Artwork made using only traditional means such as pencil, ink, charcoal, pastel, paint, etc, is usually labeled as Traditional Art. While Digital Art is artwork made using computer programs such as Photoshop or SAI.

Which is your preference? Traditional art or Digital art?

Personally, I bounce back and forth between the two styles. I like to do pencil sketches and doodle around with ballpoint pens occasionally. When working with color, I prefer colored pencils or watercolor pencils.

But nowadays, I work mostly with Photoshop cause I've been running low on supplies such as my favorite watercolor pencils T___T

I usually tend to veer towards traditional means, though it's been a VERY long time since I've drawn anything. When I was doing art, I would use ballpoint pens, pencils for sketching. I never tried digital before, but I'm willing to learn through tutorials.

I personally always start with a pencil sketch. From there I usually put said sketch into photoshop and color it. I used to use more traditional means such as watercolors, colored pencils and acrylics, but time and money discourage those now. I find it more cost effective and less stressful to use photoshop, there is always the undo button ready!

In the more recent months I've been doing everything directly digital.. sketch and all.

I seem to be losing my traditional skills, and it's upsetting. I just get frustrated now when trying to pencil sketch, it never seems right.

For the longest time I was very disparaging of digital art and even though I'd done digital I pretty much discounted it entirely. I don't know what changed, but in the past couple of years I've switched opinions and now view digital as just another medium. I think part of it was realizing that digital art didn't have to look digital. I dislike the super smooth, hyper blended, 'perfect' look that a lot of digital art tends to have. I actually have people ask me all the time what medium some of my digital pieces are - I use my tablet and my graphics programs just like I would my pencils and paints.

Part of me is afraid that I'll loose my traditional skills, since digital art programs make it so easy to 'cheat'. But on the other hand its much easier to pick up a piece for 5 min (if that's all the time you have) when you don't have to worry about finding your supplies, setting up, and cleaning up. Since embracing digital art - in the past couple years - I have drawn more than I did in the 5 years preceding.

So I guess short answer - its a mixed bag for me...

I'm pretty mixed really, I work with everything from a pencils and paints, woodburning, airbrushes and Photoshop/pen and tablet. I don't discount any form or medium as its all expression in the end

I like both styles of art though I think that I prefer traditional media over digital purely for the skill-factor. The most famous artists in the world used traditional media when digital didn't exist, and even concept artists, and draughtsmen still use traditional media to do stuff. Digital is convinient mostly, but the software and hardware platforms to support it can be expensive. You need the tablet and the software to make use of the full functionality of the tablet for arting digitally.

The cost alone is prohibitive for moi since if I look around at good art and craftshops I can source traditional media for a fraction of the price of the digital versions.

The only real use of digital art I go for is the ease of colouring in Photoshop. I use pencil and paper and traditional ink for making lineart. I only use the mouse to colour in Photoshop, although it does take ages. I've got a lot of patience.

So I prefer a mixture of traditional and digital to do bits of both but I prefer traditional media over digital purely for cost, ease of use, and practicality. Digital media is in actuality just a short-cut providing traditional media painting etc electronically so you don't have to go out there and buy an airbrush gun, the inks, and so on. You do it digitally but the precedence for digital media has come from years of traditional media painting, inking, and so on.

Why not try both?

~ Pyre

I think I'm torn between the two for a couple of reasons:

I attended school for several years for Industrial Design and was required to learn both traditional and digital. If this was a couple of years back I would be boasting about digital being a supreme version because of the time constraints Designers are always put under. We're not always able to finish a rendering fully, digital assists with this. Training yourself to learn the different software programs (in a job-seeking subjective sort of way here) is a major necessity in today's market.

Yet you can't disregard the fundamentals of traditional. It's because of these media you discover your style and which you favor. The digital options emulate these (very well) and can enhance your skill, but actually, physically working with them helps you obtain that better understanding to what they do. And I wouldn't switch that for anything.


Then again, I haven't done much with my own pieces in so long, I feel kinda ashamed at how little I've progressed with either. Not doing too great in that department

Usually - I sketch traditionally, and color digitally. But personally, I prefer my PrismaMarkers. So, I'll be working more traditionally in the near future, thanks to my Illustration and Painting class I'm taking this semester. <3

Personally I have only used Digital a few times, and I must say it makes coloring so much easier. Expecially if you mess up you can erase...but with Traditional there really is no second chances.

Myself, I like to draw on a piece of paper, then scan and colour. I just can't get used to drawing on the tablet...GAAAHHH so frustrated!

Well I USUALLY do for my artwork...
1)I sketch it
2)When I'm done, I scan it
3)Then I make it into Line art on Photoshop
4)Lastly I color it and give it some finishing touches.. xDD

So basically I do both I guess..

I wish I was able to draw with my graphic tablet, however I am only able to color my linearts..
Thus I am forced to use both, traditional and digital art and my scanner, which reduces my works to a din-A4 size.

But if I ever manage to do an awesome lineart, I'd like to color it with acrylic colors. =)

Despite all the digital stuff I put up - I actually prefer to do traditional works and that is what I do the most. The problem being, most my traditional pieces are on large canvases and impossible to scan (and phone camera kills it).


I do a lot of oil painting and watercolor.

However, I like digital art as well, and it's nice for wanting to get something done faster then what it would take me to do traditional work. CTRL + Z = God. LOL.

I have slight OCD, so when I make a mistake when I do traditional work, I start over from scratch .

Well... when I draw I do traditional since I don't have a tablet. And the only time I do digital is when I do coloring line arts of other peoples that have the linearts open for everyone to color >_>

I do mostly traditional artwork. I'm still learning the whole digital aspect of it all! So far I only do digital to color but I'm slowly getting use it. Once I get my hand-eye coordination under control I may be better! Then again I'm not use to drawing alot of anime and stuff... which I getting better at as well!

I use traditional, I draw it, ink it, copy it (with a printer) and color the copy, usually with pencils, sometimes with chalk or both. I color the copy so if I don't like the way it comes out I can try again. I would like to try digital, if I had a decent way to do so.

On a side note, it seems most people prefer the look of digital to traditional. Except maybe when watercolors or other paints are involved. Me, I like both looks, usually, and understand that they typically look better in real life than after they're scanned into a computer. Scanners seem to hate color. *shrug*

I enjoy both traditional and digital. For the more delicate work it I think the more traditional methods work better. Though sometimes it is easier to use digital, especially if mistakes are made. They are so much easier to fix.

See, I'm tied between the two. I'm better at traditional, but I like digital better. I'm not so good at digital art, but I'd like to be better at it.

Traditional. It's what I'm trained in and plus it seems to be a dying breed. So I choose to keep it alive.

I work in both, frequently bouncing between the two on a project to get the look I want.
There are certain things that can only be done with either method.

When it comes to learning about colour techniques, though, I believe it should be done with traditional mediums, such as paint and pastels. Only then do you really get a feel for the colours and what they can do together, which can then be applied to a digital media. But to work the other way, and learn techniques first in digital, I believe it can be harder to transfer that to a traditional palette, as the colours react differently.

Personally, I prefer making traditional and looking at digital, so long as it's not heavily pixelated. I just don't have the money to get the fancy programs, but I love looking at the detail that comes from some of them, like Paint Tool SAI.