As a person who thoroughly enjoys working with a variety of tools and media when creating, I have pretty much stayed away from digital art. After taking some graphics classes in high school, I’ve taken note of a lot of things that I experienced during the course. I had felt as if there was something preventing myself from expressing authentically. I couldn’t make the crazy, wild marks like I wanted to.
Within the world of design, a lot of the focus is on making things look pleasing to the eye. It’s all about perfectly placed shapes, perfect blend of colors, everything perfectly measured out. Yes, that does indeed catch someone’s eye every time. But that is where I feel design and art form different worlds. Art is supposed to trigger an experience. When you see through a piece of art you feel all of the emotions from the layers of expression. Even though there is a lot of art out there that isn’t necessarily pretty to the eye, it presents the viewer with an emotional experience that a software could have never been able to do.
Since art is meant to trigger an experience, that doesn’t mean pleasant emotions every time. If that was the case, most art would be the same and only cover a small area of what art can truly portray. Art that communicates an uncomfortable feeling, isn’t all daisies and butterflies. It was able to make the viewer feel all sorts of uncomfortable emotions because of the content, movement of strokes, use of colors, composition, etc. It moved away from all of the rules of design and that is what struck a chord in people.
Having tangible materials to use opens up an opportunity for the creator to play with them, test their abilities, and manipulate them in different ways. That is something that stimulates the creative energy within an artist. Personally, that is how I work best. So sitting in front of a screen, using a software that other people programmed, had my mind go blank a lot of the time. After working with many different types of media for a while, I had an inkling to try digital art again. Seeing other artists create digital pieces through all of the different textures and brushes available to them, I wanted to give it a go.
Using the app Procreate, I was astonished over how many different types of brushes there were to create effects that would take hours to render with hands on materials. I had an absolute blast testing out all of the colorful textures, and playing with all of the different sizes and opacities. These digital paintings posted on this page were purely created from testing out all of the tools on Procreate. After messing around for hours, I started to gain interest in digital art once again. Even though I still absolutely love working with paints and other fantastic materials, I was able to see how you can still express yourself authentically with any kind of media. It feels good to branch out and explore all of the creative parts of yourself waiting to be unleashed:)
Final Thoughts
As an artist, it is so important to give yourself the opportunity to try out new ways to express yourself. I’ve seen artists start with drawing a series of shapes and cubes and never really made it big with that. They decided to do sculpting instead with those original ideas and made an incredible turn around. Sometimes just trying new ways to create your original ideas will help you get closer and closer to what you are truly made for. Maybe it is just a matter of finding the right form to convey your authentic expression. No matter what kind your creations look like when experimenting, continuing to create is what’s important. Just think, with every creation you make, no matter how big or small, you made a mark on this earth. It showed that you didn’t just exist that day, you lived.