Colored Pencils & Other Traditional Art Tools

[Corrupted Unicorn]

So not too long ago I bought a bunch of colored pencils from a Lidl...  They are kind of special because instead of being one solid colour, they have several colours on the lead: for example, a green pencil will have light green, dark green, and even a little yellow in it. They aren't the best pencils if you're looking for reliability but I found them an interesting thing to tackle. And sometimes the pencils will give you interesting gradients or textures.

I haven't started getting serious about them up until almost right now. I think I'm going to do traditional art for a while with these pencils, and I hope I can take watercolour classes at the end of this month. 

I know most artists on the Net are digital artists, but have you given traditional mediums a try? What kind do you use? Do you think traditionally-made graphics could have a place on a website?  Discuss anything and everything about traditional arting methods here 

[Semper]

I do a lot of my comic making using a digital art program, but when I want to work out a loose idea or just wind down or warm up for the day I do analogue drawing. I also have a bunch of coloured pencils, a tin of 36 Prismacolour pencils I got on sale that I've been testing out along with a big case of 180 Brutfuner coloured pencils I got for only 50 bucks online. I also do a lot of freehand ink drawing and watercolour painting.

I've actually been thinking recently about how there are some similarities with the simple analogue tools we can use to make art, like a pen and paper or coloured pencils or watercolour, and the simple code of HTML and CSS for website. My analogue drawing tools are very portable and some of them are easy to archive, like my pen and ink drawings, which can be digitized as pure black and white using the text function of my scanner allowing me to save of a lot of space. They also are limited in what they can do but I can still create some vibrant art through careful layering. They also exist in an almost eternal file format, paper. Though HTML and CSS aren't on the level of analogue art materials they still have that longevity and portability factor compared to other digital tools.

Also if you want an example of a blending of analogue art and web design, look no further than i-land.

I wish you luck with your watercolour classes! Watercolour and coloured pencils are pretty complimentary mediums. I've done a few pieces that use both.

[Spots]

I've actually completely abandoned digital art in favor of traditional art recently, but I'm still trying to get the hang of it again. Drawing traditionally is certainly a challenge and it made me realize how dependent I was on digital art features like undo, layers, and especially the transform tool. I'm adjusting to the more limited medium very quickly so far, though. I'm interested in using the most commonly available tools possible, so I use regular printer paper, black gel pens, and pencils. I also have a bunch of fineliners, but I don't really like them. Honestly, I don't like working with ink that much period, so I'm mostly just using a mechanical #2 pencil now. I wish I could make black marks with a graphite pencil, but it seems like only carbon and charcoal pencils can make truly black marks. I just went to an art supply store and looked through the pencils, but even the 14B graphite pencils looked unmistakably gray. I may do more experimentation with charcoal or carbon in the future, but I don't want to have to use them because they're messy and final drawings have to be coated with something so they don't smear.

I totally think traditionally made graphics and art have a place on the web and it's often possible to scan traditional art, touch it up a little with a photo editing program, and make it look like it could've been made digitally. Of course, going for a full traditional art aesthetic is also totally valid. I'd like to see more crossover between websites and traditional mediums because my interests have been shifting away from computers over the past couple months. It would be cool to see more stuff on the web that could be printed out and archived or redistributed in paper form.

[Corrupted Unicorn]

It would be cool to see more stuff on the web that could be printed out and archived or redistributed in paper form.

Oooh, I've been giving this a thought for a while!  and I highly encourage any digital artist to print their own art. It's always good to have physical things, and while some websites have digital freebies, I think it'd also be fun to make some printable souvenirs! 

I've looked at a children's website I used to visit when I was very young (it's, in fact, the very first website I visited!), and it had a rather large printable section: apart from the expected coloring pages and activity sheets, it also had dress up paper dolls and even a castle you could print, colour and fold 

Other ideas for printable stuff: assorted crafts, simple board games, card games! Amateur game designers could get a lot of mileage out of this idea