Artists are now moving away from traditional art forms and adopting digital art, as it is more profitable.
Digital artists say that they have more scope for employment in digital art than in traditional art. Currently, digital artists are in demand as companies are looking for web designers and developers, graphic designers etc.
Dr. Gomathi Gowda, Principal of College of fine arts, Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath, said, “Traditional form of art is difficult to practice. It requires a lot of money and time.” Whereas digital art is moving at a fast pace per society‘s requirements. There are companies that hire web designers, graphic designers, etc. But no companies look for artists working with a pen and paper, she said.
Neetu Notani, Human Resource manager at Lemme Be, said, “We hire budding graphic designers and train them about the software to create graphic designs for the allotted content. The new startups look for designers who are well versed with the language and software of digital art.”
Yadnyesh Gondhalekar, a student studying visual effects (VFX), said, “Digital art has a wider range of job opportunities in today’s world. Designing sectors like gaming industry, product designing, web developers and many other such sectors require conceptual technical art which is only possible in digital art. The traditional method cannot work here.”
Before VFX, industries used to use different camera techniques such as playing with focal length. Previously animators used light box to create frame by frame animation by hand which was extremely time taking. Now we can just copy paste on the next frame which makes the job easy, Yadnyesh said.
Monica Rajarathinam, freelance content developer, said that she sees a migration of artists from traditional method of art to a digitalised version of it.
Gomathi said that traditional artists from different regions are now moving to other professions as traditional art is becoming increasingly expensive and laborious. “They need to look out for their survival and livelihood. It involves a lot of money to buy the art materials. Making colours is a laborious job. For many regional artists, their expenses are more than their income,” she added.
Digital art made by using software. Art by Nehal Samir (pinterest)
Monica said, “Artists keep traditional art as their hobby and to earn a living, they use digital art. Digital art has created more job opportunities for artists. There are many online platforms where independent designers are working as freelancers and are earning well. Traditional artists are appreciated only when their work is exceptionally good.”
Gomathi added, “The art schools and colleges now have separate digital art courses because the demand for it in the market is high. Digital art is static and instant with a small investment.”
Shubhangi Kumar, freelance fashion designer, said, “The fashion industry is now looking for designers who are experts in digital art. Digital art helps the designers consume less time in making designs. There is a tough competition between fashion houses in creating unique designer clothes. Drawing designs on paper takes a lot of time and materials.”
Amardeep K, freelance graphic designer, said, “Selling digital art is easier than selling traditional art. We can sell our art works to companies that require logos, websites, and applications for their brands.”
Gomathi said, “Society lacks awareness of traditional art forms. There is a need of boosting the traditional art trades so that there is a revival of traditional art forms. Though the society is diverting to a digitalised art form for better earning and livelihood, the remembrance of cultural and traditional art should not be neglected. Digital art does not give depth to the paintings. We can only see the colours in the painting.”
