Your Guide to Digital Art

Art is something most of us enjoy in one form or another, whether it is a picture on the wall, a desktop screensaver or a photograph.  So what is meant by digital art?

Digital Art involves the use of digital technology as part of its creation.  Whether it is the use of creativity tools to design artwork and new paintings or adding filters or effects to photos, drawings or paintings, if you have used digital technology it comes under the digital art umbrella.

Here, we offer you some examples of what could be considered digital art. You may even be creating digital art without knowing it.

Digital photography

If you take photos with a camera and edit them online with digital filters and effects, you are effectively creating digital art. There are many free and paid digital photo editing software suites, so it is easy to play around and get creative with your photos.  Digital creativity can be as simple as editing light or changing resolutions to highlight areas or bring focus. But the fun doesn’t stop there, there are even apps to turn your photos into paintings, which could give your photography a totally different look.

There’s even money to be made online with photo sharing sites such as ClickASnap, which could help you earn you a little money as people pay to view or use your work.

Digital painting

If you love to paint, digital painting is a lot less messy and doesn’t take up any space. It’s also faster with no need for paints to dry and the great range of tools available can unlock some fascinating and inspiring features beyond that of paper. Dynamic Painting allows art to be created with very little creativity from the user, computer systems find patterns in existing artwork and use that knowledge to create new pieces.

Dynamic painting can be another medium used by photographers to repaint photos digitally in a different style, if you fancy one of your photos in the style of Van Gogh this can be done without you needing to pull out your paints and easel.

Mixed media and hybrid painting

This combines different software on the same image. Using vector and raster digital painting techniques can add a fascinating combination of brush strokes and formula-based lines to transform images. This technique can modernise old images, bring colour and a unique twist to old works and bring digital technology to create modern works.

Mixed media has been around since Picasso depicting 3D objects from different angles, playing with expectations of perspective and combining a variety of media. This capability is now available using digital art techniques.

3D artwork and picture to painting effect

If you upload multiple photos to 3D modelling software, you can watch digital capability turn it into 3D life. If you have a favourite photo, you can use any of the many photo editing software packages to turn it into paintings in many different styles. Black and white, holographic or brushwork effects can add many new dimensions to some of your favourite photos that even non-techy folk can manage.

The only real limit to digital art is your imagination, so why not try to create your own digital art portfolio, you might be surprised at what you can create!