[ SECRET POST #207 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #207 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 065 secrets from Secret Submission Post #030.
Secrets Not Posted: 0 broken links, 0 not!secrets, 0 not!fandom.
Next Secret Post: Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 1st, 2007.
Current Secret Submission Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[klytaemnestra.livejournal.com]

11. That stuff always creeped me out. What's worse is how some people treat it like real art ... it's not. It's photomanipulation and often poorly done photomanipulation at that.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

I agree that RPS is creepy, but why not leave people their creativity? I'd like to know how photomanipulation isn't art...

[klytaemnestra.livejournal.com]

Well, it's reached the point in the art community where photomanipulation is all too often passed off as digital art when it simply is not. There's a huge difference between drawing something and painting it digitally and taking stock photos and painting over them. Very rarely do you see good photomanipulation, most of it looks plastic and I personally don't consider it art by a long shot.

[ladyelleth.livejournal.com]

Hm. I can see a difference in mediums, but imho that doesn't render 'traditional' art any more artsy than digital one... this is like saying that pastels is more artsy than watercolor is more artsy than photography. Photomanipulation - I do agree that there are some people who produce unimpressive results, but in general (and this probably is what you call "good") it is a lot more than merely painting over stock images. As for people looking like plastic - no, I don't like that particular style either, but it's just that, a style. Again, no more and no less artsy than the rest.

[klytaemnestra.livejournal.com]

I just don't consider it real art. If someone else wants to by all means that's fine, but from a personal viewpoint I don't think photomanipulation is anywhere near other art forms. I see too much dishonesty among those who manipulate to the point that I've seen pieces that I was completely amazed with that were categorized as being 'Digital Art' when they truly turned out to be photomanipulations. I think photomanipulations are almost detrimental to art when they're misnamed digital paintings. Sadly, where digital art is concerned if something looks like it's a photograph, more often than not it is.

While I know photomanipulating takes a good deal of photoshop skills, as a digital artist myself I know the tricks they use and see it as 'cheating' in a sense. I know that some traditional artists view what I do in the same light that I view manips.

For me, though, using photoscrap and stock just is not the same as creating something original.

Sorry to barge in...

[(Anonymous)]

Your view is very common. I kept hearing "that isn't real art" so often about the manipulations I poured hours into that I stopped making them. It didn't matter that they barely resembled the original pictures used, they still "weren't as good" because I didn't do it 100% from scratch.

I realize you probably didn't mean to hurt with this, I'm just over-sensitive. It hurt to give up something I loved doing because people never took it seriously. I didn't see any point in continuing to make something people will always see as inferior.

tl;dr

Re: Sorry to barge in...

[klytaemnestra.livejournal.com]

I draw 90% fanart and a lot of people don't take that seriously. Honestly, regardless of what someone's opinion is if you enjoy doing something continue to do so. It seems more like a personal issue with how you valued your own work. I don't draw to please everyone, I draw for myself. Regardless of what I think about photomanipulation and what others think of it either, if it's something you enjoyed that's all that should have mattered. Obviously, that wasn't enough though.

Re: Sorry to barge in...

[(Anonymous)]

I tend convince myself everything I create is shit, even though I know it's not anywhere near the worst stuff. That in combination with other people constantly dismissing it made it lose all enjoyment. I know I should draw for myself more than others, but lacking confidence in my work seriously undermines that.

When I tried arguing with people about the topic, I compared it to fanart, actually. I hate how both get a bad rep. It's not like I'm just taking 4 random pretty pictures and hitting "overlay" like half the people out there.

My apologies for bothering you with this.

Re: Sorry to barge in...

[klytaemnestra.livejournal.com]

I understand that mindset. I was there for a long while myself.

I just hate to see anyone stop doing something creative. I know I might not consider it 'art' by my terms, or at least not in the same category as other media, but I'd hate to discourage someone from creating. I had people in art school who mocked the fact that I worked in Photoshop and sadly you're never going to please everyone out there because a lot of traditional artists don't consider my work to be art, and I share those same opinions on manips.

Maybe I'm just cynical when it comes to manips upon learning that one of my favourite digital artists was actually just doing photo painting while pretending to have sketched out the original on paper.