Digital Painter: Craftsperson or Artist?
Where do digital painters working with the gaming industry place themselves between craft and art? Before checking our team’s point of view on the subject, let’s see how both concepts evolved throughout history.
Until Renaissance Humanism movement in Italy in the 15th century, the concept of artist didn’t exist. A painter was considered a craftsperson just like carpenters, jewelers… The final product and its buyer were more important than the creator of the work, his skills and creativity. Thanks to books like Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects published by Giorgio Vasari in 1550, the artist is no more a subordinate, he is the master of his work and is rewarded on merit. In the western world, this separation between craft and art remains. According to the Collins Dictionary, nowadays a craftsperson is “a person who practices or is highly skilled at a craft (making things skillfully with your hands); also called “artisan””, and an artist is “a person who works in, or is skilled in the techniques of, any of the fine arts, esp. in painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.”
Several teammates tried to qualify the main differences between craft and art that came to their mind like utilitarian vs beautiful/meaningful, a finished product vs. ideas, reproduction vs unique... We wondered what the aim of each one is. We concluded that craft is meant to be used in the present time when a painting is made to be shown through the generations. Then, the concepts we create can be considered as craft when illustrations can be more seen as art. To read more about distinguishing those two works, you can always check the related post. Some colleagues said as we work for an industry, we realize production work, which means we are craftspeople. The digital painters selling their art would be more artists then. Other teammates said the choice in your job qualification can also be a question of humility, we let you make up your mind on that point.
Shouldn’t we qualify all creations, including digital painting, as visual arts instead of separating art and craft? The debate is still open. After all, the difference lies in the experience and the culture of every artist!