I think that you can be neither and still be a woodworker -- if the only things you make are from premade plans, then you aren't doing any design, and thus it's not engineering, and you aren't doing anything overly creative, so it's not really art. If, on the other hand you do your own designs, and the design is both functional and asthetically pleasing, then you are an artist and an engineer.
Seeing as most woodworkers make custom stuff, I would say most are both.
As craftsmen, we all know that the best tools fit well and easily in the hand. Sketchup is in this category. After a surprisingly short learning curve, the tool becomes transparent. Compellingly simple is a good description. Many of us have found that we can replace your step 2 above with "Start SketchUp", and also delete the "not to scale" part. Where the pencil was once suitably facile at doodling, I find now that it fails by echoing too closely my faulty imagination and distorted sense of proportions. (At the same time, "compellingly simple" quickly becomes "frustratingly simplistic" when you start to wander far from the blocky shapes that works so well. Which is just as welll. Much of what I would undertake to build in the woodshop are of blocky shapes.)
I'm learning SketchUp this week and am impressed. However, I can't help but think about what industrialization (and manufacturing) did to furniture design. Is SketchUp users going to encourage "blocky shapes" on its clients? That is, may the likes of SketchUp induce a subtle affect much like that of industrialization? Just a thought.
There's little danger, IMHO, that your taste in design will suddenly change to match the tool. If that turns out to be the case, however, you will have answered your own question: the engineer will accept the limitations of his tools and environment while the artist will hold true to the ideal and its exprssion. I was cutting 4-square blocky shapes on the tablesaw, planer, and jointer long before Sketchup imposed its blocky world. If your taste is toward free flowing faired curves inspired by and gracefully echoing the figure and grain of carefully selected timbers, I doubt any design tool can replace the touchy-feely eyeballs- and hands-on approach. Sketchup or other CAD can still be the better pencil by overlaying a photo of the grain on the part, but I would be very surprised to find that person comfortable with an elaborate design process. I think that's the short answer: Sketchup appeals to the engineer within. We are satisfied with the design when the artist-within cringes only minimally at the outcome.
The common aesthetic of furniture and furnishings is dominated by straight lines. I don't find this to be at odds with an artistic bent. Efficient and appropriate use of material is itself an art.
"Tools" certainly do influence the outcome of specific tasks, and therefore influence the collection of tasks that make up a piece. "Materials" do the same, arguably to an even greater extent.
That said, it is the artistry with which both are wielded that takes a project out of the ordinary ... take a look at some Michelangelo for an example. :)
On Sun, 11 Oct 2009 08:48:18 -0500, the infamous Swingman scrawled the following:
And the artiste makes up the last third. Some can do extraordinary work with the cheapest and worst tools, or the worst materials, so the artistic bent can be stronger than a third.
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