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      07-01-2019, 12:04 PM   #12
The HACK
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Here's a different analogy.

Long, LONG time ago I used to be pretty proficient with markers, since I was an illustrator by training. And I don't mean markers as in permanent markers, but real, high-end markers that you use for artists. I had in my arsenal a 100 piece market set (that set me back $500), a 120 piece color pencil set (that set me back like another $200), and a 12 piece inked pen set (I think that was another $100). I was expertly proficient at illustration with these tools.

My 11 year old daughter is learning art and illustration right now, but she does it on her iPad Pro. The results are excellent, as the pen and the apps do an amazing job at simulating the effects of different tools on different medium. I suppose I could never get the same result, as it's capable of switching back and forth between markers, pencil, and ink effortlessly. On top of it it simulates paper grain or canvas textures. Modern technology is truly amazing.

It's been nearly 20 years since I had to do illustration for a living, in fact, it's been so long that it felt like an entire lifetime ago. Now a days unless you're a well recognized illustrator, you're not making a career out of doodling. And even if you have a successful career as an illustrator, you probably at one point or another honed your skills on the computer as well as on physical media. I for one, liked doing illustrations, even though my job is in marketing and management now. So I never let the skills slide, and I pick up a pen/pencil/marker and sketch in my sketchbook whenever I want to unwind and get into a zone. But I found myself using the iPad Pro with the Pencil input more and more, as it 1) doesn't have consumables except electrons and 2) easier to clean up and 3) you an actually undo mistakes rather than having to go back and fix.

But I miss the physical sensations of blending the markers, the touch and the feedback of the pen/pencil dragging on media, the smell of the markers (OMG. I know it's toxic as f**k but holy sh*t do you get a good high from it), the pencil shavings, and the dirty fingers after a good sketch session. I don't do it nearly as often as I used to, simply because, well, I'm not being paid for my illustration skills. Plus my skills have mostly transitioned over to the digital front.

It's different. I can argue that the digital medium is superior in a lot of ways. And really, I do create faster in digital. It's performance is hard to argue. The same artwork that I can create in Illustrator vs having to hand draw it is about 5x-10x the time, if not more.

But at the end of the day, often times I'll pick up a pencil and just start to doodle. It's like an old skillset that very few people have, and most don't teach anymore, and frankly, I'm PROUD of the fact I can still do illustration on traditional media and do it well. And really, I can do it really well and the stuff comes out amazing if I put my time into it. It's far more rewarding even though the end result probably isn't that different.

But if you ask my 11 year old? She's like, "daddy why don't you just draw on the iPad?" She doesn't know what she doesn't know, as for her, she's never had to pick up a pen to do what she can do on an iPad. It's just weird to me, but for her it's 100% more natural to draw directly on a digital medium.

I dunno. Here's the last time I was "commissioned" to draw anything, and this was all done digitally. I don't think I can get as detailed with a pen/pencil/marker technique, certainly for some of the details like the QR codes and the brand/marques on the car. But I probably would have had a lot more fun doing it in pen/pencil/marker that's for sure.

I don't think it's an "ex" situation. It's more like for me, as a skilled artisan, the difference between different techniques that produce same result, but different experience. One is technically superior, exact every time, and may even have better results. The other is intimate, tactile, REAL. There's no shame in liking one over the other, but there is a REAL difference in skills involved to do either.
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