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Posted: July 11, 2012

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Tools don't make the artist

~Dani-JB Jul 11, 2012

Your tablet/paints/Photoshop/Sai/markers won't make you a better artist. Your tools are exactly that - tools.

Tools are there to get a job done with, nothing more. There will be some tools you know your way around better than another tool - for example, I know my way around digital programs better than I know how to paint traditionally.

Your artistic tools of the trade only help you to release your latent abilities - if you don't have prior knowledge, they will be of no use to you unless you are willing to learn new things.

They won't make art easier, and they won't make you better unless you practice. Such is the way of learning how to do something.

What are your thoughts on this, folks?

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~KyteGlory Jul 11, 2012

As those above have protested, certain tools are designed to do certain things. Without the right tools, it can be exceptionally difficult and painstaking to create certain results.
But people do need to understand that skill will always be the primary factor in making art turn out well. There is no secret tool or technique that will make them great instantaneously.

~Glori305 Jul 11, 2012

True to some extent.

But crappy tools make art much more difficult. So much so, that trying to learn when, for example, you have a pen that clogs up and does not let ink flow evenly, you are never going to do a decent drwaing with it.

~teardrop246 Jul 11, 2012

I think I put this on your journal but I'll share it here as well;

I completely agree. I can give for example my figure drawing class. There were 3 people in the class that were considered to be "more advanced" then others, myself was included.

All three of us never used the measuring tools we were given to make sure things were in proportion - somehow it just came to us when we were viewing it. (Its hard to explain how I personally do it, but I can just guesstimate where lines need to go and it comes out fine.)
Also I almost always only used 1 pencil the entire time where as everyone else was using their entire set from h to 8b. I also know one of them almost always only used his mechanical pencil.

I was also always told in my first year of drawing with one of my professors the only way to make my art look professional was to use high quality stuff; but there I sat with computer paper and crayola colored pencils and people were amazed with my work and how it looked. I was asked many times if I used prismacolors and I had not.

I also know many dollers who don't have tablets and only use their mouse and the default paint program on their computer. So yes, its not the tools that matter but your mastery of your art because if you truly have mastered something you can use almost any tool to do it. But there are preferences

~BlackInfinity666 Jul 11, 2012 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

well duh lol, you can only take the tools as far as your skills can go. And if you suck it doesn't matter how great your materials are, you are still going to suck.

^3wyl Jul 11, 2012 Hobbyist Photographer

Moved this to the General Art forum as it is better suited here.

~Dani-JB Jul 11, 2012

Haha, all righty.

Thanks!

~StripedPower Jul 11, 2012 Digital Artist

Think about Photoshop. Now think about MS Paint. That's why I can't agree.

~Dani-JB Jul 11, 2012

And yet there are people using Photoshop who are utterly terrible with it. MSPaint can make nice things if you know how to actually use it correctly - look at good examples of pixel art. Oftentimes those are made right in MSPaint.

Such as that.

~StripedPower Jul 11, 2012 Digital Artist

To make something like that in MS Paint you need to have amazing skills. I don't say the tools make the artist, but they make the work easier and look nicer if they're good. Realistic drawings will never look the same when done in MS Paint, in comparison to PS or a similar application.

~Dani-JB Jul 11, 2012

That's the point I'm trying to make - to make use of your tools effectively, you need to have some level of skill. Tools are excellent when someone has some level of skill and then some practice using their tool of choice.

And yes, some tools are better than others, depending on what they can or can't do - like Paint Tool Sai has a stabilizer, and that's why I prefer to use it over doing lineart in Photoshop, etc.

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