Computer Art Work

Using the computer for one's artwork is merely using another tool to accomplish your goal of creating a piece of artwork that is pleasant to look at.

When most people hear the words, computer art, they think of the now antiquated 1980's computers that were rather limited in what they could do and they might have seen news stories of scientists programming them to make interesting looking designs, simply pushing a few buttons to make them “draw”.

Computers, and the software that runs them have been advanced today to such an extent so as to imitate the real media very closely. Software such as: Gimp, Photoshop, ArtRage, SAI, OpenCanvas, MyPaint, and Freshpaint do a very good job of this. Some show textures more than others, but the result is the same: a beautiful piece of art that is pleasing to look at, that is as detailed as the artist's needs demands.

Illustration 1: A few brush examples for Gimp

As a computer artist, I am the one who chooses what color I want to paint with (most of the time I will use the color picker tool and select the color from my source photo because I'm not so good at matching colors. However, I am not locked into that color and can change it or tweak it at any time).

I am the one who decides how long the stoke will be, whether it will fade out or not.

I am the one who chooses if I need to smudge the colors in order to blend them and how strongly the observer will see it, as well as the rate of smudge.

Illustration 2: The smudge tool 
in Gimp showing the options
available. The Dynamics are 
turned off in this example, but
they are used to more closely
imitate real life media.

I am the one who decides what brushes to use. Yes, they are not like traditional brushes, but they do have very nice effects.

I still have to draw out my design or project myself using either my stylus or mouse or touchscreen and there is excellent software to use for very precise designs, such as Inkscape.

On the computer, I can zoom in very closely in order to paint delicate details if I so choose and to save my eyes from strain. And yes, I can zoom out to observe the overall look of my composition and change it as necessary.

A fantastic plus to using the computer is if I make a mistake in the proportions of a section (I do this quite a bit, unfortunately). I can then select, copy, and paste that part and resize it so that it is correct. But, that's ME doing it, not the computer deciding to do it for me. And oh yes, I *can* make many “happy accidents”, some of which I cannot reproduce because I don't remember how I did it.

The computer does *not* do the drawing/painting for me.

The computer does *not* decide for me what colors should be used, nor whether the colors should be blended in a particular area or not.

The computer does *not* make my artwork perfect for me. I am the one doing that as best I can.

What most people think of when they hear “computer or digital painting” is: Psychopaint or even, Fotosketcher. These are just filters that convert a photo into what looks like an oil or watercolor painting. *This is not what serious computer artists use.* The serious digital artists use the software mentioned above and others that I have not had the pleasure of investigating yet.

You can bring all your traditional creative knowledge to the world of digital painting. It just depends on what tools you are ready to learn well and use.

My traditional background has been carried through to the digital world. Computer art is nothing to be frowned upon nor afraid of, it is simply another tool in the artist's toolbox. Not every piece is the same, it depends on the artist him/her self.