Every Artist's Nightmare
When digital art first hit the industry, everyone was saying that it won't stay because it is just so detached from putting pencil to the paper. Then they were wrong. Digital art started to find a new life and it keeps getting better and better. Then it suddenly became mainstream.
I personally found it very difficult to adapt. I am a traditionalist and I am very slow to changes. When I joined the animation world, I have no choice but to move with the times.
I am preparing this post because many people who knew me like 20 years back knows what noob I am when it comes to computers but now my artwork is mostly in digital form. They are curious how I transition from a traditional water colourist to a digital painter.
(sample of my work done through photoshop)
My Background
I am very sensitive to colours and that makes me a suitable candidate as a background artist. I love to paint landscapes and scenery and some of my work can be seen here. My medium is usually the water colour but like many people in the industry, we have to adapt hence, I can do simple sketching and portrait.
There is just something about using watercolour that is quite satisfying. It feels real and there is no better feeling than actually mixing the colours and putting it down. There is no 'undo' button to remove mistakes. Usually mistakes in watercolouring can be corrected through mixtures of colours and that itself is a delicate skill.
I have some other collection that are kept in the office and hopefully one day I am able to do an exhibition to showcase both the digital and traditional work.
The Transition
The transition was not easy. In the traditional drawing we don't have the scatter tool or the lasso tool. We don't have blend. Everything is done through the brush and movement of the hand. So, it became a new skill to be acquired. Not so much about actually carrying out the job on the screen but rather to discover the tools that the program can provide.
This is probably one of the better things that has happened to our industry. I can't imagine how to do digital drawing in any other program other than through photoshop. I guess that is why some companies pay photoshop specialist good money to merely know one program in detail.
It was a long process and I remember having to go through the sleepless nights and forgo my gaming session merely to learn how to adapt myself to the new processes. My wife bought me a dummy's guide to Photoshop but again for people who are in the industry like us, we cannot rely on general manual. So there are many things that I have to discover myself and I usually create my own 'brush' to get the effect that I want. You would be able to see my work in my previous posts.
Having an Eye for Colours
I notice that one thing that sets me apart from other people is I have a little gift of being able to guess the colours accurately. I do that in watercolour and I get quite a good mix and when I did that in photoshop, it usually comes close to the actual colour. That helped my work a lot because often a slight change in colour temperature makes the different to the ambience of the entire illustration.
So colouring came easier to me. The next was how to sketch using photoshop. This is my weakest part. That is why you can see my sketch work in photoshop is tardy and I usually make big clumsy sketches and leave the rest to the painting and colour mixture to finish the job.
Today my work ranges from such pieces
to more artistic experiment...
and finally to my work which is cartoon animation in 2D
Conclusion
It is not an easy task but it is achievable. Art remains art and the perception and sense of colour and composition plays a very important part. Shall meet again in my next series.
