Meet the Artist : Laura H. Rubin

(Author: Laura H. Rubin)     Website | Instagram

Digital Art

Digital art is an artistic work that uses digital technology as part of the creative process, which is placed under the larger umbrella term «new media art». 

I know many traditional artists don‘t want to try digital tools because they think digital art isn‘t real art but digital art requires no less skill than traditional artmaking, but it does require a different mode of thinking.

I personally think it makes no sense to compare digital art with traditional because art has so many forms, so the medium doesn‘t matter. It‘s about the story behind it and what it does with the viewer. :)

But what‘s true is that digital drawing can simplify many things:

• You can use a single pen to imitate any color or shape you can imagine.
• You can work non-destructively and undo any mistake.
• You can save a lot of money and resources because there‘s no need to buy new pens or papers all the time. But you also have to learn how to use all the new programs and tools to work properly.

Parblo & Me

When I was first contacted by Parblo I thought «Phew, another tablet manufacturer…» There are so many different tablet brands on the market already, so I wondered if it was really necessary to have another one. But when they told me about their pricing and gave me the opportunity to test one of their tablets, I realized the difference.

Nowadays, young artists hardly have a chance to draw digitally because the resources they need are simply too expensive! Parblo, however, offers some great solutions with their keen yet high-quality tablets. And as soon as you want to go one step further, Parblo got you covered with their top of the line products, as the Mast22 graphic monitor, which by the way has already caught my interest.

Tips for young Digital Artists

When you start as a new digital artist, all the options can be completely overwhelming: «gosh... so many but- tons...» Here are some tips to get you started quickly:

-Don‘t be afraid of experimenting, no matter what program you are using or on which tablet you‘re drawing. Just click on any button you find and test it, you can‘t mess up anything.

If you still have too much respect for the new programs then you should check out this link: https://skl.sh/laaura

There you‘ll find two free months of «Skillshare premium» and get access to thousands of art classes to learn everything you need to know. Skillshare helped me a lot when I started drawing so I warmly recommend it.

-Don‘t give up if something does not work or look as you want, just try something else instead until you find your own style and workflow. For example, Tim Burton, the director of «Alice in Wonderland», «A Nightmare Before Christmas» or «Charlie and the Chocolat Factory», was one of the cartoon animators for Disney‘s «The Fox and the Hound». But he was told that his drawings were not cute enough for Disney‘s concept so he left the project. But he didn‘t give up and started his own thing, with his personal style and mood. And today, he is one of the greatest artists and directors in the world.



Good drawing programs for beginners or advanced users:

Free
-Krita: Complex drawing program | Very popular with beginners but also suitable for professionals
-Gimp: Simple drawing and image editing program
-Inkscape: Vector-graphic program

Paid
-Procreate: Easy handling | very cheap but only for IOS
-Photoshop: Drawing and image editing program | very complex | many possibilities | expensive
- Affinity Designer: Similar to Photoshop but much cheaper, and you can also work vector-based