An Artistic Atheist

I don’t really know why I’m deciding to type this out and post it.  I guess sometimes I just like to get my thoughts put somewhere tangible because it helps me to stop repeating them in my head.  This isn’t a humanistic post, nor does it really have anything to do with morality, so it’s not something I’ve typically made long text posts about, but here goes…

There’s something I’ve seen in a lot of growing artists that concerns me; an almost pompous reluctance to play to the advantages of digital art when using it.  I think I was the only person in my college class who happily cranked the smoothness in Toon Boom when I was working.  Everyone else seemed to just refuse to let the program do any of that work for them, almost as though they thought they either were better than what the program could do or had to aspire to be better than what it could do.

I don’t know of a single artist, professional or otherwise, who can do flawless linework with their own hand (at least not without countless erases/undos and retries).  In fact, I have my doubts that it’s even possible to get a perfectly cleaned drawing on the first go strictly under the abilities of your own muscles; because, as we all know, the ideomotor effect causes involuntary twitches and movements in your hand muscles.

I guess what I’m getting at is just to ask, ‘why even bother using a digital workflow if you’re not going to play to the advantages that digital workflows provide?’  As a visual artist, one’s goal is typically to produce the best looking work they can muster, and if that means having a computer help you along, then, as I see it, you should do it.  Why the reluctance from so many artists?  Why intentionally ensure that your work is not as good as it could be when all the tools are in your possession to make it better?  Why do some artists think there’s shame in using shortcuts like this?  Isn’t the end result what matters?

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I’m mentioned on TV Tropes.  I recently took over as artist for the webcomic Everyday Heroes and the TV Tropes page has rather quickly reflected this.  Cool.

EDIT: Should note, the latest comic is not drawn by me as I had a really busy week and Ed went ahead and did that one for me.