“It’s like drawing in a perfect cartoon world,” senior Olivia Wiebe said.

Coming closer to the forefront of the art world, digital art provides a new medium for artists, with its own unique advantages and drawbacks.

Wiebe said she started doing digital art about five years ago and has always preferred it because pixels are less permanent than paint.

“Recently, I’ve been more appreciative of traditional media, but I think I’ll always prefer using digital,” Wiebe said.

Senior Alfred Thomas said he started using digital because he saw a lot of it online. Quickly, he realized the possibility within the thousands of different stylistic choices.

“There’s so much versatility,” Thomas said. “You’re not restricted to buying certain paints or buying colored pencils. You can do all of it.”

Additionally, with digital mediums, artists can layer many drawings on top of each other, and then hide them at ease. Artists can make “masks,” which are layers that sit on top of their work to add an experimental element, Hendershott said.

“You can make five layers of sketches and individually mask off different parts,” Hendershott said. “It’s not that it’s erased, it’s just not being shown, and you can always delete a mask or edit it.”

Economically, the advantages of digital art are apparent. Senior Brooke Hendershott said that while the upfront cost of her device, warranty, and program was upwards of $1,000, the one time purchase can last many years.

“If you want to just make some fun fanart and you don’t know if it’s going to turn out well, making a digitally as a lot less expensive than trying to make a bunch of versions of it traditionally,” Hendershott said.

However, Hendershott said that digital art has a steep learning curve because while some people use expensive touch screen tablets, most use cheaper models that plug into a computer, forcing artists to draw on the tablet while looking at the computer screen. Wiebe uses this kind of tablet and she said she has gotten used to the challenge.

“It’s definitely very counterintuitive because you’re not looking at what you’re doing, but it really becomes very [natural],” Wiebe said. “It’s like using a mouse, and when you’re using a mouse, you’re not looking at everything you’re doing.”

Hendershott said she loses texture when she works with digital mediums, and despite the smooth blending possible with digital art, she finds it hard to get a more abstract style.

“[Watercolor and colored pencil] have different feels, and they hold differently on the paper,” Hendershott said. “They have their own charm to them.”

Thomas said he stopped working with digital entirely because he needed something different when he made art.

“There’s just a feeling that you get when you’re drawing on paper, and I just didn’t get that feeling when I was drawing on the tablet,” Thomas said. “It made me feel kind of disconnected from my art.”

However, Hendershott said she has seen a rise in digital art in galleries and mainstream media.

“Tech always gets cheaper, but [traditional mediums] are only getting more expensive,” Hendershott said. “There’s always going to be space for [traditional art], but digital’s just logistically easier.”

However, Thomas said he hopes to go into animation, which means he plans to return to digital work in the future. Wiebe said, digital art has become a core part of animation. It will be a struggle to keep traditional media alive because digital is easier.

“I think [when] a lot of people see traditional art, they really see the skill,” Thomas said. “For digital art, you can press the undo button if you mess up.”

Wiebe said that digital art is not as hard a people think, and she hopes that more people will give it a try.

“If you can accomplish what you want to through digital art, then I think you should,” Thomas said. “I think that it’s great if you can convey your message.”

For commissioned work, like posters or album covers, Wiebe likes to use digital. Its sharp clarity and precision makes it satisfying, she said.

“Not as many people do it,” Wiebe said. “It tends to be something people like because it’s kind of unique.”