Hi everyone! I'm a second year ID student; we just finished our foundation analog drawing class last semester, and we're currently about halfway through the digital drawing class. Basically, my classmates and I keep coming back to the same set of questions about how the drawing stuff actually gets used in the industry. We've asked around to a few professors, but I figured I'd put them to you guys and cast a little bit of a wider net.
Here goes:
- How much do you use analog vs. digital drawing? (Across the whole process, from preliminary sketches to a 'final' piece you'd present to clients?
- Do you use mainly analog for one part of the process and then mostly digital for another?
- If you do use mostly analog/digital for certain things, do you ever find yourself in a position where you have to cross over and use the other? If someone's super comfortable doing final marker renderings but hates doing finals digitally, can they get away with just being The Marker Guy forever? Vice versa, can you get away with always using digital?
- Related: do you wish you'd spent more time in school working on the format you're less comfortable with, or do you think students should focus on just getting really good at one or the other?
- How much flexibility do you have to choose whether you want to use digital or analog? We had a talk with a guy who said that the standard in his office is to use Sketchbook for 100% of their preliminary sketches. They might do a rough napkin sketch with a pen, but basically everything that moves beyond that point is digital. Does your boss usually dictate the format they want, or is it generally up to your personal preferences?
- If you work with/manage new graduates, would you rather that schools emphasize one format over the other? Have you run into issues with students that were mainly trained in one format? What drawing skills are most important to you when hiring?
Sorry there's so many questions! We've really been coming back to this conversation over and over, and I'd love to hear any thoughts you guys have.