I've noticed lately how popular digital art is getting to be as opposed to that of traditional artists (I'm speaking specifically of on avatar forums). The thing that bothers me is that I've noticed people considering digital art as of higher quality. I'm a traditional artist myself and I don't think my art gets as much attention as that of digital artists. I might be going a little crazy, but I also think I don't get paid as much for art of the same quality. I've even noticed in one person's art contest/request, that they weren't accepting traditional art unless it was really amazing.

What do you guys think?
When ordering art online such as on a forum, do you prefer traditional or digital? Do you think one looks more professional than the other, or of higher quality??

I always thinks this is a very hot topic to discuss.

For me, I think most people appear on avatar forums are exposed to manga, clean and shiny digital art. As for traditional, it is pulled down by how you scan it. Many people don't seem to know how to clean their scanned art and thus make the quality drop. I am not sure what are the new scanner settings, but few years ago, the scanner picks up dust and all the fuzziness of lines. It is not nice, even if I scale it down it still looks squiggled.

For traditional, I love watercolour, pencils, pens, pastels... especially watercolour! Yet it is also dominating by the scan quality. Or camera quality. If your traditional is good, but you didn't adjust the light or clear the debris, it will still look bad and dirty. More on presentation.

Fundamentally, I think the most important would be the skills. Traditional or digital, they share the same principles in creating art, through different media. Round is round, square is square. Need to follow anatomy, and the human body.

yeah, I figured it was a lot about scanned quality, but you can have the same poor quality in digital by using programs like MS paint and no tablet so the lines are squiggly. Even that would sometimes get more attention.

I photograph my art or scan it at very high quality, but still it doesn't get much attention.

of course the art should be fundamentally the same between digital and traditional, but it still doesn't feel like it's viewed that way.

I agree! To be honest, maybe I just didn't go to as much art shop lately, but when I look into Gaia's art shop, MOST of them offer quality art. Not MS Paint... not stick figures. But hey... there are people that paint monolisa in MS Paint using Mouse... O__O I am not sure how real it is... but the interface IS MS Paint.

When I first started Digital Art, for that smooth line I go through all the trouble learning paths. There are still awesome mouse user that create smooth lines. *nods* hmm... it is not hard at all, just... too many steps.

I am not aware of people selling MS Paint art... DX. Well, in compare both a stick figure, people would prefer cleaner art over dirty scan. That is my understanding. I didn't do a research of votes or views though... I still feel the same right now.
More likely, people are looking for presentation a wee bit more than the overall skill.

people can make really amazing art with MS Paint, but most people can't I think. It takes much more time and effort to do that than with a better program. I haven't been much around the art shops except freebies, so this is mostly based on past experience and what I see as the most faved art on DA.

There's an artist here that does MS Paint work. It's not bad, but I'm pretty sure it's done in Paint.

But even if the presentation is amazing....
I don't think people are even willing to look at traditional art to see if the presentation will be good. They just assume every traditional art cannot have the same picture quality as a digital piece.

Freebies... I don't expect much quality from freebies, actually. x.x wow, I sound mean. x.x
But you are right, in the fact that not many people able to master MS Paint.

Show them a sample without telling them it is traditional. XD
I am not sure... whether it is because they are bias to digital art OR they just didn't visit from the beginning at all. Artshop is not booming business in Menewsha.
As for dA, I don't know how it works exactly, so I can't comment on it.

The nicest art I see... in anime style, are the ones coloured by watercolour.
It is so pretty, sparkly~ <3 I personally do not let media dominate my decision.

I've actually gotten really good freebie arts. Sure there are a lot of people there just doing cheap doodles, but a lot of good artists just don't want the obligation of a permanent art shop or are making samples for the shop. There are plenty of paid shops out there that offer not so great art as well. But yeah, the art shops are deader than dead here. All artists leave before finishing their work.

lol. just submit to a contest that says 'no traditional artists allowed' without saying it's traditional? I wonder if it would work.

watercolor is my preference when looking at art as well. or nice copic markers. Somtimes copic can look like watercolor.

Oh yes! It is awesome to see Omimi did the freebie artz last few events.
Just like MS Paint, Freebie is just somewhere I don't have HIIIIIIGH hopes on quality.
Yes, there are crappy art shops around, and if you wonder why they have customers it could be they are cheap, or it is their friends. Networking.

Well, about that contest, you can't do much. It is just like a realism artist encounter a art contest where the owner ONLY want chibi. It is people's preference. Maybe only for that contest, or could be personal taste. Just like I don't understand why people pay for picasso's cubism. x.x At least the owner is being clear on what they want, I find that honesty is good.
(I thought you were talking about Art Post thread or Art Shop thread...)

Marker! YES! and that too.
hmm... >.< But if I have to compare over the two, I still prefer water colour. XD

I have much higher hopes in the freebie forum. At least people actually give me art. I order in the art shops and maybe 1 out of 10 times actually get art before the artist leaves. Haha, it might be networking. Otherwise, I wouldn't feel the need to buy some of the stuff I see.

well, it's not just this contest. It's just the clearest example I have of what I've seen. And I don't think it was personal taste for style because they said specifically that traditional art wasn't as quality. You could enter the contest but only if you sent her a pm with samples and they were the best art she'd ever seen. Digital artists had no restraints whatsoever. My philosophy with a contest is you shouldn't limit so much what art you get. You don't have to give the artist anything if you don't like it. Why not get as much art as possible?

But really they can look almost the same. i feel like sharing. I got this art. At first I thought it was watercolor, but it's only marker and colored pencils.

I mean quality. XD Not whether the artist work on it or not.
I have to be honest. As an artist, I had not been very punctual in delivering art. I didn't promise them a date, the longest record is one year letting people wait to the point even the customer forget. XD So many years of operating, I only cancelled one order because the customer could not wait, anyway at the end even though it was cancalled, I sent her the art free of charge~

Wow then I am not sure what horrible art they had went through to come to such conclusion. They are still the owner, they can decide what they want. Sure, there are people thought since it is a open contest, might as well get as many, but I had been to a few contest that stress on quality over quantity to the point that they limit only maximum 10 entries per person or so. Sometimes, they limit the artist to get what they prefer.

I would say the trend in avatar forums leans more to digital art, but I am sure if they get stick figures or crapp 3 year old MS Paint squiggles, they will not be all that happy too.

About the art you share... It is smooth. You should keep the answer and get me to guess. XD lol.
I can see what you mean... but the watercolour I am talking about are those watercolour effects...
http://www.elfwood.com/art/l/u/luciole/averire.jpg
I am just a sucker to anime... x.x

well, the quality unfortunately doesn't mean much to the customer if they don't get anything.
I'm not punctual either, though I almost always do the art in the end. A couple times I didn't finish the art because I didn't think the customer was even on the site anymore and certainly didn't remember they ordered art.

yeah. I can't really change the owners mind or anything, but it still irks me. I stress quality in my current art contest because I have a lot in the prize pool, but I also say that you're free to enter whatever if you want. you just won't win. A lot of contests I've seen limit one entry per person. I understand that because then sometimes you have to pick between different pictures by the same artist for the prize. It would be better to have lots of different artists rather than lots of different entries from three different artists.

I would hope so. . But who knows these days.

I don't know if it's just me, but that link is leading to a blank page. :/ I have a good idea of what sort of painting it might be though. Probably the kind of watercolor I love, but I love all different effects you can create with watercolor.

I am the type of person that if I am getting anything, I would much much hope it be a HIGH quality.
I appreciate kind nice art gifts, but it somehow makes me feel awkward? when I see a lot of flaws in it. I am a very visual person, my style my way, can't help it.

Then it is good. Maybe the owner have this same kind of perfectionist disorder like me? If I love my character SO MUCH, I really don't want people to draw them in crappy style. It will... destroy my imagination. Same applies to fan art... x.x I actually moaned over bad fan art...

Many contests that I have seen has rules on prize winning, like the grand overall prize winner cannot win the minor prizes, one entry per prize... and so on. No right or wrong, just how you want to arrange~


Scary... I just found the link when I posted it just now! It was working and now... it doesn't work for me... gosh.
luciole's deviantART gallery
She was the first artist that actually makes me see watercolour can fit in anime/manga. Yes, you are right, those type of effect that I figure it is pretty hard for Marker to immitate... as they use different chemicals.

oh yeah, I hate when I see flaws in others art and I'm...er...yeah, I love it? But if it's art of my character, I will love it as long as it's accurate and I can really tell it's my char even if it's not amazing art. It's more insufferable if the art is inaccurate. I do prefer art that's close to my level though.

haha. when ordering art, I like to ask for at of characters that fit the artist's style, but of course I can't have that control in a contest. bad fan art, I totally agree. not good.

totally preference on how you want to set the contest up, totally. I have multiple categories and someone can win in all of them, but they can't win 1st and 2nd place within the same category. no limit on amount of entries though.

such a beautiful watercolor! I love when I see that kind of detail done with it, because my watercolors are much more free-flowing and I can't get the colors all that deep. I have a how to paint fantasy watercolor book that is similar to that (it has both anime and realism). To me, I can see markers doing that except the splatters. That effect can be made digitally too though.
I believe this is marker.
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/20...er-d54c8yx.jpg

For each different type of story, my preference for character art style is different, so I am not that stubborn/lock into one style. For example, if the story setting is old ancient China, I would love those free flow water colour style, can close to realism. If it is a cute story like my manga, have to be chibi, and so forth. Accuracy is important but before I check the accuracy, the whole overall quality get to me first, I would notice flaw on skills before accuracy. x.x

By far, I felt that the most fair situation is one art piece win one prize. Easier to count...I guess. Not that I had judge before.

You do buy art tutorial books? I am too stingy to go for that.
Can the salt texture effect work on markers? I like that effect a lot.
Don't bring in digital, because lol, it can immitate a lot of things.
That pic indeed feels like marker...it doesn't feel the spirit of water flowing. XD I think I can even see some streaks of the marker brush tip...
You liked those kind of art style? westernish comic/cartoon type.

Really depends. If it's drawn on the computer I would want a digital copy, and if it's, say a painting I'd want a traditional copy. Keeping things in their natural state so to speak.

Xuv: I really really can't stand art that's inaccurate to my character. I got an art fairly recently that's the best quality art I've ever gotten from someone, but my kitty girl only had ears, but no kitty tail! It irked me so especially for that story since her ears and tail are a different color. Or even drawing someone's hair bright yellow, when it should be much closer to white.

I think it's fine to get multiple pieces of art if they're not of the same things.

I ask my mom to buy the art books for me mostly. I get them as christmas gifts and such. I don't think the salt would work with markers. Copic brand is the wateriest so they're the only one I would think it's possible to work.
O.o The pic looks a lot of watercolor to me. It's incredibly blended and smooth.
And I don't understand. what kind of art style????

Poet: That's a good point. Though that can be difficult to keep up with online viewing. Some people can make really good prints of digital art and good photos of traditional art.

That's true... but I actually found that Van Goh's art actually is a 3 dimensional surface. It wasn't until recently I saw a picture taken at an angle to which the entire picture stuck out because of the way the paint was done.

Some things can't be done digital.

ah yes. Some of it would depend on the media. Not everything has a 3-d surface. Printmaking would never have that.
Of course, it's always best to see something in person, but it's not even close to possible half of the time.

That's true. It's not like I can buy a Van Goh but a copy down to the 3D surface would be preferred over a digital.
I prefer my paintings on canvas :3

I've seen details of the canvas of certain works before and certainly had teachers talk about it. Like with Jackson Polluck. I like textured works, but I paint smoother textures myself, so I prefer it.

3D... is it the thickness of the paint that build up the 3D-ness?

Dakukuu~ I understand detail being important.
When I look at art, I start from overall to checking small detail. Which is why quality/style come to me first.
If the artist got your detail wrong, you have the right to demand a correction. :<

Art book over your place expensive?
I just borrowed my school library's art books. XD I borrowed a variety, mostly base on media. Pastel, watercolors, oil paint...etc.

Yeah that's what I meant meave. I notice a lot of paintings are very flat, whereas his sort of stick out at you

Oh, what a relief... XD I thought you actually meant wearing the 3D glass and his painting will jump to live like the 3D tv... XD

I think... only acryllic and oils have the thick consistent to build up such art.
Watercolour not so...

... and why are you nakie and bald? x.x

Xuv: but not everything can be corrected. you can't just change the colors or add shit in.

i feel pained when I see oil paintings with a 3-d surface. I think, "oils are so expensive! How can you use so much on one painting?!"

Because I don't feel like wearing items meave that's all.

@ Kat - It should only be painful if it's poorly done. If it compliments the painting it should work right?