else offers as many options. With technology constantly improving, it just gets better and better at coming close to the look of traditional media.

Discounting digital, it would go to pencil then oil paint.

Not to start a holywar, but could you name the most notable digital technology achievments for the recent, say, five years?
because seriously, the main revolutionary thing out of there is MoXi, and no one can say when it will be officialy released.

**Elwell** · October 30th, 2008, 07:53 AM

Originally Posted by Opilione

Menstrual blood.

Too clotty. Arterial is better, preferably taken from people who waste their time posting useless polls instead of working on their own skills.

**waranghira** · October 30th, 2008, 08:49 AM

Originally Posted by Elwell

Too clotty. Arterial is better, preferably taken from people who waste their time posting useless polls instead of working on their own skills.

Blood from a Dengue patient?

**J Wilson** · October 30th, 2008, 10:53 AM

Originally Posted by ikken

Not to start a holywar, but could you name the most notable digital technology achievments for the recent, say, five years?

No, but it's not like you need notable improvements to make a difference. It's all a series of small steady improvements. I know ten years ago it was easy to recognize a digital work in a magazine or book. These days, not so much. I can't point to any one thing that made it so, but it happened none the less. And it keeps getting better. More memory, faster machines, better tools, software improvements, etc all have a large effect on the results. Given time, software producers are better able to refine their approach to mimicking traditional media, and offer better and better options to enable your creativity and vision.

I do miss the tactile feel of painting with actual paint, but then again when I use real paint I miss a LOT of the things I do with digital (layers, being able to zoom in and out, flipping the image, undo, erasing, etc). I can give up that tactile feel if I'm gaining all of the other advantages digital has to offer.

**ikken** · October 30th, 2008, 10:42 PM

Originally Posted by J Wilson

No, but it's not like you need notable improvements to make a difference. It's all a series of small steady improvements. I know ten years ago it was easy to recognize a digital work in a magazine or book. These days, not so much. I can't point to any one thing that made it so, but it happened none the less. And it keeps getting better. More memory, faster machines, better tools, software improvements, etc all have a large effect on the results. Given time, software producers are better able to refine their approach to mimicking traditional media, and offer better and better options to enable your creativity and vision.

I do miss the tactile feel of painting with actual paint, but then again when I use real paint I miss a LOT of the things I do with digital (layers, being able to zoom in and out, flipping the image, undo, erasing, etc). I can give up that tactile feel if I'm gaining all of the other advantages digital has to offer.

Well... to be honest
it's more matter of technique and current trend, that is blurring that edge between digital and traditional
because seriously, I find photoshop 7 much more useful than all the versions after (as a solely digital painter's tool)- you have all the necessary tools in 50 mb of disk space, and it doesn't need amazing 4+ gb machine to work with.
same with painter - the only reason why I do use X is that new brush cursor, as it's giving more natural and comfortable look.
with 6 you have pretty much the same
and you're absolutely right about the tactile feeling.