Digital Art is rapidly becoming a very popular medium due to advances in technology and the availability and popularity of drawing, painting, and pixel manipulation software. Digital Art is simply art created on a computer device in digital or electronic format and has become an accepted medium on the world's art scene. Digital Art can be purely computer-generated, such as geometric shapes, or taken from another source, such as a photograph, or an image drawn using vector graphics software using a mouse or drawing tablet. Digital Art is like any other art form. The artist utilizes both artistic and advanced computer skills to generate fine art and artistic expression. Digital Art can be static or interactive. It can incorporate motion, sound, and other media. The output of digital art is not constricted to a canvas or paper, it can be a digital display or it can be mixed with other media. In the world of digital art, the word artist and designer usually mean the creator of the art work.
Digital Art can be categorized into three basic categories: digital painting, digital photography, and drawing. There are several subcategories and the artist can combine any and all to create their own unique vision.
Digital Painting: The artist creates two or three-dimentional images totally in the computer virtual environment with the use of painting tools that emulate natural media styles. Atmospheric perspective can be easily used to create the illusion of depth or distance. Painting programs such as Corel Painter™ are highly sophisticated painting software that require both advanced computer skill and artistic talent. Such programs are widely used by professional artists, photographers, and commercial designers. Digital Collages is most commonly achieved by the use of layering techniques in image editing and paint software. The artist may also use unique images to produce images that the human eye does not normally see, which expands the realm of perception.
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| Example: Corel Painter™ |
Digital Photograph: The artist uses a digital or conventional camera. The photographs are then digitized and transferred to a computer environment where the artist uses image editing and special effects software such as Adobe Photoshop™ to perform darkroom type manipulations. Painting software can also be used to go beyond dark room techniques and create hand-painted works of art from photographs.
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| Example: Adobe Photoshop™ |
Digital Drawing: The artist uses vector drawing software such as Adobe Illustrator™ and creates the image totally in the virtual environment. This makes use of shapes which are outlined and can be filled with various colors and patterns. This tends to produce a harder edged or graphic look. Vector graphics are considered scalable graphics and do not lose quality when scaled up or down. Notable for their small file sizes and scalability, vector graphics are defined by sets of mathematical points.
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| Example: Adobe Illustrator ™ |
Mixed-Media: This is the "mixed media" of the digital art world. Artists combine any number of the techniques to achieve unique results. The digital environment is much less restricted than conventional media in this type of integration and manipulation.
Digital Art creations destined for screen or print display are made of tiny digital dots called pixels. A Pixel is short for Picture Element, which is the smallest unit (point) of an image displayed on screen. The quality of an image depends on the number of pixels per inch (DPI - Dots Per Inch) that make up the image.
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| 72 Vs. 300 DPI Illustration |
