Question about common usage of Tools as a CA - still doing non-PC-work?

[Leidenschaft]

Dear Community,

I'm wondering even in those oh-so-modern-days if you can still use your pencil for sketching, are able to draw and paint even with acrylic- or watercolors as an employeed/independent Concept Artist?

I came up with this question because we all know that in favor for our praised economy everything has to go lightning-fast, speed-drawn, with minimum effort get the most out of it. Is this real or just in my head?

Something important to add is, that I do respect the work with tablets and on PC in general. I'm just curious if you can still do it the oldschool way.

[dpaint]

You know a year or two ago I would have said yes but the last couple of jobs I've had, the ad's want my images in layers. I usually work in a few layers digitally but they wanted things in 30 or 40 layers because they didn't have the skill to change the image if it was in a few layers or only one layer. They actually told me this.

And even thogh the work was approved and I was paid, they couldn't be sure that six months from now they wouldn't change their minds.

So I see this as a trend going forward which means traditional work will be pushed out of the pipeline for flexiblity in the decision process. Once people see they can have control without the skill to do it themselves.

Its easier and cheaper to have someone skilled do the ideation and then let lower paid people change it inhouse later on down the line as long as the files are split up into little bits that they can mess with.

[Leidenschaft]

I was somehow afraid that this would happen. I hope this will not lead to a drasticly reduction of creativity and creative freedom.

Thank you for sharing your personal experience.

[Qitsune]

I see it as quite the opposite. There is more iterations, more explorations and more pushing stuff in every direction than ever before. There will always be derivative crap, but I think there is more space for innovation because there is a great need for novelty. Now you can see novelty as throw away crap but it's when you churn out a large volume of new stuff that you will find gems (along with the bad stuff.)

[JeffX99]

Dpaint is right when it comes to the production art...and he mentions the ideation (concept) process which I think can be either depending on what the artist is comfortable with. Bottom line is that they know what they're doing and deliver exciting, interesting concepts. For many concept artists "old school" materials still have a lot of advantages, at least in the speed and ability to get ideas down on a page. Many of the top concept people in the entertainment industry work with traditional materials...and even those that don't certainly have developed and honed their skills with them.

Bottom line again is that traditional materials and methods are a better place to learn and develop your awareness and observation, which are then easy to use in digital media. Doesn't work the other way around very well.

[Leidenschaft]

So would you hire someone who shows you his sketchbook in form of drawings and paintings in oldschool acrylic, oil and watercolor? Wouldn't you be scared in the first place that it all would take tooo much time (ergo cost abit more) because he is not doing it on the computer? Or would you even convince him to give up what he's good at and tell him to learn it half-way from scratch on the PC?

I am not sure... I come from the media industry where everything from head to toe is sooo based on working efficient as possible, as stressful as possible to achieve those stated above: quantity over quality. or almost FORCED-quality over health.

Difficult to tell from all those different perspectives.

Edit: Jeff almost same speed - Personally I had trouble to step away from traditional painting and switch to PCish stuff. In the first place it doesn't feel natural to me at all. But you are right with "not the other way around" - that's almost a no-brainer. But yes, it's like that.

[TinyBird]

Wouldn't you be scared in the first place that it all would take tooo much time (ergo cost abit more) because he is not doing it on the computer?

Remember that just because someone is doing something on a computer, it doesn't automatically mean they can do it fast... Inexperienced artist (and I mean overall inexperienced, not inexperienced on using digital art program) can spend loads of time ineffectively when painting on a computer or take way too much time on rendering something that's not needed.

[Arshes Nei]

So would you hire someone who shows you his sketchbook in form of drawings and paintings in oldschool acrylic, oil and watercolor? Wouldn't you be scared in the first place that it all would take tooo much time (ergo cost abit more) because he is not doing it on the computer? Or would you even convince him to give up what he's good at and tell him to learn it half-way from scratch on the PC?

Honestly, I'd hire the person that suits the needs of the job I have in mind for, skill level is included.

Some of the arguments you're making honestly don't make sense either. Because it's acrylics it costs more? This represents a false economic equation into what it takes to produce the artwork.

[Leidenschaft]

Some of the arguments you're making honestly don't make sense either. Because it's acrylics it costs more? This represents a false economic equation into what it takes to produce the artwork.

time equals money these days in 99% of every business. consensus:

acrylics = not time efficient, corrections impossible

working on a pc = generally speaking: faster, more room for mistakes and corrections


and by posting this thread I was looking for an example (which I thankfully almost have) that it is still possible to draw/paint traditionaly as an employed/indep CA. please don't ignore the initial post.

@TinyBird: yes that might be involved aswell. thanks for you opinion.

and btw thanks for all the opinions of you guys aswell, so far.

[Arshes Nei]

time equals money these days in 99% of every business. consensus:

acrylics = not time efficient, corrections impossible

working on a pc = generally speaking: faster, more room for mistakes and corrections
.

Depends on the project. That's why I said it's a false economic.

Acrylics "not time efficient" to PC being faster still isn't really the most valid argument.

That's why it's project dependent.

[papageo]

I wonder if there's anything precluding an artist from creating the image in whichever medium is most comfortable and then scanning and separating out all of the individual elements in Photoshop to make variations.

ok, it probably wouldn't be very time efficient to paint big oil paintings for every concept, but quick charcoal roughs seems doable

[Leidenschaft]

Depends on the project. That's why I said it's a false economic.

Acrylics "not time efficient" to PC being faster still isn't really the most valid argument.

That's why it's project dependent.

Like always, with everything: Nothing is 100% correct and fits into evry hole, indeed.

@papageo: and which is much more fun like an ordinary pencil. you should try it out, I use charcoal quite often for quick sketches. feels much more natural.

I cannot repeat it often enough how important it is for an artist not to lose the feeling for the haptic part in drawing and painting. And I can only speak for myself of course, but when I'm on a project and do it all on computer without sketching or drawing anything on paper, it has no soul to me.

[cherokee]

i kinda agree when a company wants u to design they usually like to change the back grounds if they didn't like it so more layers

more layers are better tough in advertisement digital is good for well mass production
while paintings are good if u want to sell em but their are few or no
buyers of digital art usually commissions but if u want to get like millions u should paint
in canvases
that what my auntie grandma told me and she sold paintings for millions of pesos

[Star Eater]

Please take a look at the date of the previous reply before posting in threads. Thank you.