Since yesterday’s post, Digital Verses Traditional Illustration, I had the question posted “Which is more advantageous to go digital or to stick with the traditional?”

That is a tough question! To be honest, I reckon nowadays, digital illustration opens more doors in more industries than traditional illustration does.

Like any “job,”  it really depends on which industry one hopes to work in. The feeling I have is that digital illustration lends itself best towards application in graphic design, web, advertising, gaming, and the electronic industry… which is an enormous array of industries! Traditional illustrators I feel will become more rare just as artists are, and will have to find niche markets which prefer tactile illustration… publishing, gifts and home wares, fashion, small aspects of the gaming industry, graphic design in the print & packaging industry, fine art… all of which are far more competitive industries. Of course both digital and traditional illustration can find work in almost ANY industry, but these are the big trends I have noted.

Something else I’ve noticed is a lot of graphic designers are also digital illustrators, thus they have the skills to marry their digital illustration with their designs right from the start and can provide their clients / employers with a complete package. Companies who hire a graphic designer / digital illustrator may remove the need entirely  to commission traditional illustration at all. A lot of traditional illustrators only provide the actual tactile artwork… leaving the scanning, colour correction, resizing, and final layout application in the hands of their clients–which also means leaving the costs of those service billed to their clients!

The convenience of not having to “wait” for the time it often takes to create traditional illustration is also in the digital illustrator’s favour… because once the work is done, the digital illustration can be dropped right into the layout / webpage. Whereas when traditional illustration is complete, it still has a whole “digital” process to go through to get it ready for it’s end application. So traditional illustrators who can not offer skills beyond their artwork may find they are being passed up for digital illustrators who are a “one-stop-shop” for the end client.

For me, my love of painting and with my awareness of needing food on the table spurred me on to go to school and be trained in both Graphic Design & illustration… so I entered the industry with both digital & traditional skill sets. I’ve found my digital skills complementary to my traditional illustration style… if I accidentally drip some coffee on an illustration just as I’ve finished painting, I’m not fretting because I can remove it in Photoshop! I still prefer paint for my illustration medium, and it works for me because the areas of the industry I’m most interested in prefer traditional illustration, too.

Thanks for the question, digital portrait artist at Portrait Kingdom,  it’s such an interesting topic to explore!