Does this look too digital?

[lpetiti]

Hi everyone! I'm going to start forcing myself out of my artistic slump, so I've been working on some paintings. One of my biggest struggles has always been when a digital piece looks "too" digital. I greatly admire digital artists who can bring such great brush technique and texture to their work.

How does this look? II wanted to go for more of a watercolor look, so I got some good watercolor brushes from Adobe (this is done in Photoshop). I'm actually going to (finally) purchase procreate today too so I'm excited to experiment with that.

[lpetiti]

Didn't intend to do a double post, but does the yellow or orange look better for the anemone?

[Blitz55]

I feel like I could write a ton on the subject of digital vs traditional and what makes a piece seem "Too Digital". But I would probably go whizzing by any practical advice and tread more in the theoretical or philosophical aspects of digital vs traditional.

Really, some quality digital brushes will get you part of the way there, but I think at the end of the day its your understanding of the traditional medium you're looking to emulate even slightly, along with your knowledge of the basics of painting that will get you the closest to achieving that more traditional look with digital tools. Have you done any art using traditional mediums like Watercolors or Oils?

So to the question at hand; I wouldn't say this looks too digital, just that it looks about as digital as most digital art. I think certainly some brushes could help give you some textures that you're looking for, and while I've been painting with Photoshop since around 2000 I've only just started trying pro-create and I think it's pretty damn cool and can definitely help give you some of that traditional flair your after.

But I would suggest doing art in say Watercolor if you haven't, and letting that medium force you to learn about it by way of using it. Some of the best digital artists that I've seen who's digital work doesn't have that "digital" feel have seemingly either started as traditional artists, or have fully embraced digital art as it's own medium and haven't attempted to try and make it look traditional, if that makes sense.

I can't help but think the main thing to focus on above brushes or trying to get it to look like a type of traditional medium is to just keep focusing on the basics such as drawing, composition, design, values and understanding color. All things that you could spend a life time trying to grasp I know, Haha. But honestly I think those who seem to best avoid that "Too Digital" look are often the ones who understand all those other aspects. And you'll find they can apply them to whatever medium digital or traditional they chose.

OH, and I think I like the first one more, I know the yellow helps break the Anemone away from the clown fish, but I still like the orange. I would suggest maybe adding slight variations of that orange in each of the anemone's tentacles and see how that looks. Not drastically different, but enough to kind of give it some noise so to speak.

[lpetiti]

@Blitz55 Thank you, that's a lot of great info! I do actually paint in watercolor traditionally from time to time and was hoping to really get back into it. It's so volatile that I can always stand to practice it more.

I like the idea of incorporating more values of orange into the anemone (I hate spelling that word, haha). Maybe that will help differentiate it from the fish itself, which was what I was worried about.

[demotlj]

I bought some watercolor brushes for Procreate from Adilson Farias and they are my favorite of the many I've tried but brushes are only half the equation. The best part of Farias' brush package for me was the video that he includes with the download that shows how he uses his brushes to make the piece look like real watercolor. He doesn't just paint with a brush -- he smudges the digital paint, blends it, erases it, creates blooms and edges, and does all kinds of manipulation to make it look traditional. He even adds some small mistakes at the end so it doesn't look as perfect as digital.

[Blitz55]

@lpetiti HAHA, I googled it just to make sure I was spelling it correctly.
But yeah, that is one great thing about digital, is that it allows you to really play with little to no consequences, meaning you can try all kinds of things out on your original piece and if it doesn't work, just undo, or delete the layer you created it on. It's kind of an ultimate art playground in that regard.

But, traditional work does force you to make tougher decisions sometimes, to stop and plan, and think things through. At least for me, and that can be very beneficial too. Plenty of room for both!

[Blitz55]

@demotlj That was a point I was almost going to bring up and I'm glad you did. It's not always about getting a brush and that brush is going to make your work amazing, it's about how you use those brushes. If you just apply some of those brushes with out much effort they can almost make your work scream digital more. It sounds like he made a great set of brushes and did a great job explaining how to use the brushes. I like that, I may have to check them out.

[lpetiti]

Thank you guys! These are all really helpful things

[lpetiti]

Update: I bought Procreate and I already like the brushes more than what I use in Adobe. I feel like I can manipulate the materials more like I would using them in real life. I can’t wait to keep learning

[demotlj]

@lpetiti I have tried a lot of watercolor brushes for Procreate and if you decide to buy some, I definitely recommend Adilson Farias' as top choice. I mostly do traditional watercolor and am not an expert in digital but I've played around with it and haven't found a brush that emulated watercolor brushes very well until I used Farias'

Any digital I do do is on my iPad with Procreate which I've been using for about 5 years and the program just keeps getting better. I use it a lot to do the preliminary sketches for my watercolors or to enhance them after I've finished. It's a great program and I hope you enjoy it. Have fun.

[NessIllustration]

@lpetiti This looks very much like oil pastel - lovely!

[lpetiti]

@NessIllustration thanks Ness! I used a weird mashup of a bunch of different brushes. Interesting how it makes it look like oil Patel!

[lpetiti]

@demotlj thanks! I will look at those brushes

[NessIllustration]

@demotlj I just looked those brushes up and they look AMAZING! It was an instant buy for me, can't wait t try them out. Thanks for the recommendation!