Throughout the years, there’s been a large amount of discourse over digital art or traditional art is preferred to artists on social media. For those who don’t know, traditional art is anything physical; pen and paper, paintings, sculptures, drawings, and more. Digital art is done with a screen and drawing program, they’re mostly used by artists on social media, digital illustrators and animators. The online art community tends to be a bit hostile when it comes to what is and isn’t considered art, and this has lead artists to see the tools they are given as a competition or needing to defend themselves against artists who use different mediums.
I ran a poll asking artists on Tumblr whether they preferred traditional or digital art, getting 72 replies from artists around the world. 38.9% of artists have no preference for traditional or digital art, this option being the one that was mostly voted for. 37.5% preferred traditional art, 23.6% preferred digital art. People might believe that the results seem to be backwards due to the accessibility and tools with digital art; but there’s a method behind that choice. Not only is traditional art more accessible to people around the world, but it also feels more raw to many people. Many don’t enjoy the thought of staring at the screen instead of being able to feel or hear the art as it’s created.
For digital artists though, they have their reasons for enjoying their work. Most digital art programs will have different brushes and whatnot to make drawing easier, along with having the ability to undo any mistakes instead of rolling with it like traditional artists. Digital artists have an easier time drawing things like light and complexities, and they have an easier time animating.
All in all, each artist has their own reasons for preferring their craft, and it’s understandable why the majority of people don’t have a preference for either. Digital artists and traditional artists are all artists, regardless of what people online say.
