Digital Painting

In traditional painting, color and form is imparted by using tools - generally brushes (palette knives, fingers, spray cans, etc.) The major difference is that the artist utilizes the tools of the computer to create the painting.

Such a painting will still require composition, still require drawing, still require mixing color, still require steps to achieve effects, and still require technique and development. The language is different from that of watercolor or oil, but it is very much the same process.

Another big difference with digital painting has to do with storage and the ability to reproduce an image. With any digital image the information (colors and form) are stored using numbers (digitally) within a file on a computer disc and can be viewed on a monitor. Providing a file is not altered after it is created - it will print the same image as many times as one wants without any degradation.

In many ways, digital art is akin to lithography in that the art prints are the original art. The remarkable difference is that printing can be done on demand - rather than a run of prints. Set up time is negligible and as a result the quantity and even quality of the print is more in the control of the digital artist.

In addition, there are also multiple size possibilities for any one digital painting while still being an original work of art at any size printed.

Because this is a relatively new area in art, there is much confusion over the different types of digital art - and much is lumped together. When a photograph is altered, there is frequently painting involved, but it is more similar to a painted photograph than an oil painting.

There is never a clear cut line when it comes to technological aids and shortcuts. Most artists do not create their own pigments or make their own brushes or tools. So we should not expect today's digital artist to have to be a computer programmer - but more likely someone who can harness the tools and colors others have created and put them together within his own unique vision.

Enlarge Digital Painting

Art is foremost about communication - the language to create the digital painting is something new - even the pigment ink on watercolor paper done here - is in many ways new - but the language of art is shared. And that is what is most important.