How Digital Painting can help Traditional Artists grow (and digital painting course Waitlist Open!)
How Social Media Shapes Our Art
Social media slipped into the studio and never left. Now every brushstroke competes in a tiny square, and artists curate entire feeds into color-coded mosaics. That pressure creates the belief that an artist should post only one medium, one look, one unbroken pattern.
Stick to One Format...
If you are a watercolor artist, paint watercolor; if you paint in oils, do not break the grid with a tablet sketch. We know the rule isn’t real, but the idea still lingers and shapes what we make.
My toxic trait is not following too different artists. What if I get inspired? -influenced? Only "the algorithm" knows what would happen if I start posting ink landscapes...
I am sure that I am not the only one who has used grid preview apps. I still second-guess every post because "maybe it doesn't match the row" or "it is not catchy enough from the cover". That mindset can be useful for a brand, but for an artist, it becomes a cage. When my feed fills with oil paintings before an art fair, for example (where obviously, I have to paint a closed collection of just oil paintings), I notice the pattern closing around me.
Why I Keep Digital Painting in My Process
Digital painting keeps me honest. Digital paintings are not made "to sell" or "to exhibit", but to explore and be creative. A session on the tablet reminds me that I can play.
Digital also gives me a gentler way to experiment. It does not ask for canvas, solvents, or storage space. If a study fails, the screen goes dark, and the failure is simply a lesson. That lowers the stakes and invites curiosity.
I try a palette that would be wasteful in oils, I push saturation, and I test edges and textures. Later, I walk back to the easel and translate the best ideas into paint.
They do not behave the same, and that is the point. That tension between mediums speeds my color decisions and sharpens my compositions.
Breaking the Stigma
Some people think digital art takes away from traditional painting. For me, it does the opposite. The hours I put into learning how to paint with pixels sharpened my eye for real pigments.
Digital oil painting studies show me new routes to the hues I want. Oil then pushes me to reach them through mixing, visual illusions, and patience. Each medium challenges the other, and the work grows. And that's the reason I made a digital painting course.
If you feel the grid pushing you toward a single lane, consider a step in the other direction. Try a short study on the tablet, then return to the brush and let the two mediums talk to each other.
The other way around
However, I have found a gem in the process. My oil digital studies can also be interesting as final artworks. I can treat them as I treat my oil paintings and offer a final product. Same hand, same intention, same style, but different medium.
And who knows, you can also turn some of them into prints, stickers and other thingies to fit multiple purposes. Digital is versatile.
Your nextstep as an Artist: my Digital Painting Course
Five years sharing and teaching, but above all: playing with digital. I can now paint digital paintings that trick your mind into thinking they are oil paintings!
Want structure and feedback while you explore?
My new digital painting course starts soon at AlaiGanuza Academia. After launching my Color Theory Course, now we put everything into practice with digital tools. Creating organic and expressive paintings with the comfort of your tablet. Join the waiting list to get the news (and a big discount) for my Color Course, the new TraDigital course, or both!
You’ll get clear guidance on how to paint digitally to get smart bridges between the two worlds. Digital painting courses can be perfect for digital painters of all levels, but also a perfect companion to traditional, not a threat, and I am not giving that up.
More info on my Instagram post.
1 comment
A very interesting article with some great points about how digital and “real” painting can feed into each other. I like the idea of digital being a safe playground too. For me though, I love the physical feeling of moving a real brush across a canvas. I am hoping digital will find a way to replicate that in future.