Is there still a place for analogue illustration and art? Yes.
Digital art is pretty new on the scene. We have been making pictures for over 40,000 years, and have had access to decent digital drawing tools for… twenty years at the most. I would hate to think that people believe that we can’t make meaningful images without a computer, drawing tablet or, even worse, generative AI.
There is something special about drawing or painting with traditional materials. Even though I have a drawing tablet (I mainly use it for graphic recording) there is nothing that compares to the feeling of paper. Pencils make a lovely soft scratching noise, inks and watercolour flow satisfyingly from my brush. Ideas come to me more easily, my compositions are require less effort. The finished illustrations have a depth and complexity that is hard to achieve in any other way.
Sometimes I use my drawing tablet to get the composition right, then create the final illustration with traditional art materials. Sometimes I do it the other way around, but there is always a stage that requires a pencil on paper.
I love the graphic starkness of black ink, and the more fragile translucence of watercolours, but if I had to choose just one medium for making illustrations (please don’t make me really choose) a soft pencil would be what I would take with me to that desert island.
The illustration “I made this with my pencil” was done with a 6B that I have had for decades. It’s got a lot more drawings in it, and it never needs it’s batteries charged!
I realise that generative AI will provide the illustrations that many clients are happy with. A lot of what it produces is good enough… though not my style.
I work with people who value quality, humanity, quirkiness and a wonderfully wobbly line. This is the future of commercial illustration: clients who are looking for something special, something original, something human-made.
