Working With Real Materials

"Untitled" Tim Burton

There are incredible digital tools out there that can speed up all sorts of processes. But I love to draw outside the computer as much as possible. 

In the computer there are endless possibilities. We can zoom, undo and break everything up into layers. But this brings with it a temptation to make everything look very clean.

When working with real materials we are playing with elements of adrenaline, risk and spontaneity. Lots of exciting things happen as an inky nib dances across the page or watercolour paint runs loose in a way we weren’t expecting. This encourages a kind of experimentation and invention that’s challenging to simulate inside the computer. 

We are mostly stuck with what we've put down. Lines might not all connect, and colour might have travelled outside the lines, but as it’s been made with real materials the process is visible. This allows the nuances to be accepted more easily. 

"Night Thoughts" Quentin Blake

There is also a rewarding, tactile quality to creating something on real paper that you can hold in your hands. It's a live performance and this adds so much the experience of creating. It taps into something primal.

I have also found that I learn more when I'm working outside the computer. Doing studies or drawing exercises on paper is somehow a more memorable and less passive experience. This helps what I'm learning stick in my brain for longer.

With all these thoughts in mind, when the time comes to put the ink and brushes away and get back to the computer, we can bring with us a looseness and a way of thinking that can help the digital work sparkle a bit more. 

Fight the urge to polish everything and "Let it be!" 

"Alice in Wonderland" Tony Ross