Research on Computer Aided Design

Since I've been wanting to try some digital drawing recently, I looked into how these programs/technology could help develop creativity and my practice.

I found and interesting read:

The Impact of Technology on

Creativity in Design:

An Enhancement?

Nathalie Bonnardel and Franck Zenasni

It talks more about design rather than illustration but a lot of the concepts I feel have a cross over as they relate to the creative industry in general and can be applied to illustration.

The text debates whether these new technologies facilitate design activities and help encourage creativity effectively or not. I agree with a lot of what is talked about, the arrival of the internet and development of other technology has allowed many more individuals to access ideas/inspiration and tools (such as graphic tablets). This in itself has modified everyones potential ability to be creative.

I have to admit, everyone I know who works digitally seems to be able to produce work faster and with less cost. No constant paying out to replace materials, just the upfront cost of a tablet/software. But you can avoid that to begin with by using the university facilities. So no costs really to start with. I can see how using this technology in the illustration industry would be beneficial to save time, getting projects done more efficiently as it can "reduce costs and delays, while simultaneously

increasing design creativity and quality."

On the other hand it seems a lot less instinctive to me. Probably because its very new and alien. I like how my tactile my work is and working with the materials is part of what I enjoy when creating. I struggle with using Adobe Illustrator, it seems to have a lot of structured rules, you have to do things in a certain way in order to create. When talking about creative practitioners using computer aided design, Scrivener suggests it "orients their reflections and does not correspond to their spontaneous process of creation" (Scrivener, 1982; Stones & Cassidy, 2007). In my opinion, traditional work has more of a charm about it. There are a lot more happy accidents that can add to the quality of the work, something you wouldn't necessarily get if working digitally as it has the expectation of being more precise. 

I still want to experiment more with digital drawing to see if I get use to it and can employ my traditional techniques to the digital realm. I'm still a big fan of researching through doing an activity. So I hope by carrying on my experimentation with drawing programs, I will learn a lot about my way of working as well as a new skill.