As a software designer, craft isn’t something I associate with digital mark-making. After all, all I’m really doing is changing the colour of very tiny lights, aren’t I? The reason I started watercolour painting was in direct response to spending too much time in front screens – I needed something more… crafty (and less backlit).
So, what is a craft?
Craft, to me, has been something grounded in the physical – time, angles of the canvas, water, pigment, gravity – understanding those in watercolour well enough to produce what I can see in my mind’s eye would take more than a lifetime. Mastering those real-world elements feels, intuitively, like a struggle worth having. Up until now, digital has not.
But, as it turns out, turning lights on and off isn’t actually the challenge with digital (although, it’s exceedingly difficult in its own right). No, digital poses a completely different set of questions that are beginning to feel like craft-led questions. Questions like:
- When I don’t have the tactile feedback of the weight of water in physical brushes, the heat in the room, the thickness of the paint, the angle of the page – how do I make a mark I’m aiming for?
- How do I choose which ‘brush’ to use, and for what purpose, amongst the infinite number that exist as tiny little programs online – all accessible with a quick Google search?
- How can I ensure the colours still feel human? How do I constrain my choices within a seemingly infinite gamut of Red Green and Blue combinations?
- How do make sure I look after my body in the process whilst using a medium that has no natural rest (like when I wait for watercolour paint to dry)? Whilst digital output may not be inherently ‘physical’, the act of mark-making certainly is – I feel it in my bones, my muscles, my eyes. Stuff hurts!
Like with most experiences I’ve had, the question of craft – one I had only reserved for the physical art practice – begins to emerge through play with the digital medium; and yes, it’s a medium. In the same way that clay is, or video is, or dance is. Dividing it on physical/digital lines, especially in a world where those daily lines are blurring more and more, seems like the wrong division to make.
Perhaps, instead of sticking to ‘stuff I used to do’, I should let the work be thy guide and see what happens if spend some time investing in the craft of digital – just like I did with watercolour all those years ago.