Is software weakening classical drawing skills?
A story by Reuters, reported on CNET, claims that “Students are more comfortable manipulating computer graphics than doodling, drafting and drawing with pen on paper, and this has created a sharp decline in drawing skills in recent years…” What’s more, “…tech-savvy students simply lack the initiative and persistence developed by drawing, resulting in uninspired work.”
While I agree with the premise that classical skills are floundering in the wake of tools such as Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Maya or Corel Painter, I can’t at all agree that the results are uninspired, and I think you’d need to be a fool to not see the initiative or persistance required to learn these tools and use them well.
When the printing press came about, I’m sure there was a drop in skilled calligraphers. But I think you’d be hardpressed to argue that the overall effect on the art of typography was a step back. The advent of watercolour likely saw some wringing of hands by those who’d spent a lifetime mastering the tricks and ways of oil.
I was never patient enough for watercolours, and oil would have driven me completely buggy. My digital tools give me a chance to play with colour and have a level of control that I likely could never have achieved with the traditional media.
What I lose with my digital tools is the element of surprise and the path not taken. The greatest tool that digital media provides me - the undo function - is also the greatest weakness.
Traditional media had a permanence to it. Each stroke of the pen or splash of colour from the brush commits you onto a certain path. If a mistake was made, you either had to do away with the entire work or find a way to incorporate it. The graphical adlibbing of blips, blops and splooshes of unintended paint was often a great teacher on the use of colour and could sometimes lead to a work of superior quality than what was originally planned and forced a level of innovation onto the artist.
But with a digital production, odds are likely that the mistakes are simply done away with a keystroke. Strange paths are not taken unless the artist makes a concious decision to move that route and no adlibbing is required.
April 14th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
I work with various digital tools (Avid, Photoshop, After Effects, etc) and find that it definitely lacks the permanence that traditional media would have. The possibilities for experimentation is endless (or at least 32 levels of undo in Avid).
However, I do find that alot of what turns out best are those unexpected detours that are taken. A transfer mode that gives a cool effect, a colour change that I wouldn’t have done otherwise, etc. So, there are those unexpected paths.
I started a Sumi-e Painting course about a month ago because I wanted to work with traditional media, which I haven’t really done in about 5 years. So far it’s going pretty well, I do miss the undo button from time to time, but it forces you to have an idea of what you want, while still allowing for an adlib here and there. Also, knowing that one bad stroke or blotch on the paper can ruin an otherwise decent painting gives a greater appreciation for a painting that is masterfully done.
Anyhoo, just my two cents. Interesting post.
July 7th, 2007 at 5:38 am
I think to be good in painter of photshop, good drawing skills still are needed. Since photoshop doesn”t decide good composition, right tonal balance, proportions or any of the kind, to produce a really good work on still has to master the basics of drawing, no shortcuts. Furter in traditional painting and drawing there are undo’s in pencil there is the old trusted eraser, in oil you have the paletknife which kan still scrape mistakes of the canvas and in watercolour as long as you didn’t use to strong of staining colors you can wash it out providing that you are using good quality paper. But I agree, digital doesn’t criple the mind of the artist, it is an other tool in the arsenal of tools allready available and in the right skilled hands produces great results, in all the other hands mediocre ones, but stepping into the average amateur artclass will not show you any better work on paper too.