Getting Started With Digital Art

It’s been more than a decade since I tried drawing digitally for the first time, and it was love at first sight. Well, actually not exactly. First there was an awkward period of getting used to drawing on a glass screen, learning the hand gesture controls and navigating layers and other parts of the software interface. Then, a few months later, it finally clicked for me.

Just like anything in art really, it is a matter of personal preference, so if you are wondering whether drawing digitally is something for you, in this article I will try to cover some topics that might answer your questions.

Digital vs Traditional art

You will sometimes find people on the Internet debating over whether or not digital art should be considered ‘real’ art. The arguments circulating include statements like ‘digital art merely imitates physical tools’, ‘computer does everything for you’ and ‘it takes much less skill to draw digitally’. As someone who has tried both I can assure you that although often perceived as a lesser form of art, drawing digitally requires just as much time and effort, and the skills involved are simply different. Yes, you do not need to know how to mix paint, but you still need to have a basic understanding of the colour theory. Moreover, on top of that you need to find your way around the software that you are using - which by the way does not do everything for you, unless it is AI (which is an entirely different topic).

That being said, you might choose one over another for various reasons, like convenience or beginner-friendliness.

For example, a great argument for practising digital art is that it is cost-saving in a long run. You probably already have everything you need to start, and with just your phone or laptop you can use free programs like Sketchpad directly in your browser. Of course, if you want to upgrade your experience, you might need to purchase a tablet and some kind of specialised software, but the variety of tools those usually provide is sort of equivalent to different art techniques and styles you would try with physical materials.

Think about it, every time you want to check out a new art medium, you need to purchase new supplies like paint, brushes, markers and other supporting equipment just to try it out (which can get really expensive by the way), and you might even end up not enjoying it. When drawing digital it is a matter of switching to a different virtual brush that is anyway included in your starter pack.

The convenience and flexibility of it can also not be overrated. Pop your tablet into your bag and draw anywhere, anytime, without giving it a second thought. You can work on multiple projects simultaneously and make changes to them, for example, update your colour palette or rearrange elements on your artboard. You can also reproduce your work in multiple formats and adjust your designs to fit your needs, which is a gamechanger if you plan to sell some kind of products featuring your art.

The downsides? Well, there is something very unique about the feeling of drawing on physical paper, and digital devices simply can’t replicate that (even though there are protective screens that get really close to imitating that satisfying scribbling sound). Apart from that, regardless what device you are drawing on, you are highly dependent on its battery life. No power, no drawing, simple as that.

What kind of digital art should I make?

If you do decide to give it a go, it is important to think of what your goals are, to find the tools that are right for you.

Generally when we talk about digital art we talk about 2 formats of graphics: raster and vector.

Raster graphics

Raster graphics are made up of pixels, each holding a colour value. A raster artwork is basically just a grid of tiny squares filled with colour that are arranged in a way that displays a motif. The higher the resolution of a raster illustration, the more pixels it will contain, making the graphic appear sharper and more detailed. One limiting characteristic of raster images is that they can’t be resized - if you stretch an artwork with lower resolution to fill a larger area than initially designed for, it will appear blurry. It is nothing to worry about though, since you can always define the size of your illustration beforehand - it is simply a matter of knowing which one is the right for your purposes.

There is plenty of raster graphics software out there, with Procreate for iPad and Adobe Photoshop being amongst the most popular options.  

Raster drawing programs get very close to imitating real-world tools, providing a variety of brushes, effects and adjustment options. They are great for drawing highly detailed artworks with complex visual effects, however, similarly to physical drawings, raster artworks are hard to edit.

What are raster illustrations great for? Pretty much any form of physical prints, such as posters, book illustrations, merch and so on.

Vector graphics

When we it comes to vector illustrations, we talk about files in SVG (scalable vector graphics) format. Unlike pixel graphics, vector art is not a combination of coloured squares, but rather a set of coordinates and vectors that define every single shape and its location on the canvas.

For example, a perfect circle consists of 4 anchor points connected with 4 curved lines. Knowing the basic information like the distance between the points, the angle of the lines, the colour of the shape fill and the thickness of the outline, vector software can reproduce this shape anywhere on the canvas. This also makes editing and (importantly) scaling shapes extremely easy.

This is why vector graphics is so demanded in scenarios when an artwork needs to be scalable - for example, on a website. As most websites these days are built to be responsive (that is, adjust the layout depending on the device that you are visiting the website from), there is a strong need for graphics that can expand without loss of quality. Another great thing about vector files is that they are very small in size - all they carry is some geometric information, as opposed to every single pixel being stored separately in raster graphics.

There is a downside too, of course - vector graphic has limited possibilities when it comes to implementing visual effects, like textures or gradients. The way SVG files are rendered can even depend on the browser you are using, and often components of the artwork containing an effect go missing or are displayed wrong. These days you will find a workaround for almost everything after doing a quick google search, but still it can be a bit of a hassle to make things work.

There are many vector programs to choose from, like Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, CorelDraw etc. You will find that all of them contain a so-called Pen tool, which is the most basic tool for vector drawing. Creating vector shapes is quite different from traditional way of drawing, but over time you get hang of it.

What is vector art suitable for? Website and mobile app illustrations, promotional graphics, and anything involving physical prints - it works just as well as raster images in this case, and you can easily resize your design to fit whatever canvas you need.

I definitely recommend you to try out the two formats and see which one clicks for you. Some programs like Affinity Designer even offer both in a form of drawing modes that you can switch between. Regardless of which software you choose, there are loads of tutorials online that will help you master the necessary tools and find your way around interface. The way I love to do it is learn on the go, searching for video explanations on specific parts of the software that I need to use at the moment but don’t quite understand.

Learning and adjusting to the new way of drawing will take time, but it is important to push through this phase. As you get more comfortable with digital art, you will discover how much freedom of expression it actually gives to you. The most important part is that you have fun, and I hope you enjoy drawing digitally as much as I do.

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