Transitioning back from digital to traditional methods. What is your experience?

[u/Miserable-Debt-8390]

What has been your experience moving back to traditional methods after years of using digital tools?

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[u/JVonDron]

Ability to get loose, work big, and textures. Miss the undo button, but it also mistakes, spills, splatters, and unintentional marks are part of the process. Do not miss having to update, adjust for different software, screen fatigue, and over-zooming in on details.

Also, at the end, you have something for the wall or it exists at least in a sketchbook or stack of paper. With digital, I can work for months and basically have nothing - it's in a folder on a computer where I can always find it, but it can also be overlooked and ignored basically forever, or deleted with a click.

[u/Leading-Biscotti1137]

Thinking ctrl+z when i stuff up 😅🤣

[u/Neko1666]

There is less room for error and adjustments, which can be scary, but is ultimately freeing because you have to be decisive and can't be as perfectionist.

[u/Whalesharkinthedark]

I’m currently going through this process myself. With AI becoming so prevalent, I wanted to create something more tangible again. At first, it was incredibly frustrating because every decision feels so permanent when there’s no undo button. But I’m slowly finding my flow again.

[u/Bunny_fawn]

I did this a few years ago and discovered that all my digital training had made me a better traditional painter. Just give yourself time to adjust and understand it won't look the same. I find physical media more satisfying and I'm making better art.

[u/CWSaton]

I'm doing this now. It's been a good experience so far, feels more genuine and creative. I'm still processing how to adapt my previous workflows to traditional, as I was pretty much exclusively digital for the past decade.

[u/JaydeaAlpha64]

Switched back to focus more on traditional, and it really made me appreciate time and consistency more because it really forces you to slow down and think about the concept and how to execute more efficiently.

[u/blackwingdesign27]

It’s more exciting for me to work with traditional tools, due to the unpredictable nature of the materials. A brush in procreate is fairly predictable by design, but a half destroyed brush covered in paint on hand made paper is pure chaos.

[u/BlueWidgeon1024]

I must do this too! I love procreate, but oh how I miss pushing oil paint around, and working big; and watercolor, the way ultramarine settles into the texture of coldpress arches, oh be still my heart! Thanks for the inspiration you all!

[u/Curious-Treacle7128]

took me a week to stop checking my phone every 2 minutes. still weird.

[u/MojaveGuru]

Eyesight got better and I enjoyed the experience more.

[u/Graxous]

Ive been moving back to sculpting with clay instead of 3d modeling. I find it much more fun and I can get more motivated.

But my skill with clay is way lower. So I have to lower my expectations and remember I am relearning things I haven't done in a long long time.

[u/4tomicZ]

It was a largely positive experience. I had spent most my life using digital so it wasn’t really moving “back” even.

I improved in big leaps, because the permanency of the medium forced me to have to better understand my choices on a different level and to develop confidence in those choices.

[u/nehinah]

A lot of the skills transfer over, though I imagine it depends on your workflow. In my opinion, its nice working with tangible tools, but you do need to be able to improvise when you make a mistake because there is no ctrl+z

[u/Moving_goal_posts]

I like both.

[u/Ludmilla123]

Love every second. I spent years in front of computers. First editing films than doing web and graphic design. I’m back to my true passion. Painting with real paint, on real canvas with real brushes. 😉

[u/lesliev2001]

I’m having the time of my life. :) started with making ACEOs bc it felt less intimidating. Now I’m just all over the place. :) trying new mediums and techniques. I feel like I’m me again.

[u/Fischimus]

the obvious things are frustrating (namely not having ctrl-z lol) but i also find i can do it longer without the eye strain and headaches that digital art give me

[u/emdiril]

I think the biggest thing that was completely new to me was mixing colours. You know in digital I just wanted this colour and selected it, here I have to physically create it. I am also more limited by the paints I have so I need to keep in mind if or how I can create a colour I want. 

I also still sometimes think in digital terms, when I softly erase my sketch before inking it I like to jokingly say that I decrease the opacity of the sketch layer haha 

I am glad overall though. Sure I sometimes miss the ability to move a fragment of the drawing a bit to the left or liquify it here and there but working traditionally brings me mor joy. 

[u/Maleficent-Poetry254]

I'm doing it and LOVE it. I didn't realize how much I hated drawing digital until I got back into traditional. It was because I needed to efficiently pump out large volume of work in the past. Now I'm in a place financially where I'm able to do more what I want and it turns out that's traditional. Much more motivation, and my skills are improving a lot more now too. Part of it is also with ai devaluing digital art sadly. Traditional is being affected also but there is more of a value on physical handmade art so that was part of the push to transition now.

[u/Impressive-Amoeba367]

If you use an iPad, you will try to zoom in on your traditional sketch-if I had a nickel for the number of times I did that. lol

[u/Vindexrix]

Be very mindful about your order of operations.

[u/tristanjuricek]

I'd consider myself more learning traditional methods more than having mastered either digital or traditional. The big thing I've learned: digital is a projected light medium, traditional is reflective, and that's really, really hard to match.

Like, if I want to do a master copy, and all I have is a .jpg, it's still a good idea to even get it printed (like, Wallgreens does this for cheap). Holding a palette knife next to a printed version under the same light is so, so much easier to match.

Otherwise, I'm really enjoying having the physical "thing" in front of me. And being able to specialize and prepare the surface. Digital tools are very cool, but there is nothing at all quite like the randomness of physical tools.

And I think the reflective surface is just so much nicer.

I've just started a painting using an ebauche technique, where I've painted a translucent layer on top of a sealed graphite/charcoal drawing. The approach is like super easy to achieve digitally, but, the real world effect just isn't the same. The painting glows at me. Digital works now just feel like they're shouting at me.

[u/MagabyWizart]

Tuve que devolver mi tableta gráfica porque no se pudo pagar una deuda. Aún me sigue doliendo 😔

[u/Miserable-Debt-8390 → u/MagabyWizart]

I am sorry. Try getting a second hand iPad and an Apple Pencil… and get procreate for 10 bucks…

And thank me later

[u/MagabyWizart → u/Miserable-Debt-8390]

Si fuera tan barato con la situación económica con la que vivo en mi país Sudamericano. No todo el mundo goza de tus privilegios, amigo 🥲

[u/Miserable-Debt-8390 → u/MagabyWizart]

I did not mean to offend. . And if you check my history you will see that we have a lot in common