Hi from the Oregon quarantine. I went out yesterday to get away from the kids for a bit. For context, I was solo parenting for about 3 weeks due to a business trip, one during which I was supposed to meet husband for 2 weeks in the netherlands, but it was cancelled because of the spread of COVID-19. It was all kind of a bummer, except that husband is home, and that is wonderful. So I was desperate for a break. I ended up at the coast, thinking I could avoid the city, it was sort of successful?
While out there I did a plein air painting on my samsung tablet. I use Photoshop sketch. It reminded me of the old debate we used to have in college about whether digital art was as valuable as traditional art. I think Digital art is wonderful, a miracle tool to eliminate more of the translation between brain and paper. Kazu Kibuishi said it best when I asked him advice at a con once, which was that your drawing skills shouldn’t get in the way of your ideas. He said I should be making a finished idea EVERY DAY, and at the time I thought he was insane, but as I’ve gotten older his advice makes more sense to me. I was able to do a plein air painting without lugging around my eisle or dealing with oil paint, and isn’t that a good thing?
In college there were many people who detested digital art, even illustrators. One classmate even used Alex Ross as their example for “traditional art that couldn’t be replicated.” I pointed out to him that Alex Ross was a digital artist, and found the interaction really interesting.
I’m entering a plein air competition this summer. I will be using oils, not my tablet, because I think it goes without saying that digital plein air will not be accepted. I don’t even have to ask, and I understand why traditional paint is more appropriate for this type of thing.
But if plein air is supposed to be the raw capture of what your eye sees in person, rather than memory or from a photo, I reason that doing it on a tablet is just as effective as paints.