Vector purist? Not me

[iamtheblues]

When one considers that the final output of any vector is in raster format (outside of the native application, that is) and leaving aside printing on billboards or on the sides of double-decker buses, what does it really matter if there are raster elements in the finished work?
I like plugins and they save me a good deal of time achieving the results I want. The attached was made (very quickly) with XDP6 and a little help from Flaming Pear's Flood Filter.
I'd like to hear other opinions on this, so would anyone care to contribute towards a debate?
Saludos,
Bob.

[zaphodeist]

Nice one Bob! I like plug-ins too. Can't see anything wrong in using tools to achieve an end. As you say, all vector stuff becomes raster at some stage.

[jvila]

Bob, Que tal?.
I'll talk about me.
When I'm doing a drawing to post in xara gallery I don't use pluggins as a challenge about my xara knowledge and to try to understand in a better way how lights and shadows work, that's all it is such a game or aim, how to get it in the hardest way because it teaches me how to get the most from every tool.
But If you want or if you are a professional and have to make a work and you have a pluggin that saves your time why not to use it?, it is like not using a computer to draw, if you have it then use it, I don't see any problem with that.

[Big Frank]

I'm not going to bite, Bob, I'm really not!

[handrawn]

Hi Bob

by the same token: 'what does it matter what software you use?'

if your objective is to produce art, then what matters is what works - and a fair percentage of that will be personal

[masque]

The only thing that matters is the end result, not the variety of techniques used to reach it.
A painter call Chris Ofili uses elephant dung in his paintings, but they are still called paintings. I habitually use bitmap fills in many of the things I do but I still consider them predominantly vector drawings. I can’t see that it matters at all. Nobody says you shouldn’t use ink on a pencil drawing, pencil crayon over acrylic.
It simply doesn’t matter.
With a recent drawing I had to scale it up for a large sign and thought that the bitmap fill would present a few problems, but replacing the fill with hours of vector work would have been uneconomical and in the end, pointless.

[Fred C]

... uses elephant dung in his paintings, but they are still called paintings...

That gives new meaning to 'his work stinks.'

[Albacore]

I like the way Adobe handles this, it allows the user to copy and paste between programmes and if it is edited in one programme it updates itself in the other. I find Live Effects in Xara a pain as it takes so much time to arrive at the solution and many of the Plug-ins have no preview of what you are doing. No I am not a purist but I don't like Live Effects.

[DanDaBear]

First, let me say that I do not consider myself any kind of an artist. (well, maybe a bad one!) The only art classes I ever had were in high school, and that was in the 70's! I just enjoy creating things.

That said, I use whatever programs, plug-ins, stencils . . . whatever I can, to create something I find appealing.

I can start with colored scribbles and shapes, add various filters and effects and acheive some stunning results! (sometimes in a good way)

I have over a dozen different graphics programs, including ArtRage, PSP, PS Elements, Doggwaffle, RealDraw, Sculptris and five different versions of Xara.

I have no problem taking something from Xara, importing it into ArtRage and adding things, bringing it into PSP or PSE for touch ups or effects or whatever.

As long as the end result pleases me, what difference does it make what I used to create it?