Between the pen and the line - Digital drawing and the feeling of alienation and distance

Abstract

As an artist I today work mainly with digital drawing tools, but I also have this feeling of alienation towards digital drawing: As an artist educated around the 80s/90s, the classic analog drawing is the basis for my understanding of both analogue and digital drawing, and my experience with the digital drawing tools is filtered through this early training.

I have in my research been testing various digital hardware and software to see how they work, and what kind of results they make. In this presentation I look at the different quality of lines various hardware and software makes, show some of my line tests from different digital technology, reflect on my own drawing process and experience when working with digital tools, and the experience I get from the finished works. The presentation is illustrated with my own digital drawings made specially as a part of my research. Drawing is an act traditionally done with a drawing tool held in the hand to make a line on a surface. Basically the physical action - the gesture itself - is the same, whether I draw analog or digital: I hold the pen in the same way, move my hand and arm in the same way.

But what exists between the hands gesture, the tip of the pen and the resulting line, is different in analog and digital drawing, and the line itself is also different. The digital drawing tools add their own qualities to the lines and the drawings.

I look at some of the differences I experience between digital and analog drawing: I see digital drawing both as a sort of drawing among many others, and at the same time as something completely different, it adds something other than traditional drawing tools.