Work in progress

Here's a piece I haven't gotten around to finishing. However, you can see the gradual progression of the piece through the apparent visual shift found in the increasing complexity of lines and details. If anything, it evolves much like a typical traditional pencil drawing.

Interview with Jeff

Question: How did you get into digital painting?

Jeff: Some of my friends were looking over artwork online, specifically this one artist. I noticed the how detailed the work was and I was really taken in by it. After I bought a few art programs and a tablet, I was hooked.

Question: How did you learn how to use Photoshop?

Jeff: At first it was a hobby, but over time, I learned how to use the various tools found throughout the program. It took a lot of time and effort before I even became somewhat comfortable with the program.

Question: How has the Internet played a significant role in your art?

Jeff: The Internet is a good place to shop around for ideas and share work. I will submit my work online via my website and solicit for responses. Also, I go to other websites and share ideas with other artists that way.

Question: Would you say digital art has its own benefits compared to traditional media?

Jeff: Probably after the initial outlay of money for the software and equipment, it's virtually free. All it requires is just time and effort spent. Also, digital mistakes are easily erased. In conventional media, if you make a mistake, you have to start over. On top of that, it's extremely portable. Traditional media requires you to carry paint thinners, canvases, brushes, etc. which limits the mobility of the artist.

Other works

Above is an old (and poorly done) digital art piece done last year. The piece below is a traditional graphite piece from 4 years ago. Both produced using completely different tools with elements of the same drawing fundamentals present throughout each.

Mastering Realism

It could be argued that among the schools of art, realism is one of the hardest to master. Unlike its brethren styles, it requires more technical mastery than emotional application mastery. As such, the peaks of realism that fall beyond mere photorealism (i.e. hyper photorealism), requires an insane amount of experience that only comes with time and effort. For those seeking to pursue art permanently or temporarily, having an artistic drive can only get you so far in the school of realism. In order to produce hyper photorealistic works (essentially becoming a human camera/printer that is non-distinguishable from a real camera/printer), you need to have an enormous amount of talent, specifically in the realm of hand-eye coordination. Why is this so? Although many argue that those without artistic talent can achieve the same results as those with talent, this usually comes at the expense of additional time devotion. What can be mastered in 10 years through pure effort can be mastered in 2 years if talent is involved. Because hyper photorealism already exhausts talented artists of multiple decades before some mastery is achieved, for the average artist without talent, more than one lifetime would essentially be required to conquer such a style. Nonetheless, art is immensely beneficial to calming one's state of mind; it should be pursued by everyone regardless of skill level.

Digital Painting: Is it real art?

It is saddening that many critics dismiss digital art as if use of the medium signifies 'cheating' or requires little to no work. Do not be mistaken, digital painting requires the same level of skill and effort demanded by traditional pieces of work. Unlike photo-editing, which is not made from scratch, digital painting uses the same basic principles used in painting and drawing: having sufficient hand-eye coordination and control of media.

Before I became familiar with digital art, I was extremely familiar with traditional mediums. While the top picture was drawn using pencils, the bottom work was painted digitally:

Digital Art

I'm here with Jeff discussing the impact of the Internet on the digital art industry and how it has allowed him to explore this new outlet of expression.

Photoshop

As an artist, photoshop has made things infinitely easier in respect to the creation of art. Traditional art, which becomes expensive when costs accumulate over time, is restricted by the fact that it exists on a finite medium that may very well be destroyed or ruined. However, digital art has eliminated this problem by becoming virtual. Photoshop, which allows you to employ the use of multiple layers when creating art, allows you to save, edit, and re-edit photos/digital paintings in ways that would otherwise be impossible in a real world setting. Unfortunately, like many other design programs, Photoshop requires time and effort in order to be used effectively. Mastering Photoshop, however, also requires experience in traditional media. This is because much of the technique involved in producing traditional works carries over to digital art. Hand-eye coordination, for example, is a skill that must be developed before realistic face painting in photoshop can be achieved.

Digital Art and its Internet Relationship

How has digital art become somewhat synonymous with the digital world? As people become more familiar with virtual communities, they begin to pick influences stemming from their fellow artists. Like scholars have said before, all art pulls from styles and techniques employed by previous artists, changes simply occurring through minute altercations in application/approach.

Art as a lifestyle

Art is in a way a therapeutic method of expression- it allows you to communicate feelings that would otherwise lack an outlet. For many individuals, art becomes a way of life- whether it be through cultural interactions or their own contributions. As such, digital art, which can be made with relative ease, has become increasingly popular within the past decade. Now, tablets, high resolution screens, and advanced photo editing programs allow for the proliferation of digital art.

Art: A Substantive, Cultural Phenomena

Without our collective recognition and practice of art, the world would be hard pressed to spread, let alone create, cultural influences among different societies. Art, the medium for which human emotion and thought can be thoroughly expressed outside of conventional means, is constantly evolving. It is well known that art promotes systems of perpetual inspiration and influence where artists gather ideas from other artists. With the advent of the Internet, specifically the World Wide Web, art from around the world became accesible to everyone. This free, online platform essentially revolutionized the influential role of art among cultures spanning different continents. With time, artists coagulated into specific art communities catering to different styles and schools of art. Today, sites like deviantart.com, flickr.com, and conceptart.org have become standard platforms among art communities. It is within these communities that many new and established artists become recognize, further developing art as a representative face of a timeless, human phenomenon.