Do you think that something you do without a computer, when you do it with a computer, do you think it should be faster, easier and take less time? I sort of knew I felt this way but I didn’t really think about how it impacted things I do.
There are some things that, yes, are faster, easier and take less time with a computer. Making a complete fool of oneself comes to mind, one ‘reply all’ to the wrong set of people comes to mind. And I don’t think I would want to turn in a typed term paper having done it any other way than on a good word processing program. Cut and paste, auto correct and spell check take what was a major and painful undertaking in school and make it just another homework assignment.
There are somethings that just take as long as they take whether you do it manually or on a computer. Learning a musical instrument, for example. While it can be helpful and with the Internet there are an amazing number of tools and tutorial sites, there is no real substitute for repetitive practice. And it just takes as long as it’s going to take to learn forms and progressions and rhythms and scales.
Another place where using a computer, while an incredible tool, does not lessen the time it takes to do something is art. Some types of art it does make easier and yet somethings it does nothing for other than change the medium being used to create the art.
For example, if I take a photo that has elements that I think would make an interesting piece of art, I may not want to just enhance the photo I may instead want to render the scene using the photo as a reference. Just as I would if I wanted to re-image the scene manually in water-colors, or oil paints, or markers or whatever else. While there is the opportunity to more directly use the photo as reference, it will still take as long as it is going to take to re-interpret that scene digitally just as it would if it were being done manually.
So, I know that a portrait done in pencil is going to take me a certain amount of time. I’m a bit out practice, it will probably take me longer. Yet if I sit down to create that same portrait digitally for some messed up reason, I expect it to take less than half the time. Forget that I am using a medium I have only recently really started trying to create in, so it has its own learning curve. I seem to think it should take hardly any time at all. The nice thing is, when you mess up, it’s fairly easy to correct. And it is a little easier to experiment with a color or texture without potentially ruining all the work you’ve already put into it.
This all comes to mind because I have lately been contemplating why I don’t seem to be getting much work done on my digital art projects. I have a couple started and several that need to be done and yet I find I don’t work on them.
When I realized that part of the reason I wasn’t working on the art pieces was because they were taking longer than I thought they should, I decided that I needed to make a piece of art manually. So I have chosen a photo I took many years ago and I have set out to make a rendering from it using graphite pencil on paper. I only started it last night and I can’t say that I have sat and diligently worked on it for long stretches at a time. Even so, already I have ideas as to what I’m going to find.
Though I am rendering the scene as a scene and with more detail than I would have previously, I think I will find that many years of practice at rendering figures and objects in pencil means that that is still a more comfortable and efficient medium for me.
I think having the physical piece of art laying out where it is visible and it is visibly unfinished creates a draw to sit a moment and work on it. Walking by it and seeing it regularly keeps it in my conscience and so a part of me is always thinking about what bit to work on next. This doesn’t happen with digital art. You save the file, close the program, turn off the computer and it becomes out of sight and therefore out of mind.
There is also the part where, though I am familiar and comfortable with computers, and I am enthusiastic and in awe of some of the amazing digital art I have seen, it doesn’t negate the fact that I must still learn how to use the medium, just as I had to learn how to create with water colors after years of using pencil.
I suspect that this pencil drawing will take me much less time than I expected, though it may take several days of 30 or 45 minutes here and there. In the end, I will have gotten in some much needed drawing practice and come to a decision point. Do I admit defeat, so to speak , and decide that I am not interested in persuing a technological medium for creating art, or do I recognize that my frustrations with creating digitally are simply a lack of practice and experience with the medium and plow ahead and approach it as I did with pencil art. Start creating anything and everything that look even remotely interesting, using digital media.
Now that I have the problem identified, you might think I would just make a decision and start with it straight away. And since I am already fairly certain of the path I will choose I suppose that would be the most efficient approach. However, life and art are not always at their best when done in the most efficient manner. Besides, there’s this piece of art, sitting on my coffee table, that is shaping up quite nicely and it needs to be finished.
