The fast development of computer technology and the internet has changed many things in our daily life. We can easily find everything we need, from groceries to cars and everything in between. It can all take place in the blink of an eye, and we take many things for granted which were beyond our imagination 10 years ago. These modern technologies have changed our life style, but have they also changed our view on art and the art format itself? Instead of being in front of the easel, spending time painting with brush and oil, pictures can be made using computer software and a mouse in only a few minutes. This can be demonstrated by the potential to allow vast time and labor consuming art work to be simplified and easily produced. An example of this would be the animated cartoon industry, where computer animation is slowly replacing the traditional cell method. In addition to it’s useful role in film production, one of other advantages of digital art is that it has helped people with little skill, experience, judgment or perspective to create fairly sophisticated-looking and often interesting images. The fact that less training is often required to work in this creative world is one of the reasons that more and more people are moving towards it, in their goal to become an “artist”. However, in the eyes of traditional artists whether this kind of work could be called “art” is still in doubt. Some artists worry that in the future people will become so dependent upon this tool, that they may eventually lose their ability to use oil colors to create the magic. But even digital art still needs the training and skill used in traditional painting. Like some famous abstract artists, many digital artists are also capable of painting realistic depictions in oil. Digital art is more than just computer skill, it is the integration of artistic talent and computer technology. Making a great painting in a digital format is as same as making it on the canvas, requiring the artist to have the same creative design, passion and skills; it can be seen as just another powerful tool to express yourself. A great painter/draftsman can use the same skills in the digital format, of course learning how transfer these skills to a computer is also essential. For me, as an art graduate, although I use computer in my daily life and work, I still prefer to rely on my natural abilities to draw, design, and paint pictures. I still prefer to use my brush, knife and oil to make myself dirty in front of my easel for several hours or even days and weeks. I still enjoy the moment when the knife touches the canvas, and the satisfaction at the moment of the final touch. About the author: Cherry Xu is an Art Design graduate, and a teacher and practitioner of traditional Chinese art. She works as the Director’s Assistant at Aspect Art Ltd.
Yeah digital art definitly still takes creativity, passion, and skills.. Just like anything else. Its just another media. I can tell you the digital art I create, I haven't seen anything like it anywhere so far. I enjoy using all kinds of media, computer included. It depends on my mood really.. In fact I was just working on something on the computer and I was thinking of posting it here. =P
i think this is a touchy subject because it depends what is being called art. computer graphics CAN become art, but i don't believe it counts if you just throw a filter from photoshop on an image. there is no thought in that process. but, i actually did a drawing on one of those pen boards and it transfered into photoshop as i was drawing on the board. it wasn't very good because it's difficult to do, but if someone mastered that and then added touches using the computer, such as color mixtures and being bale to use like a clone tool to get a chiaoscuro (sp?) feel it would be awesome.
Don't fool yourself. I am fond of computer generated fractals and the time spent making these is just as time consuming as traditional art from what I have read about it. I also learned how to paint pottery using the oriental style of painting from Soon Hong.
I totally agree! Computer "art" can be just as hard - or sometimes even harder - to create as/than traditional art! A simple photoshop filter, indeed, shouldn't receive credits.
Computer art can look awesome on a screen, but once printed the colors can never compare to a painting. The depth of color that layers and layers of paint create is simply still beyond digital art. Not that computer art isn't art, it is just different from traditional art. Comparing the two is as useless as comparing painting to sculpture. They are all art, and they all have their own look and place.
yeah, but ya know someday, they'll make a flatscreen you can use a brush on that will blend colors just as surely as you laid blobs down on a palet. The only difference is you won't have any clean up and the smell of an oil medium.
Until they are able to print digital art in layers, it will never have the look of a painting though. It will still be one layer of color reflected off of a white background. In comparison a rennaissance painting has an underpainting in white and grey, and then years worth of color glazing on top of that. Plus, the smell of paint is such a good smell. And the process of stretching a canvas, mixing pigment into oils, having the colors lined up on a palette, moving the paint around... well all that stuff really connects me to a painting in a way that doing digital art doesn't do for me.
