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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Traditional vs. Digital

This was a fun little exercise: two paintings of the same subject ... one traditional; one digital.

I painted the traditional one last week as a demo for the Art Department at PDI (aka, Pacific Data Images, which is DreamWorks Animation's sister facility in the San Francisco Bay-Area.)

I was asked to demonstrate how I paint traditionally...specifically my matte painting/illustration technique. Something I haven't done in almost 10 years! Needless to say I was a little nervous. Let's face it...it's hard enough to make a good looking painting on a good day. But to do it when you're out of practice...in front of an audience... Nerve wracking.

Originally, they asked me do a plien air (outdoor) painting demo. But as my traditional technique is definitely an indoor studio technique, I opted for a compromise: an indoor plein air painting. So I brought up a landscape image on a big plasma screen, and did a plein air painting from that. I figured, if you can't bring the studio to the mountain...bring the mountain to the studio!

I would be lying if I said it went off without a hitch. As I said, it's been almost 10 years since I've painted this way, and it was an uphill slog the entire way. But I'm a professional, so I stuck it out! I actually think it made for a better demo than if it went smoothly.

Anyway, for what it's worth, the paintings below are the result. The top one is the actual acrylic painting I did for the demo. The one below, was a warm-up painting I did digitally on my Cintiq.

Both are based on a beautiful photo I found on the web (I couldn't find the photographer's name, but it came from a flickr page called "Winky in the UK". Thanks Winky...awesome photo!)

Oh...and a big howdy to the PDI Art Dept gang! Thanks for having me up there. I had a great time, and I hope you all enjoyed watching me sweat this one out! (^-^)

Acrylic


Digital

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post, thanks Paul.

David Campbell said...

Can't make up my mind which one I like more! Do you miss the feel of traditional?

Thomas von Kummant said...

paul, both are great!!

i have to say i like the traditional painting better, because it looks more "easily" done here, even it felt different for you:-)
you are still used to the traditional brush pretty well, no?

Jared Shear said...

Cool!....thanks for sharing the demo.

Juan Bauty said...

Both are truly amazing, but i think i prefer the traditional one, maybe because the clouds are more natural.

Jason Scheier said...

Hey Paul,

Fantastic post!! Really enjoy both paintings here! I think your sense of refinement for the acrylic painting is quite amazing! Very very nice!

Unknown said...

Ugh, talk about evoking nostalgia! These are the Torres de Paine in the south of Chile! I grew up there! One of my favorite places on earth. Glad to see it painted.

Jackson Sze said...

Ah, I really wish I could've seen your awesome demo, Sir.

Erwin Madrid said...

Thanks for coming up Paul! It was great to finally see the master at work:)

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing the two mediums with one image. Both are fantastic!

Roy Santua said...

either way, they are too sweet Paul.

geraldo roberto da silva said...

Nice work!

Richard Smitheman said...

Both are great!

VINOD MORE said...

its really fantastic to c both medias, and the way u attained the quality... its mind blowing as usual...

Jose Ramos said...

Great work Paul , I preffer traditional art , but mountains are better painted in digital art

see u!

Paul Lasaine said...

Jose,
Ha...I agree totally. I like the traditional one better as a complete painting, but I definitely painted the mountains better in the digital one.

jamie holmes said...

Amazing work.

Dhilip kumar somesh said...

hi Paul,

I feel your traditional medium is awesome :)

arte pintado said...

es hermoso felicitaciones

Winky in the UK said...

I'm the photographer that took the original photo. I'm extremely flattered to see my photo used to create such beautiful art.

See the link to my Flickr pages....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/winkyintheuk/

Enjoy!

Andrey Egorov said...

Gret!!!!

Adam said...

It's great to see that you have a good handle on both traditional and digital media. :D

Moonito said...

I prefer the traditional :O is more rich the color

this is "torres del paine " Chile
I love this place

http://www.google.cl/search?q=torres+del+paine&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=es&tab=wi&biw=1440&bih=809

Anonymous said...

I love it ! Really beautiful painting !!

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lostinarc said...

Both are amazing..loved the depth and composition...thanks for sharing..

Nelson Noel Luty said...

Is AMAZING MEN !

rick said...

tores del paine!!!!!

Photo Retouching Services said...

What is the difference???? what you used to make digital version???

Clipping path said...

These both are Wonderful. But I think Acrylic is more natural. I love both of these. Thanks for sharing.