Art and the Computer, ugh

*This is actually a computer painting on a portrait. I actually like this.

Call me old school, I don’t mind, but I have a problem with digital art. My problem isn’t with other people doing digital art, the problem is with ME doing digital art. I see computer generated pieces (whether scanned in and colored or created solely on the comp) and I’m amazed by the richness of the color, then I long to see them in their original form, or as art pieces done in oils or acrylics or whatever. I see digital art having a place with comic book art or art that is highly produced/replicated like graphic designs etc. But art for the sake of art done digitally doesn’t turn me on. I used to want a notepad to draw with, but creating pieces is so much more to me. I like the feel of the paper or canvas under my fingertips. I like the sound of pencil against a textured surface, almost sounds like etching or carving. I like the drama of building up a piece from outline to fill in to detail on a canvas with paint. The brushstrokes, the happy mistakes, the methodical layering of color over color to get just the right shade, the right highlight, the right feeling. The intimate moments between artist and canvas and paintbrush and paint. Catching a rhythm then running out of cadmium yellow right in the middle of your flow so now you have to rush to the store before it closes and hope you don’t lose the momentum that you spent all night dreaming about and all day conveying in sketch after sketch until you have lead smudges all over your fingers, the canvas, and your face…

Computers don’t give you lead pencil smudges, computers don’t run out of paint at crucial moments, computers sometimes can give you a crick in your hand from holding something at an odd angle with repetitive movements, but its just not the same…

my canvases love me back by holding my works and forgiving my mistakes
my computer deletes my mistakes and don’t give me a chance to grow and learn because all traces of an over extended line are gone…

call me old school, I don’t mind…