Digital Art Helped Me Paint More Often

For a while, I was skeptical of digital art. What can I say? I’m a traditionalist at heart. I don’t think I ever went so far as to claim that it wasn’t “real art,” but I still had my reservations about the medium even as I got my first tablet.

Recently, though, I’ve found myself painting digitally more and more. This is not necessarily because I like it better than traditional art, but because it comes with some definite perks that  make me feel so much more inclined to sit down and paint. If you are looking to increase the amount of time painting, here are some reasons you should consider digital art.

Digital painting, Photoshop

No Set-Up or Clean-Up

This of course excludes the first time you set up your digital tablet, which isn’t always the instant gratification you hope for. But that’s usually a one-off situation, and from there on out you are ready to paint with the plug of a cable or two. 

With digital painting, there is no need to prep a palette or gather brushes and supplies. You don’t have to deal with a jar of water that you’re in constant fear of spilling on your computer (or taking a drink out of when you set it right next to your tea mug - I live life on the edge). Also, if you’re like me, another embarrassing deterrent was that my work surface had usually become a giant mess of papers and junk that I would have to clean up in order to paint. And let’s be honest, I wasn’t doing that anytime soon.

Then there comes the clean-up. Are you guilty of letting your brushes sit in your jar of water for days on end because you just can’t bring yourself to walk five feet to the sink to clean them? Did you dip your favorite sweatshirt in a glob of alizarin crimson partway through the painting process, and now you have to deal with the repercussions? There is no mess at the end of the digital painting process - just make sure you hit <Ctrl + S> (please, for the love, make sure you do) and you’re good to go.

Less Space

As someone who has spent most of their adult life living in small apartments, often with roommates, this was a big one for me. The afore-mentioned workspace that I complained about setting up can be a luxury to even have in the first place. Traditional art can often require a lot of space, especially if you are painting. Digital art is more flexible, depending on the technology you have. I personally paint on a floor cushion in a corner of my room, and love the cozy compactness.

Lighting Doesn’t Matter

Again, cue the dingy little apartments with questionable lighting. In fact, when I moved into my current apartment I was shocked to find that most of the rooms didn’t even have overhead lighting (apparently a money-saving construction trick). There are large windows with some beautiful natural light, but if I’m trying to paint traditionally anytime other than 11am-3pm I find myself struggling. And if I was trying to squeeze in painting after work hours, or during the short winter days? Forget about it.

Digital art is so accessible anytime of the day (or night - guilty). I don’t have to finagle light fixtures or worry about my colors and contrast being off. I can just sit down and go.

Easy to Post Online

When I started posting my art online, I felt like I had a million skills to master. From social media to SEO to videography, I felt wholly inadequate (and still do sometimes - notice the lack of reels on my Instagram). Digital art took one of those skills out of the mix - photography and photo editing. It’s so easy to post digital art online, because it’s already in the correct medium! Especially if you’re also dealing with the poor lighting from the above section, eliminating the photography step is an immense relief.

Materials Don’t Go Bad

The other problem with a nomadic lifestyle? It’s a lot of moving around and carting supplies from one place to another. Depending on all the temperature changes and just how much time passes, art supplies can very easily go bad. I’m mostly referring to paint tubes, but bent paper, dented canvases, and crusted-over mediums have also fallen victim. 

Even if you don’t move often, when working a full-time job you sometimes just don’t have time to get through all the supplies before they kick the bucket. In fact, one of the reasons I started turning to watercolors was because they can be easily reconstituted if they dry out and don’t require a lot of additional accessories.

While watercolors were my saving grace in the traditional painting world, digital art removed this issue from the equation altogether. You can argue about the cost of entry and needing to replace a tablet, but on the whole I’ve found it much easier than maintaining all my painting supplies.

Reduced Planning & Increased Flexibility

My watercolor paintings generally followed this process: come up with a concept, create a rough sketch, finalize the composition, decide on a size, add a border, cut the piece of paper out, transfer the sketch, tape up the borders for clean edges and to reduce warping, and then start the actual painting. It was so much work just to get to what I considered the fun part. And if that sketch is slightly off-center, well...life just got real hard.

Also for some reason I always worried about the cost of materials, and put unnecessary pressure on myself not to “waste them.” This problem dates way back, and I remember a high school art teacher assuring me that we could purchase another tube of white gouache if I somehow used too much (bless her patience...and I did not run out).

Digital art offers so much more flexibility. I’m not saying that you can totally skip the planning phase (trust me, I’ve tried - the results are questionable at best), but with tools to easily adjust the painting as you go there is a lot less pressure. I feel more freedom to dive in, fiddle around, and make mistakes when there are layers and the undo tool - not to mention move, transform, liquify, and so many more. I don’t get the sense that one errant stroke or bold design choice is going to ruin the entire painting (have you watched Bob Ross paint that first giant black tree trunk against his perfectly-blended, soft background? THE GUTS).

I’m in no way saying that digital art is better than traditional art. I don’t even know if I personally like it better - the feeling of brush on paper still has no equal. But the perks I mentioned above have certainly made it easier for me to paint more, and any practice across any medium is going to be beneficial in the long run. Whatever helps you be able to sit down and make art, make sure you take advantage!