Antares Complex

For context, this post was made by the creator of Inktober:

Just to set up a disclaimer here, yes I’m aware the creator is saying you can draw digital, yes I’m aware the post is mostly positive but this is something I want to discuss in detail since I’m an artist who went from traditional to digital.

Reading the post annoyed me, I’m aware that traditional was probably the focus of this event and the creator is in their right to dictate how they’d like to run the event, so that’s all fine. It’s a shame though to see the creator of Inktober to talk about digital in such a discouraging way…This isn’t an attack against the person nor do I have any anger toward them.

“But Mike, you’re a digital artist so obviously you’re bias!” I didn’t start out digital only, infact I didn’t have a PC till high school and I didn’t try digital till late high school…Tablets were a thing only people in Star Trek TNG had. Also, I live in a house where we all have created in traditional artist means. My mother made cute clay figures, my father paints miniature soldier figures, my brother has made large pencil drawings as has my sister and myself my outer family are also artists. A wide variety of mediums and passions~.

Antares Complex, the comic I make,  originally started with pencils and inks then painted digitally, I had to practice for quite a while to get anywhere with digital and I have no problem with how anyone wants to create, I do what I do, you do what you do and we can love each others creations! I agree with the creator of Inktober, self-improvement is important, but I don’t agree with their take on how to do it. There’s many ways to go about it instead of just ignoring options, explore others!

Undo isn’t this magical thing that makes you a worse artist, nor do I think using it makes you any less of an artist and more critically I do not think not having it or using/not using it helps you improve- everyone is different and maybe this is how some found improvement. I am not speaking ans an authority here nor am I telling anyone how to draw, just the opposite!

What I feel helps you improve as an artist besides study is experimenting! Draw up a new piece of art and ink with a different brush, try vector, or maybe colorize your lines! How do you colorize your lines? Who cares! Try any number of ways; ink with pink, use a layer mask and add color to it. Try new brushes when coloring or shading, try a different means of shading or lighting you’ve never done before. Make a new brush, don’t know how? Learn how to! Try a new pencil, pen or pick up a brush pen! (those things are really neat and I miss them)

Or hey, draw digitally only? Try a bit of traditional, you probably have some tools laying around from school, same to you traditional artists! Try playing around with some pixels! 🙂

Think critically about what you do normally and try something different! Learn! Experiment, play around. This is what helps you improve I feel, things that you were maybe unsure of or too scared to and you may figure out something you like and want to keep doing or make a piece that stands out and excites your audience. Experimentation is how I feel you improve, grow and learn, not limiting yourself to options or media.

Using undo doesn’t make you any worse, using digital doesn’t mean you aren’t skilled nor does it mean it’s easy, the computer doesn’t do all the work. Digital, traditional, pencil, tablet, sketchbook, photoshop, brushes, are all different mediums and methods and are all great, I say go nuts. Have fun and just create!