MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Gone are those times when you have to use a paintbrush and paper canvas in order to be an artist. Technological advancements and evolution have led to an entire revamp in the world of art, creating a new artform called digital art. As a result of rapid digitization across the globe, digital art has grown in demand and practice.
For people who are interested in developing a career as a digital artist, there are certain skills that they need. Below are some important skills to master to become a formidable creative in the digital art space:
Sketching
The first skill that any digital artist should master is sketching. Sketching is a basic skill that every artist, whether digital or non-digital, needs to continually practice and hone. You should regularly sketch to maintain and improve your skills. You can sketch at various places like at your apartment or a park, and it doesn’t have to feel like a chore but should feel more like an enjoyable activity. Make sure that you continue working on your basic sketching skills and continue making sketches of different figures, faces, and landscapes to get better at it.
Character Drawing
While some people might consider character drawing and sketching under the same umbrella, these are two different skills that you must work on. For digital artists, character drawing is a core skill that they will need throughout their career and it isn’t an easy skill to master; it takes a lot of time and practice to master character drawing. If you are looking to join the video gaming industry or film & animation, you will need to practice character drawing everywhere, even if you have to design cards for the digital version of Solitaire.
To become good at character drawing, you will have to be a good thinker too. You can start by giving your character a backstory, who your character is, how the character talks, what is the nature of the character, what is the personality of the character, etc. Once you get your creative side out and give a good backstory to your character, you will notice everything will start to fall in place itself. At the start, you might not be able to produce your best artwork, but over time you will be able to do so. Keep on practicing and experimenting until you get a hold of it.
Animation
Animation is another basic skill that you must understand and be familiar with as a digital artist, even if you aren’t looking to pursue a career in animation. Animation has become the core of digital art and having the knowledge and understanding of basic animation, along with the ability to do basic animation, gives you an upper hand. As a digital artist, you should be aware of how animated characters move, talk, walk, and interact with their surroundings because animation is everywhere in the digital world, even in simple games like Spider Solitaire.
UI and UX Designing
A digital artist doesn’t necessarily mean that he/she would be working with animation all the time. Having the knowledge and mastery of UI and UX is also important to build a career outside of animation. UI refers to User Interface and UX refers to User Experience and these represent how users interact with apps and websites on the internet and how they feel during the experience. How an app or website is designed depends on the skill and master of the UI designer.
UI and UX are becoming very important because users are taking into consideration the looks of an app/website before using it. If a website or app is not appealing, users wouldn’t prefer to interact with that website or app unless it is very necessary. So, as a digital artist, you should understand UI and UX and how to provide a good experience to users, because in this digital age, interaction and engagement online are vital to strengthening brand equity.
Typography
This is a very important skill that most people forget about, thus resulting to making their whole artwork look bad. When we talk about art, images, graphics, and pictures come into our minds, but typography can make or break your entire art project. Having the right font that matches the art design, colors, and the idea behind the art is important. The right font can help to convey the message in a powerful and inspiring way, whereas the wrong font can completely change the mood of users and the point that you were trying to achieve.
