Nowadays, almost all of my illustration work is digital. This has been a conscious decision on my part because I it is easier for me, and I think my work comes out better. However, I’ve recently been re-visiting a lot of traditional media, and I thought I would do a little experiment.
I made one sketch and finished it multiple times, using a different medium for each painting. I thought it would be a good way to see the unique qualities of the mediums, and help me get a sense of the advantages/disadvantages of each.
For more info about the paint and supplies that I use, check out my previous post Paint, Paper, and Pencils.
The Sketch
For the experiment, I made a random sketch of some animal characters.
Each painting is 5″x7″. Note that as I worked with each medium, I was not trying to duplicate the look or style other than the basic colors. I worked with each medium on its own terms.
Digital
When it comes to painting, I am most comfortable on the computer. It is easier to experiment and edit colors and composition, and I’ve developed a method of painting that works well for me.
I try to create a “real” paint feel when I work digitally, so I tend to use a lot of textures and have fun with my brush strokes. Nevertheless, even when I keep this in mind, my digital paintings always come out a bit “cleaner” than my traditional stuff. This can be both a good and bad thing; the painting will look nice and sharp, but sometimes that is a bit boring. I’m always struggling to find ways to “mess up” the painting when I’m working digitally.
Gouache
Gouache is my favorite medium to work with traditionally. It is a form of watercolor, but it is opaque.
You can create some good texture by drybrushing the paint, but the effect is more visual than physical. The colors dry very flat with a matte finish. In fact, when my sister saw the painting sitting on my desk, she thought it was a computer printout.
Oil
Oil paint, because it is based on oil and not water, takes forever to dry. This makes it very easy to blend. This is why I think this painting ended up looking more soft than the other paintings.
The paint is also more dimensional when it dries. You can actually see the brushstrokes and the paint sticking up on the physical painting, especially around the highlights. This is why I love seeing original oil paintings; the experience is so much different than what you see printed in a book or on the internet.
Watercolor
Watercolor was the biggest departure from my usual painting style and methods in this experiment. The paint is transparent, which means that you must paint from light to dark by glazing the colors on top of each other. This means you have to be aware of where you want your lights to go, because once you paint over them you can’t get them back.
Watercolor also works really well when you have a line drawing to start with, so I inked my sketch using a crow quill pen before I started the painting.
Some Final Thoughts and Conclusions
- Each painting took me about two hours to finish, regardless of the medium. Although, the time saved from scanning, adjusting, and editing probably makes Digital the most efficient.
- Biggest mess: Oil
- Fastest cleanup: Digital
- The oil painting took over a week to dry before I could scan it.
- Gouache was the most difficult to get the colors and values just right.
- I forgot how much I hate it when peeling the tape ruins my paper.
- My favorite tool is the Undo button.
- Most fun for me: Watercolor (but probably only because it was the biggest departure from my illustration work)
- Least fun for me: Oil (because I don’t like cleaning up messes or waiting for paint to dry, not to mention the smelliness)
- Easiest to paint with: Watercolor
- The best painting: I have no idea – do you have a favorite?
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Hi Dani,
I just came across your website from a posting on twitter. You amaze me. You are so prolific, and your artwork very accomplished. I really liked this experiment. I’ve done the same thing in the past when trying to figure out a technique for a particular book or piece I’m illustrating. I feel kind of odd
saying this, since I work only in traditional mediums (not from bias, but from lack of digital ability). I liked the digital painting the best! I thought the colors and textures were wonderful, and I SO wanted to be able to do it. What program do you use? You have really mastered that technique. It was fun and intstructive to see the different pieces. Thanks for sharing them.
Diane
My two favorite are the oils and the gouache (of course the two that are the most annoying to work with. I liked the saturated colours and the depth of the oils. I like the bright clean colours of the goauche and the blue reflective light. I like bright colours, so I’d say pump up the saturation on your Digital work! hee hee
“Fastest cleanup: Digital” <- So like you had to put your pen tablet away afterwards? ^_^ Too funny!
I just got a pen tablet recently, and I really love doing digital work now. It’s so not messy, and after the
initial cost of the tablet and design programs there is not really a lot of expense. Clean up is the worst, but I never have to do that with my tablet!
This is a really great experiment! Now, I may be biased ‘cuz I’m a digital monkey, but I think the digital one looks a whole lot better than the rest. The only one that looks close is the oil. Well, I like the alligator in the gouache and the others in the oil. Your work is awesome. I’m following you on Twitter under the name markdrawsstuff. Anyways, keep up the good stuff.
I too like the digital one best. The colors and textures are awesome. Cool experiment Dani!!
I’m really torn between them. Because I am resistant to digital painting I think I am naturally biased against it, but if I answered honestly I would say it is the best of the four in my opinion.
But in saying that, each of the pieces has qualities that I like and I honestly don’t see any of them as failures by any means!!
I think I might have to invest in some time to become more comfortable with digital painting.
Great post, great experiment, thanks so much for sharing this!
I think my favorites are the digital and the gouache.
Personally I like the Oil result the best. However the digital is right there, and I believe if you pushed yourself more to pump up the contrast of the light and shadow it would be right there with the oil. I work on a cintiq and I find that I almost always have to go further on the contrast than I think I should on screen so that it comes out punchy when its printed.
Nice job, I really like the loose style and the color that you put into the shadows. Awesome.
Do you have a particular post / tutorial that outlines your digital painting technique?
Hi Dani,
Incredible post! I wanted to see something like this media comparison in a long time, and you’ve done it so well. While I love traditional media, I think digital can bring fantastic results, and your work there proves that! The textures and brush strokes in your digital work is simply stunning. It feels so traditional, even more so than the traditional medias! So the winner here is digital for me; gouache second, watercolor third and oils 100th, hehe. One week to dry!!!
Last but not least: while this is my first post here, I’ve been following your site for years! Your textures and tutorials really helped me get started on the digital media. I added a link to here on my blog, hope you don’t mind!
Thanks guys! It seems a lot of you like the oil one. Figures, that was probably my least favorite. I’m glad so many of you like it anyway.
The digital painting was done in Photoshop. I have outlined much of my process and techniques in previous tutorials and videos. In fact, most of these were painted during Ustream shows. I forgot to post the links when I wrote the post.
Here’s the videos:
Sketch: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1571867
Gouache A: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1595762
Digital A: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1599768
Digital B: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1604683
Gouache B: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1630239
Oil A: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1634698
Oil B: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1639350
Thanks so much for all the comments!
The final outcome is great in all the medias. Digital and Gouache I guess would be my top choices on looks.
Digital if only considering the easy of working, editing, and clean up! The Gouache art seems to have a touch more contrast or punch to it than the digital, but I am sure that you could make the digital have more contrast.
Thanks for posting this experiment. Your artwork is delightful.
I like them all! However, in order they are 1) Oil, 2) Gouche, 3) Digital, 4) Watercolor.
Great experiment! Thanks for posting it and with great detail:)
Hi Dani
Lovely Project… I found it by chance when looking for animal templates for a class I am taking at school.
As a practising artist and art teacher myself it was lovely to see you undertake the same project in different media.
Here is my critical response to the variations in the project, bearing in mind the basic draughtsmanship was excellent so all of them would be at quite a high standard initially:
BEFORE I read which ones were in what media I decided to look at the group of four and visually decide which I preferred. Basically so as not to bring anything other than the immiediate visual impact to the decision process.
1st Oil painting. Because the colours were vibrant, intense. Including the figures of the animals, the yellow stood figure stood out nicely. The tree behind looked much better, more vibrant and more attractive colour. Background nicely picked up deeper colours and reflections not seen in the other samples so much.
2nd The digital. Nice harmony of tone. Lacked the vibrancy of the oils. But good overall effect. Background darker than figures so made them stand out which worked nicely. For that particular feature if was the best of the four.
3rd Gouache. The white highlights on the crocodile-alligator were LESS attractive than the two previous and tended to draw the eye too much to the body rather than the faces of the various animals.
4th. watercolour. Least favourite as colours more washed out and large white areas. Crocodile and background fared worst.
I have my flickr site below which has some of my work:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/australian_photos_paintings/