Overheard someone at a coffee shop say digital art isn't real art

Last Tuesday I was grabbing a coffee and this guy at the next table was telling his friend that digital art "doesn't count" because you just click buttons. I've been doing digital painting for about 2 years now and it took me 6 months just to get decent at blending colors. My takeaway was that people who say that have never actually tried using a drawing tablet with pressure sensitivity. Has anyone else run into this kind of gatekeeping in the art community?

2 comments

2 Comments

laura_knight544d ago

My cousin who does watercolor landscapes said the same thing until I showed him my 200 layer file, then he went quiet real fast. Still took him another year to admit my stuff was any good though.

kelly_henderson834d ago

Laura from in my watercolor group had the exact same attitude @laura_knight54 until we did a side by side comparison of one of her landscapes and a digital recreation I made. It took me 3 hours to match her brush strokes and texture, and she finally admitted the process was way harder than she thought. I think this gatekeeping is part of a bigger pattern where people assume new tools mean less skill, like when folks used to say photography wasn't art because you just push a button. Does that sound familiar to you?