The power of our hands Vs the power of computers.

On Friday the 3rd of February Emily and I held a discussion with our illustration class about the issues surrounding the traditions of craft and new computer aided design.

Our introduction:

'In this current digital age illustration has often been taken over by technology, but there has also been a regression back to traditional methods and illustrators who value a more tangible quality to their work. Should we embrace new technologies or stay true to the old fashioned ways of doing things.'

I wanted to refer back to Nicola Slater who told us about her working methods and how she used to cut and stick in order to form layers within her illustrations. Although we were in awe of all of her work, many people from my class found these particular images rather charming and perhaps preferred them to her more popular works. Perhaps this is because we were lucky enough to see the real things rather than viewing them on the Internet or as reprints.

Nicola also spoke about how and why her methods had changed , she has now learned how to use Photoshop and can digitally layer all of the Photoshop she would previously glue together. This has made it much easier for her to change certain parts of an illustration that a client may not like, without having to start from scratch.

And how about David Hockney and his instant iPad art? Someone who has worked traditionally for many years is now embracing the new and most popular technology. David Hockney always brings his work 'up to date' and after all, if our knowledge is advanced enough to create these amazing devices then surely we should make the most of them. We overcame a similar problem when the camera was invented and all of a sudden people were using photography as a form of art. Are computers simply the new camera?

Image is from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11666162[02.02.2012]

I am in the same boat as Nicola Slater in some ways as my work is mostly collaged, and I love that fact you can see all of the layers stuck together and reworked into with pencils and paint, but when it comes to producing the final image for a brief I can look at it and think 'wow I wish I would have stuck that slightly more to the left' etc. This is why I still form all of the elements separately with some cutting and sticking but then I create lots of different versions. I scan them in to Photoshop and try layering various ones together and see which look best. Final 'tweaks' are much easier to do when things are not stuck together, definitely an advantage of using a computer.