Raw Paw T-Shirt Challenge!
Well, I’m trying digital art again! The last time I sincerely tried to make digital art was in college and that went abysmally. I hated the Digital Art class I was forced to take, which was supposed to be beginner level- yet, somehow, there still wasn’t enough instruction to help me enough to even get started using whatever drawing program we had to use.
The semester started off with us finding the inspiration for our first project; we had to find things in nature to take a little photoshoot of with a white backdrop, and that was easy enough for me. But when it got to the point in class with everyone starting to work in the program, everyone else picked up on it immediately because they’d all done it before and did this in their free time already, whereas I had no idea what I was doing at all. Not only was I totally unfamiliar with using any kind of drawing software, we all had to use Mac computers, which I was also completely unfamiliar with. It seemed everyone else in class had their own drawing tablets they used frequently. I remember the day in class when the professor started us in the drawing program. Everyone else knew how to do it already and by the time I realized I didn’t even know how to do anything in their program past booting it up (if I even understood how to do that)- the rest of the class was happily working on their projects and creating great work while the teacher explained how to do things I couldn’t imagine getting to.
I didn’t just not know how to get started, I didn’t even know what questions to ask to go back to the most basic steps that I needed. Technology frustrates me so much that, when I can’t figure out what I need to do, it often makes me feel like crying. When the teacher blew right past the beginning steps and I felt like I was leagues behind my classmates, I just gave up right there. I hated being forced to make digital art anyways and I knew I didn’t want to continue it, so why bother? Telling my friend about this recently, she asked if I had ever tried going to office hours for help. I thought about this, I knew I hadn’t gotten any help in office hours, but I couldn’t really remember what her policy about them had been. I do remember that going to the digital lab to get help was available sometimes, but whenever I tried going in it was always really busy with a lot of people who already knew what they were doing, were trying to do even more complex things in the drawing program, and seemed very passionate about and eager to work on their digital art projects. I just felt like I didn’t want to do it at all so I didn’t have the energy to fight for enough attention to help me get started.
When the due date for our first critique in the class was coming up, I knew I couldn’t come up with a digital drawing and figure out how to print it in the right size. So I cut a piece of watercolor paper to the proper size and just painted it! The next day I went to class, hung up my painting with the rest of the projects, and waited. We start the critique and it starts at the other end of the line, so mine is last. The professor talked about each piece, I don’t remember if students were giving comments too, and eventually she got to mine. And she started the critique just like everyone else’s and talked about the composition, color, etc. …Then she paused. And she said, “Is it… Is it digital?” And I said “No.” And then, “It’s analog?” “Yeah.” “Okay… well… it needs to be digital. Maybe you can just scan this one and go over it in the program.” I just nodded and felt like I got off easy. I think eventually someone I knew helped me trace my painting in the program so I could turn something in that was technically correct. I didn’t really learn anything and I think I got a C- in the class overall.
In my junior year a lot of us were applying to the BFA program, where you had to declare a specific concentration. Between Painting or Drawing & Printmaking I decided to go with Painting. Each of us who declared either of those concentrations did not worry at all about being accepted into the BFA program because there were plenty of spots available. Anyone going into the digital art concentration, however, I remember being very tense and worried about not making it, because there were very few spots compared to applicants and it was competitive. I felt very lucky to not be trying to break into that art form and be able to just focus on something I loved, like painting.
I thought I could just never do digital art again for the rest of my life, but it just never stopped being a constant question of “why don’t you do any digital art?” And for some reason “I can’t figure it out,” or “I hate it because I can’t understand how to use the technology,” was never a good enough answer for people and they still always wanted me to learn. Including my husband- who grew up building computers and having computer gaming parties and can seemingly do anything with a computer as if he’s always known how to do it. So he got me a drawing tablet (that he also wanted to use, because he has also occasionally enjoyed drawing) and after a couple years of having it, I found out about the Raw Paw t-shirt design challenge- which only took digital submissions. And I really wanted to submit a design. So we sat down, he figured out how it works in about five minutes (I had tried previously for hours and mostly just managed to make myself cry out of frustration), and I managed to make a digital drawing that I’m proud of!
This was a VERY long story (sorry about that, and thank you if you’ve read this far!) just to say: I’m trying digital art again. And, since I have much better help now, I’m feeling a lot better about it than last time! I hope you like this piece for the Raw Paw t-shirt challenge, if you’d like to support me here’s the link to buy a shirt (available in 2 styles, sizes S-5XL):
https://rawpaw.ink/products/hangin-on-to-daisies-by-sierras-hippie-art?variant=48141662060731
