Digital Sketching Techniques

Digital sketching still feels relatively new to many people although the technology has come on leaps and bounds in the past 15 years. Now, you might as well see someone taking out a tablet to sketch on as a piece of paper or sketchbook. Many artists made the leap as digital sharing became commonplace, and sketching directly into digital removed the need for cumbersome image scanners. However, there is an immediacy and a tangible nature to the pen and paper sketch that has never been fully realised in digital form, despite efforts to add ‘paper-like’ screen protectors or rougher surfaces. We could debate that digital sketching devices should try instead to embrace their nature as un-paper-like, but many of us crave the dual experience. We consider the pros and cons of digital versus analogue sketching, suggest appropriate devices and approaches that work for your personal style, and recommend ways in which you can customise your virtual experience to suit a variety of situations. How might we create our visual language differently in the digital context? How can we integrate digital sketches into our work and studies and what role do they play?