Anyone who's been captivated by an enchanting Disney character, or marvelled at the grotesque detail of a gaming villain, will know the skill and expressive power of digital art.
But it's still a fledgling genre in SA, partly due to a lack of training facilities and disunity among the artistic crowd. This is something Scott Harris, creator of new digital art community Artsketch, hopes to change.
Harris set up Artsketch in June, after spotting a need in the local digital art scene. “The Internet has a limited number of sites where people can express themselves. Many sites that feature digital art also contain photography, or other art genres, and are too general.
“I thought SA could have a digital art site that's one of the best in the world.”
Harris' self-taught Web development skills meant he was able to build the site in two days, and thinking about it for so long beforehand meant he had a clear idea of how to set it out.
Soon, small local communities created profiles on Artsketch, and Harris began marketing the site on major social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. When the time came to call in some help, Harris knew exactly who to ask. “She's someone I really respect, a very dedicated person,” he says of Ezelle van der Heever, better known in the art community as 'The Ez'.
“Scott initially started Artsketch and three or four weeks in he asked me to be part of the team. We had been speaking online for about a year and we were always saying there needs to be a place where people can share their work and thoughts, rather than keeping things to themselves.”
Van der Heever hopes the local digital art community will become more collaborative, and be willing to share the “tips and tricks” they learn along the way.
It's like the KFC secret recipe.
Scott Harris, Artsketch
“It's like the KFC secret recipe. Even if you e-mail the pros they don't want to give away their secrets,” adds Harris.
Jeremy Carver, who goes by the alias Steamhat, has had similar experiences with the local digital art scene. “The community is quite anti-social and it can be a very hostile environment. The anonymity of the Internet makes people act horribly towards one another - but it's also painful to always be the one helping out the new guy.
“I'd love to see more communication in the local art community and people getting along.”
Art class
One of the factors feeding the hunger for practical advice, and the reluctance to dispense of it, is a lack of training opportunities in SA's tertiary institutions. Van der Heever, who is studying law “to get a degree behind my name”, says while art will always be her first passion, an interest in alternative forms was dissuaded early on.
“In my case, it wasn't encouraged at high school. They wanted me to copy Van Gogh, not draw my own cartoons.
“Here, even the people teaching aren't experts in the field. It's not like in the US or France where they get people who actually do it as a profession to teach. What they do in training colleges is teach you software; they don't teach you the tricks of the trade.”
Freelance digital artist Gabby Correia also found the training options limited. “Last year I finished school and was researching colleges to go to the following year, but I couldn't find any universities or colleges in Cape Town teaching digital art or illustration. That's why most digital art enthusiasts study graphic design after school, even though it's not really what they want to do.”
Correia says it would be a major boost if there was a bigger market for digital art and illustration in SA, and more local learning facilities focused specifically on these genres.
While there may not be many digital art schools, there are education facilities that offer specialised courses in animation, digital illustration and 3D design, such as the National Electronic Media Institute of SA, learn2 Digital Media Academy, The Prestige Academy, The Open Window, and CityVarsity's school of media and creative arts.
Carver, who is studying the animation course at CityVarsity in Cape Town, describes it as a “fantastic department” and enjoys the wide range of skills taught, from illustration and animation to texturing and 3D modelling.
Other digital artists have foregone the formal route, and are the happier for it. Take Matt Gretton, who moved from SA to New Zealand two years ago, and is now art director at game development company CerebralFix.
“I have no formal art studies, only what I walked away with from Matric, and this was by no means a restriction on me getting the job I have now. [It's] just determination, perspiration, an obsession with self-improvement, and a solid portfolio.”
Finding the muse
Most people's exposure to digital art will have been through the fantastical worlds of blockbuster films or best-selling games, which make it their business to bring captivating characters to life.
But every audience member doesn't run out and grab a sketchpad. For these digital artists, it was a combination of fascination, boredom, and experimentation that put their fingers - and imaginations - to work.
Correia discovered digital art a few years ago, became intrigued and started practising in Paint. “I then got a tablet for my birthday, as well as Photoshop... I've been hooked ever since.”
Carver also played around on Microsoft Paint before moving to image rendering software PhotoWorks and eventually a tablet and Photoshop. Graphic or drawing tablets differ from PC tablets in that they're designed for drawing or tracing images using a graphics pad and stylus, similar to sketching with a pencil on paper.
“I started off with very anime cartoon-like shading and went on to drawing more in the style of Joe Mad [Madureira], an American comic book artist I've always admired. Then the boundaries kept falling back and I was less limited by style, only by own mind.”
They wanted me to copy Van Gogh, not draw my own cartoons.
Ezelle van der Heever, Artsketch
Harris' inspirations come from the golden age of animation, a period stretching from the late 80s to late 90s known as the 'Disney Renaissance', when the studio released a range of popular films.
“When I was a kid, there were all these Disney movies and shows on TV, and video games were also starting to become popular. In Standard Four, I got hold of the Warcraft manual and thought: 'I want to draw like that'.”
But Harris is adamant that however fantastical the result, a good grounding in representational art is essential to producing a realistic image. “Even if the character is super-deformed or alien, and the medium is Photoshop or Corel Painter, you still require an understanding of the fundamental principles of art if you want something to look believable.”
This calls for a grasp of perspective, shape, form, light, colour, and anatomy, to name a few.
Creating something is almost like defeating the page.
Scott Harris, Artsketch
Harris' inspirations include Glen Keane, who created the memorable visuals of films like The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and the recent Tangled. Another is Samwise Didier, art director at Blizzard Entertainment, and the creative talent behind many of the mystical orcs and elves in the Warcraft and StarCraft games.
For Lynton Levengood, art director at Character Matters Animation Studio in Cape Town, it was a childhood love for dinosaurs that sparked his creative spirit. “In primary school I would trace the dinosaurs I'd asked my dad to draw for me, until I got to the point where I didn't have to trace anymore.”
His character design is inspired by John Howe, who created many of the mesmerising scenes in the Lord of the Rings films, as well as James Gurney, illustrator of the Dinotopia books. “With fantasy art, there are so many worlds you can create,” says Levengood.
Pocketful of pixels
Some impressive sketches on deviantArt is one thing, but making a living in the industry is quite another.
Gretton is modest about his entry into the professional world, but highlights the need for constant adaptation as an artist. “It started with some good advice on portfolio construction I once saw on Bioware's site, where they put out what they, as a games company, were looking for when receiving a job application.
“The key word I believe is 'flexibility', and showing your peers and employers that you are capable of a wide range of styles and focuses within game development. I get a lot of portfolios of artists who show amazing skill in their technique, but they only show one focus of concept/production art, like only characters, or only environments.”
He emphasises the need for both diversity and dexterity: “Having your fingers in many different pies, from characters, environments, vehicles, creatures, UI, prop design - and having a sound art technique - will only help you in your climb up the ladder, or help you score that job when you apply for it.”
Correia says the most challenging aspect of being a digital artist is having to explain to people what digital art is. “People seem to think that, because you are working in Photoshop, you only need to press a few buttons and you have a piece of art. That makes it difficult to get clients, because they usually prefer 'original paintings' and not prints.”
For Van der Heever, modern tools have advanced her development as an artist. “I can't paint, so the fact that I can use Photoshop as a colouring tool has opened so many doors for me, while programs like Toon Boom help speed up the animation process.”
But Harris notes that while there's constant innovation in technology, all software essentially does the same thing. “Most of the changes they make speed up the workflow. What artists can do in eight hours today would've taken two to three months in Michelangelo's day.”
Progressing faster is no shortcut to artistic satisfaction, however. “Personally, I'm never happy with where I am; there's always something you could've done better. I've only recently got to a level that's acceptable to myself - it's a long learning process,” says Harris.
He describes this as a metaphorical struggle to create something from nothing. “In digital and traditional art you're faced with a battle against the white page. It's as if the page doesn't want you to produce anything, and creating something is almost like defeating the page... you win by forcing creativity onto the page.”
“I don't know if you ever really reach a level where you think you're ok, it's a dangerous place to be,” says Levengood. “That's also why being online is good - you're always finding people who blow you away.
“I find inspiration in observing things around me and trying to improve, and then speaking to other artists to get as much input as possible. Sometimes if you work alone you lose perspective, and you need other people to put you back on track.”
This feedback and development through peers is Harris and Van der Heever's ultimate goal for Artsketch, and Harris says there are encouraging signs of growth. “New people are joining and posting everyday, and in the past two weeks or so we've got a number of really talented new members. Our traffic is increasing dramatically each week.”
Interviews with prominent local artists like Warren Louw also drive traffic to the site, he adds. “We plan to look for international and local artists with a good degree of skill to educate and enlighten other artists about how they work.”
Van der Heever says she hopes to get South African artists to an international standard by collaborating. “Digital artists here are offered peanuts and if we can improve the standard and become more valued as artists, we could get work and actually be able to make a living.”
Their focus on community reveals an essential element of art, in that it requires an emotional connection with an audience of some kind, and often relies on collective creativity. It's something industry legend Walt Disney recognised as pivotal in bringing images to life: “You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality."
Connect with Artsketch on its site, deviantArt page, or on Facebook and Twitter.
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