Traditional vs Digital

There are many advantages and disadvantages to both traditional and digital ways of working, here are some examples:

One of the main advantages of digital imaging is the ability to go back and dramatically edit the image without being destructive, in contrast to this a traditional method of painting or drawing cannot be re-worked with the same amount of accuracy and is hard to make any edits without change the image dramatically.

One attraction and advantage to using traditional methods of design is the ability to work anywhere. For example an artist could work at the top of a mountain with a sketch book and a pencil, but a digital artist work have to rely on the power within their computer and in turn they would be limited to the time they can spend on a project at any one time.

Many digital artist would argue that they can replicate any texture or effect in the real world within their software, however this is not true. Although traditional artist might not be able to do this either, they can create something that is much closer. The traditional artist has in their favor the ability to use the raw material within their work, for example they could use sand or mud.

With the development of digital media the boundaries to which people can go to with their work has grown. For example animation and interactivity has opened many opportunities for artist, such as media that responds to movement and light. This kind of media could have never been created without the advancement of computers or the media software that runs on them. On the animation front computer software has enabled animators to use tools such as tweening that considerably reduce the amount of time it takes to produce an animation in contrast to traditional frame by frame animation.

One thing that I think has been lost with more artists using their medium in a digital form is people working together. It is much harder for a group of digital artist to work in the same room on the same piece at the same time, and this is where a traditional artist benefits. They usually require less expensive equipment, a computer, and they can all see what a fellow artist is doing. A good example of artist working together is graffiti, they may be many people working on the same wall and they can all respond to what other is doing.

Within traditional artists pallet they can mix any colour, however if they use up this colour and try to recreate it the chances are they will not get a direct match. They advantage of digital production is that the artist has up to 16 million colours that can be saved and used again and again

I think that the final big advantage to digital production is the final outcome. I f the final piece is an animation or is interactive it can be displayed throught a projector or on a tv, and if the piece is made for print all the prints will be exactly the same and produced in only a couple of hours. In contrast to this traditional art work , such as a painting, will take much longer to reproduce with less accuracy.