Photoshop doesn't make the art

Update: Disabling comments on my stamps. As much as I enjoy a good debate, this was made forever ago and don't really care anymore.

I really dislike hearing the excuse that you need fancy and expensive programs Photoshop or SAI or whatever to be a good artist. I've seen the Mona Lisa painted in MS Paint and realism done in crayons, so don't feed me that piss poor excuse.

These programs are helpful and they do let you do things you can't with just traditional, but saying that your art isn't any good because you don't have photoshop is like saying you're not a good swimmer because you don't have a life jacket.

Not to belittle folks who can't swim, but like there are great swimmers who don't need them there are great artists who don't need graphic programs to make great works of art. You become great because you practice and become more versatile.

I remember when I first picked up Photoshop, transitioning from traditional to digital, my art was HORRIBLE. I made stupid mistakes: my lines were sloppy, the coloring was horrific, and the burn tool was abused. Yeah, it might have made my art shinier, but it didn't make it better.

There are SO many rookie mistakes, both with the original art and the photoshop work, but the point of showing you that abomination_{OHGODWHY?THETHINGSIDOFORYOUGUYS} is that even after a year of using the program, my art wasn't great. It was still crappy even when I had photoshop.

So please, guys: don't blame the medium--or even your scanner or camera if you can help it. These things are our tools, but not the reason why we suck from time-to-time.



Okay, since some people have been mentioning this: I don't mean to say: "Digital bad. Traditional good." What I'm saying is that we can't blame our tools or lack thereof of the fancy ones. Our skill level rests solely on us and our drive as artists to try harder and try new things--be it GIMP, SAI, Photoshop, Maya, watercolors, acrylics, gouache, charcoal, pencil, clay, whatever.



Stamp template thanks to zilla774