The Relationship Between the Artistic Culture and Digital Painting Software
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Yibao Gao, GAO07216734, MA Digital Arts The Relationship between the Artistic Culture and Digital Painting Software Yibao Gao ID: GAO07216734 MA Digital Arts University of the Arts London 20 March 2013 1 Yibao Gao, GAO07216734, MA Digital Arts Abstract This paper explores the possible relationships between the artistic culture and digital painting software. It begins with analysing how the artistic culture and digital painting software have one-side shaped each other in the context of cultural determinism and technological determinism, then it goes on to examining their interrelationship. The paper’s major finding is that both humanity and technology have gained new characteristics from each other in the digital era, for which reason it can be concluded that the artistic culture and digital painting software are able to shape each other dynamically. Keywords: Artistic culture. Digital painting software. Cultural determinism. Technological determinism. Introduction In a workshop called My Digital Life on 28 November 2012, participating staff and students of University of the Arts London shared their experience on digital technologies. At the end of their discussion, they agreed on the idea that the value of digital painting software depends on how people use it. However, such idea was criticised by Marshall McLuhan because it sounds like ‘any technology could do nothing but add itself on to what we already are’ (1994:11). He asserts that it is the medium shapes and controls what we do, not the content (e.g. the uses) of the medium (1994:9). Similarly, Lev Manovich suggests that ignoring software itself in software study is in danger of dealing only with its effects than the causes (2011:3). According to McLuhan and Manovich, the discussion topic in My Digital Life had wandered off to what a good digital painting is about, which this paper is trying to avoid. 2 Yibao Gao, GAO07216734, MA Digital Arts The discussion regarding the artistic culture and digital painting software serves as an extension of the debate between culture and technology. As a technological determinist, McLuhan is not alone in thinking ‘our tools shape us’ (1994:xxi). Vilém Flusser, for instance, believes that the apparatus determines the user’s acts (2005:30), and Sigune Hamann said it is also true for software in her lecture on 16 January 2013. Social determinists, on the other hand, might contrarily argue that every technology is born of a social need (Green, 2001; Kember, 1998). Else tend to say that both determinisms are in fact two sides of the same coin (Bolter and Grusin, 1999; Jordan, 2008; Manovich, 2011; Smith and Marx, eds. 1994). However, although it has been a popular topic in broad terms, the discussion between culture and technology usually lacks specific examples of up-to-date subjects. In order to examine theorists’ different approaches, this paper explores the possible relationships between the artistic culture and digital painting software: whether it is the artistic culture shaping digital painting software, or is rather the opposite. Chapter 1: The Artistic Culture Shapes Digital Painting Software To begin with, this part of the paper will introduce scientific as well as theoretical knowledge of how culture shapes technologies. Then it will analyse the impact of the artistic culture onto digital painting software with supporting image examples. Thibaud Gruber from the University of St. Andrews along with other scientists conducted a research in 2009 and proved that culture shapes the tools chimpanzees, the closest relative to human beings, use to get food (Gruber et al., 2009). Likewise, it can be argued that people within different culture groups would also create different tools to accomplish the same task. For instance, a Chinese paintbrush would appear sharper and softer than its Western counterpart. A tool like a paintbrush does not necessarily seem to determine a particular art style or an artistic culture, as one can still use a Chinese paintbrush to create a Western style watercolour painting and vice 3 Yibao Gao, GAO07216734, MA Digital Arts versa. How visual interpretation such as an art style is in fact culturally conditioned can be found in other social studies (Pearson, 1988). As a consequence, it can be inferred that our culture shapes technology as well as what we do with our tools. On a theoretical level, digital media researchers such as Sarah Kember believe technology is fully determined by social subjects simply because ‘we clearly are and should be politically and socially responsible for the futures we create with or without technology’ (1998:3). Moreover, Vilém Flusser expressed his feeling that human could hardly find freedom within automated, programmed machines (2005:81). Both Kember and Flusser questioned technology for its lack of responsibility and freedom, which again stressed that people should subordinate machines to human intention. For the purpose of this paper, the focus of discussion will be how digital painting software is subordinate to the artistic culture. Currently there are two major “genres” of digital painting software. One is what people are familiar with in the Western art context such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter and Art Rage. Another is what many, if not most, Japanese artists and similar Manga artists would recommend, namely Paint Tool SAI, Open Canvas and Clip Studio Paint. Each of the software genres is created by people of a particular culture for specialised purposes: The Western group aims to simulate the physical properties of traditional media and is genetically suitable for creating Western style artworks that are more painterly (Figure 1.1), whereas the Japanese group focuses more on the creation process of Manga-styled artworks that are more graphic (Figure 1.7). 4 Yibao Gao, GAO07216734, MA Digital Arts Figure 1.1: Down Knight (2003) by Craig Mullins. Tool used: Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. The digital painting above by Craig Mullins is a typical example of the Corel Painter style artwork, which can be recognised from its use of Painter’s signature “impasto oil” in the background. This painting does remind us traditional oil paintings of Rembrandt or Frans Hals for its realism style, choice of subject, as well as its painterly brushstrokes. Apart from the style and choice of subject which are premarily the artist’s own preference, the brush system of Painter could greatly reflect the Western cultural context of the software. The latest Painter 12 consists of thirty brush categories (Figure 1.2) ranging from acylics to watercolour, from which only one brush called Sumi-e (Chinese paint brush) is borrowed from another culture other than the software’s Western origin. Similar to Painter, the latest Art Rage 4 5 Yibao Gao, GAO07216734, MA Digital Arts introduces fifteen tools (Figure 1.3) and twelve of which are directly borrowed from Western media such as palette knife, crayon and paint tube. It can be asserted that tools in Western digital painting software are direct products of the Western artistic culture. Figure 1.2 (left): Brush categories of Corel Painter 12. Figure 1.3 (right): Tools in Art Rage 4. Not only could brush categorisation reflect the cultural context of digital painting software, but also how these brushes are programmed to function. In Corel Painter, the brush editor has many sub-categories to let users customise literally every detail about the brush such as the stickiness of the paint, the density of the bristle, the drying speed of the canvas, and so on (Figure 1.4). Art Rage and Photoshop also have similar brush editors which allow virtual tools to simulate real, existing tools in scientific ways (Figure 1.5 and Figure 1.6). 6 Yibao Gao, GAO07216734, MA Digital Arts Figure 1.4 (left): Brush editor of Corel Painter 12. Figure 1.5 (right): Brush editor of Art Rage 4 Figure 1.6: Brush editor of Adobe Photoshop CS 5. 7 Yibao Gao, GAO07216734, MA Digital Arts Figure 1.7: Double Soda (2010) by Yoshinori Shizuma. Tool used: Paint Tool SAI. The Japanese genre of digital painting software is quite different from its Western counterpart, which can be seen from the artwork above created by Yoshinori Shizuma. Again, Shizuma’s style of art and his choice of subject are influenced by the contemporary “Kawaii” Anime culture which can be traced back to the traditional Ukiyo-e (Japanese woodcut) art, but the focus of discussion remains the culture influences on software itself. In cel-painting, what we usually call Shizuma’s working method, the use of line and flat colour is fundamental. Therefore Paint Tool SAI along 8 Yibao Gao, GAO07216734, MA Digital Arts with other Japanese digital painting software is designed to meet such specialised expectation of the Japanese market. In SAI, hand-drawn lines can achieve almost perfect results with the use of the Pen tool on a vector layer. The resulted line art will be smoothed out according to user’s anti-shakiness preset and can be later manipulated into different line-width variations. Figure 1.8, 1.9 and 1.10 are screenshots of the line-control palettes in different Japanese digital painting software. Figure 1.8 (left): Pen tool and line-width control tools in Paint Tool SAI. Figure 1.9 (middle): Anti-shakiness and anti-alias brush control in Open Canvas 5. Figure 1.10 (right): Line correction palette of Clip Studio Paint. Likewise, colour tools in Japanese digital painting software are specially built in order to work closely with the cel-painting method and are also quite different from which in Photoshop. Firstly, it appears that the default brushes in SAI, Open Canvas and Clip Studio Paint are all circle-based, which causes brushworks appear very soft. Secondly, the relatively advanced colour blending system also allows software users to create gradients with the least effort.