I’ve already said it how great is for me to draw with real tools on paper. This time I want to write about the magic you could get if you go the other way around. So, let’s be digital now but with the same pursuit in finding the traditional medium look.
And to do so I decided to take a close up look on a pencil designed by Kyle T. Webster, one that works really well once it’s imported into Adobe Photoshop from the tool panel. You can get The Animator pencil by visiting his shop, please have a look and decide for yourself.
I’ve already made some tests and you can clearly see from the posted image the overall look you can achieve with this tool. You get quite some fun using it, it feels great in action and a it's a pretty convincing emulation if you ask me. I find it great especially when sketching and building shapes, when erase and reconstruct forms. It feels very responsive, looks natural and it's inspiring. In almost any case scenario this is all you need when you draw digitally. You need a pencil to sketch, to articulate your ideas in the first place. That’s why, a pencil like The Animator can be a great weapon added to your arsenal and make you feel confident knowing it’s on your side in a digital battlefield. It’s definitely a keeper and makes your life easier.
Is this a substitute for drawing with real pencil on paper? Well, it depends on how far you dive into the unknown. If you try to stay 100% close to reality, maybe you’ll be a bit disappointed. There is always some learning steep curve interfering into the process of how to successfully transfer your emotion from the real instrument to a digital emulated one.
I’ve spend quite some time now trying to find a special pencil that's acting more like a real one but in a digital world. A real pencil is a very simple drawing tool but can make a very distinct signature from person to person because of the large scale of expression it has. I guess it’s very hard to have this complex behavior at a full splendor level with the actual technology. It’s a trade-off, you need to trick some aspects more than you could actually get from a computer controller device, to comprehend all the details you could gain from a real pencil experience. There are some physics resulting from the use of a real paper, real graphite, real movements, real pen tip, real boards... Some of these are lost in the process of digitizing life, but the The Animator pencil I think it’s quite amazing in it’s on right. And it’s also fast for our times and all you need is just a computer to work with.
If I were to point on a negative aspect of digital pencils (generally speaking), I may say they’re not quite versatile enough when compared with real drawing tools. I can create tons of accidents, effects, lines and shades and tilts angles, types of grains and textures, plenty of blending techniques using just a single graphite pencil, were the same goal it seems to be harder to get if it’s about digital process. That leads to a little more effort that's need to be done in finding some additional tools and to use them in such a way to fit well balanced together and also to boost more authenticity in your drawings. I think it's fair to say that making so, always seems to end up in a much convoluted method of doing things. That’s cost time and time is…precious.
Fact is, aspects like these are often defeats the purpose of creating digital art, where the audience seems more interested in the final rendered stage of your artworks (like matte painting, vectors, photo manipulation etc.) rather than how you get there and maybe just a few people that really cares about drawing on a computer device from the traditional perspective standing point of view type of approach. These are just some speculations and nothing more...
Those of you who are really interested in how well your classical skills can be translated into digital art, I say Kyle T. Webster is the answer you’re looking for. Just grab some of his brushes and begin to develop your own digital technique. I promise you: a lot of them will make you smile!
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