It's alive, but more and more is being replaced. Photography doesn't replace children book illustration, but there used to be demand for people to paint portrai

It's alive, but more and more is being replaced. Photography doesn't replace children book illustration, but there used to be demand for people to paint portraits, which were first replaced by photographers, and now by the fact that everyone has a pretty good camera in their pocket. (I feel no need to go to a portrait photographer, I'd much prefer all the photos and videos I capture every day) I majored in Industrial Design and learned marker rendering, as well as drafting. (and yeah I took oil painting classes, etc) Even did professional drafting for a while on paper in the mid 80s. Very few people work on paper for either of those anymore. I found it so liberating to move to computers soon after graduating and never looked back. Zbukvic's stuff is beautiful, but I'm not all that convinced comparable stuff couldn't be done digitally. He looks about my age or a bit older, so he certainly learned before photoshop etc. Most people today would find it incredibly frustrating to have to paint without access to things like layers, undo, etc. which are incredibly powerful. The biggest thing traditional media has going for it in art is that it produces an original.