The "Worth" Of Traditional And Digital Art In The Fandom Part 1

No matter who you are in the fandom, if you see anything about artists taking commissions, or are an artist who takes them yourself, you've likely seen the argument of "that's not worth the price", sometimes followed by the person's reasons why.  As an artist myself, I often fight the urge to speak out against such comments for a variety of reasons, one of which being the fact that I'm often 'late to the party' as they say, and feel like my response will be ignored.  Also, this happens SO often, it can wear one out to try and combat this argument every time it appears.  It was actually one comment that made me consider starting this blog in the first place, so it seems fitting to tackle part of this subject first. 

"Digital is worth more than traditional."
This actually is not a common argument, as most people's logic about cost of supplies usually has them supporting traditional of being worthy of a higher price.  However, the mindset behind this argument is that digital is in higher demand, thus is worth more because of said demand.  While it is true that there is more of a demand for it, especially as more and more digital artists are requiring digital character references, there by spurring the market for it even more, it is not inherently worth more because of the medium.

Taking into account that a lot of the fandom's interaction revolves around the computer and internet.  Digital is made with and for computers, showing up more vibrantly on a computer screen than traditional which must be scanned/photographed well, and even then, often tweaked.  The truth is that 'digital is more in demand'.  A side effect of that is that artists often go where the market is, leading to a highly competitive market.  Most artists in the fandom work in digital, and because there are so many, a lot of them, especially new comers who are trying to build their fan base, actually start off absurdly low.  Most of the higher prices seen in digital are directly related to the subjective quality of art from a particular artist who has large base of supportive customers and fans. 

In talk of material costs, most people these days do have a computer of some sort.  A basically tablet can be bought for under $100, and while there are free art programs out there, most of the staples are more than $50, sometimes costing into the hundreds.  Not to mention, internet.  While the basics can get someone started, there's upgrades to hardware and software to be accounted for over time and can vary widely depending on how far the individual wants to, and is able to, go with it.  It's not all that cheap, even if you're not having to constantly re-supply the same way you would with traditional mediums, though is does have some flexibility in price range and can easily be considered a cost effective medium.