Man Versus Digital

When I first got into college, one of the first things the recruiter said to me was "the computer is going to ruin your business as an illustrator" The conversation was overheard and supplanted with even more grim fortunes of how I was going to be starving for the remainder of my life (as soon as I paid for college, of course!) One other recruiter piped in "The Photographer has already taken 50% of your business and now the computer will be taking even more." I think I remarked that as my mom was a photographer, this wasn't bad news to me. Nevertheless, I was a bit stunned to say the least. I took those words to heart and for a long time, refused to even go near a computer never wanting to learn it. I've since changed my ways. In fact, I'm going through more training to learn more than maybe I need to learn. I have to admit that in my heart of hearts that I had never wanted that prophecy of SkyNet taking over to be true (Terminator reference is appropriately scary enough) It is a ditressing age for an illustrator/artist/painter so much so that I don't even want to mention it for fear that the age of clipart, stock illustration, and digitally frankensteined images will grow even faster, shrinking my business evermore. Through the years, it's been interesting to see that some folks (clients) really are not so thrilled with digital art and prefer more handmade work. In fact, a friend recently remarked that even asking "is this done by hand?" would have never been a question hardly ten years ago.

Well, I did get an interesting call. An interior designer wanted a real person to draw an interior of a room for her (not liking the AutoCad look) and needed some examples. In lieu of me searching through stacks of CDs looking for potential, I opted to just ink another example to show. I sent it on to the representative and she sent it on to the client. I'm glad that she was looking for something different in order to stand out. I was appreciative of this. Not that I'm totally against AutoCad. It does a decent enough job.
This ink rendering is more than just an inked version of a room ( that I drew up rather quickly, a paid job would, of course, demand a higher level of perfectionism. It is a testament to how some people do not prefer the look of digitized work. Wherever you all are, clients who like artists who actually use tangible medium, I respect you.