Oftentimes, the outcome of work you produce by hand always comes more natural to us because as human beings, we gravitate to a more tactile experience. Products nowadays, whether they’re drawing tablets or otherwise try to replicate that feeling as much as they can but it’s never quite the same. In my youth, I became interested in the use of the internet and the likes of MS Paint very early on so I find myself very accustomed to it, using both traditional and digital mediums with relative ease.

There are both pros and cons to typing and working digitally of course. Artists who work digitally can achieve beautiful things but are always tempted to edit or scrap their work because of the overwhelming tools and options at their fingertips. Traditional art in comparison, especially when sketched out always have a feeling of fluidity and finality that you can’t really recreate. Traditional art also encourages individuals to be create with their workflow. Doing art digitally is one thing but in the real world there are different paints, different materials, different workspaces that can be so much more fulfilling and natural.

There have been studies as well about the work students do both online and off. Writing notes by hand on paper has been shown to improve the retention of information. It’s also been said by people in and out of the art world that sketching thumbnails by hand lets them let go of worrying over mistakes.

I do believe because of this that we use different parts of our brain. Traditional work needs a lot more planning and deliberation since its harder to correct your mistakes. In the case of using a tablet as well, you train a kind of hand-eye coordination into yourself. This is especially true in the case of early tablets where you couldn’t see what you were drawing on the tablet itself. This led to a learning process where one would look at the screen and not at their hand as it drew. Luckily though, today we have wide variety of products including the iPad. This allows students to sketch more naturally and a fraction of the price.

While I appreciate both mediums, I find myself working more digitally these days. I’m at a stage of my life where time is so hard to come by and digital mediums allow me to execute my ideas quickly and efficiently where I’m at home or on the go. I will always miss being able draw traditionally, however, and still do it when I can. My interest in art started off traditionally, after all, with a piece of paper and a couple of pencils. In the end, its always a matter of which medium better suits the situation.