Is Digital Art Real Art?

The computer is just one part of the creative process!

I often get asked about digital art…

How it’s created? …what part does the computer play?

​…and even if it should be considered ‘real’ art at all?

Even though art technologies have been around for decades now, they’re still not widely understood, and most people, including many artists, have never had the opportunity to use them.

Of course, there are very many ways of using technology to create art – and I only know a tiny bit really – enough to create the work I want to create…. So we can’t cover absolutely all digital techniques here!

But I do want to share with you how I use digital art technologies to create art – and why I’m certain that this art form should definitely be considered ‘real art’.

My own artworks all actually start well away from the computer, which isn't always the case for digital art, but is still quite common these days as artists look to take the best of traditional and digital techniques.
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I sit down with pen and paper – I draw and add colour. I use a black fine-liner pen, and Promarker inks. I find drawing in this traditional way allows me to draw naturally and in my own particular drawing style.

Drawing apple blossom flowers in pen and marker

Raven drawing

I think using these ‘traditional’ drawing methods to create the artwork gets the hand-drawn feel into the final artwork, and creates a unique textural quality that can be hard to create in pieces created solely on the computer.

I draw each flower, bird, or other element separately, as this makes them much easier to work with once they are in the computer.

Each drawing is scanned into the computer separately

I scan each drawing into the computer and import them into Adobe Illustrator using the ‘Image Trace’ command, which vectorises the scanned image. 
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This means that it translates the marks into a format that can be understood by the programme software. This means I can use the software to manipulate it, change scale, and even colours.
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The settings I choose when vectorising control how the drawing will appear, so I usually play around with these a bit, to make sure it looks how I want.
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Once it’s scanned and vectorised, each drawing needs the white paper behind it separating from the artwork and deleting, so that we can use each drawing free of the background.

Once each drawing is separate from the white paper 'background' it was scanned in on, I'm ready to actually start the creative bit.

I've put a coloured background in, so that I can see the motifs (drawings) clearly. Then I can start moving them around, and resizing them to create the layout. It’s easy to duplicate the motif, and it can be flipped or rotated to give variety, too.

Working on layout and composition

I usually work on the layout first, before turning my attention to the colours...

Continuing to build up the composition from my separate drawings

Although the drawings are scanned in ready coloured from my drawings on paper, the colours can seem washed-out from the scanning and vectorisation process

I usually start by making them more saturated, and most often I work to adjust each colour individually, selecting it and using the colour sliders to select a colour I like, to see the effect.

I start working on the colours and add a coloured background

Sometimes I work with colour palettes I created at an earlier date, and change all or some of the colours I drew originally to colours from this palette. I like the colours in my artworks to have a bit of a ‘shimmer’ to them, so it can take many experiments to get the right effect.

I usually create the background towards the end, using my drawings as the basis to create coloured shapes that give a textural effect. I love to try out the opacities feature to make these shapes semi-transparent, and a bit more interesting.

Adding interesting background layers to my artwork

I also often make the coloured background semi-transparent, too, and put a scan of a piece of fabric I’ve hand-painted in inks, behind the background. This creates depth and texture in the background.
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This calls for lots of color tweaks for the background layers as I work hard to get an overall effect that gives the feeling I’m aiming to create.

Once I’m happy with the design, or art piece, it’s saved as a low-resolution, web-friendly image, and also exported as a high quality JPG, PNG or TIFF, suitable for print.

The completed Raven and Apple Blossom artwork

Although the artwork is created digitally, it only exists to eventually be printed out in physical format – whether this is a high quality giclee print for framing, a greetings card, or even put onto wallpaper or fabric.

In this way, the digital component is just another tool that the human artist uses – the mouse is the equivalent of the paintbrush or palette knife, and the screen the canvas. The computer doesn’t create the artwork, it’s simply a medium that the artist can manipulate, to make the vision in his or her head into a physical reality that others can see too.
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Digital art still uses the artist’s skill at composition, draughtsmanship and colour. The machine can’t create an artwork from nothing. The human artist makes decisions, and creates the piece from their personal vision.

Showing detail from the art

I must admit, it is nice, though, to be able to tweak layouts until they look right – and to change colours easily. This is vital, too, for creating patterns and designs from my artwork – moving motifs precisely to create repeating patterns, and developing alternative colourways quickly and easily.

I think this is one of the main advantages of creating art digitally (at least in part) – it gives the utmost flexibility to the artist, which is a wonderful gift.

I love the hands-on, ‘traditional’ drawing I do with pens and paper most of all – it’s an intense experience, and I feel really involved, and very connected to my subject.
I really do love the digital bit that comes afterwards, too – with so much scope for experimental play, trial and error, to see just where I can push my art.​

Let me know how you like to create your art? Do you like using computers in your art? What part do they play in your art?
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Do you think that digitally created art is ‘real art’..?

You can find my Raven and Apple Blossom artwork in my art store and at my additional stockists.
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