Friday, October 19, 2007

Where Digital Fails

Pencil on paper. I love the tangibility of a painting or a drawing. The one of a kind nature, knowing that you hold an original. I have a solid collection of animation drawings, one of my favorites is a Glen Keane drawing of the Beast. When I hold it I feel a connection with the artist, knowing that he flipped this drawing, and scratched out those lines. My immersion into painting has given me a new appreciation for the artwork itself, beyond the vehicle it's delivered. There is a tactile quality involved, things like texture, relief and scale become just as important as the image itself. You can fake all that digitally, but that's all it is, faking. it will never have texture outside of the flat screen. That said, I'm an animator, and I depend on the screen, even the most ardently hand drawn films are exhibited on the screen. The drawings will always just be the beautiful things that helped make the movie possible. Maybe we can make a movie with texture and scale?.. oh wait, that's called life.