Comparing Historical Art with Digital Art
Let’s compare historical art with today’s graphic art (or digital art).
Historical (or traditional) art is created with tools such as pencils, pens, and brushes, and a physical base of colored paper, canvas, metal, wood, or some other substance. Thus, traditional artists used material tools on a physical medium. You can identify historical art by the tools that the artist used, rather than by looking at the artist’s creation.
We can call current graphic art "digital art" because it makes use of digital technology. Digital technology has empowered artists through electronic media and the Internet. Digital artists can apply digital manipulation to create 3D artworks and lifelike virtual-reality environments. Examples of digital art include animation videos and graphical illustrations for posters, logos, banners, and websites.
In the twenty-first century, graphic design is present everywhere in the form of digital art. It is an important part of today’s complex print and electronic information systems. You’ll find that you can use graphic design to deliver information, identify products, and create entertainment. Advancements in technology—and in digital technology in particular—have changed the manufacture and distribution of graphic designs. However, the basic role of the graphic designer remains the same: to give expressive form and clarity of content to communicative messages.Let’s compare historical (or traditional) art with digital art in some additional ways:
For traditional art, you need many tools, such as brushes, paints, pencils, canvas, and so on. For digital art, all you need is a computer and graphic design software.
You also need a variety of tools, such as different grades of pencils, for traditional art. Graphic design software gives you a wide range of built-in tools, such as brushes and colors.
Traditional art is expensive, because you need many tools and coloring bases as well as a great deal of time. Digital art is less expensive, because you can use a computer or a tablet as long as you like, at no additional cost.
It is difficult, and expensive, to correct mistakes in traditional art. Digital art lets you make and easily correct mistakes, giving you the freedom to experiment with different ideas.
You need more storage space for traditional art items. You can store large amounts of digital art in compact electronic formats on a computer.
Traditional art is difficult to preserve because it has a physical form, whereas you can easily preserve digital art forever in exact multiple copies.
As a traditional artist, you may throw away many versions before you create the final artwork. In contrast, digital art is environmentally friendly because you work on a computer. You can simply delete a file if you don’t want or need it.
With traditional art, you have a limited reach. Digital art enables you to reach a vast audience, because the Internet is accessible to millions of people.
It can be difficult to transport traditional art freely, whereas you can move digital art from place to place on compact, portable media