What are the unique benefits of making art digitally?

Digital artists are able to choose from hundreds of programs, each with their own advantages, as well as a variety of innovative input devices such as the popular pressure-sensitive graphics tablets. These tools give artists the freedom to create artwork in an environment with few limitations. One of the greatest and most unique benefits of creating artwork digitally is the ability to use "undo" - a virtual time machine - as a way to go back and correct anything that is less than perfect. With artistic talent and technology-educated minds, digital artists are able to create magnificent works exactly as they envision. They can share their digital masterpieces with the world by uploading to online galleries such as digitalart.org and artwanted.com.

What are the unique challenges of making art digitally?

Wrestling with technology can be a challenge for digital artists. Newer, more powerful programs are always being developed. Existing programs are constantly evolving and are packed with new features. The technical aspect of digital art creation can be as simple or complex as an artist makes it, by choosing whether or not to take advantage of new tools. If a digital artist wants to dive in deep and combine their artistic talent with cutting-edge methods of creation, they're going to face the challenge of learning new technologies.

Compressing artwork for personal storage and display on the Web is also a challenge. Many Web Sites that feature digital artwork are concerned with file sizes. Larger art files consume more storage space, gobble costly bandwidth, and can take an eternity for dial-up users to download. It can often be a challenge to compress artwork enough that the file size is reasonable for serving but not so much that the visual quality takes a drop. As with many things in life, balance is the key.

How is digital art/artists regarded by the "traditional" art world?

While there are a growing number of traditional artists becoming interested in the creation of digital artwork, many still do not regard it as being true artwork. What is true artwork, though? Computers are simply another tool, an avenue to express imagination, just like paints and brushes. In the future, digital artwork will be widely accepted as a valid form of artwork. Computers aren’t going away any time soon.

What are some of the emerging trends and directions in digital art?

One of my favorite styles is what some call the “painterly” look. It can be achieved by “painting” with a graphics tablet in a program that simulates traditional media. Using realistic paints, brushes and other virtual tools, artists can digitally create works that looks as if they were stroked with oils on canvas. Three-dimensional artwork and animation is also very popular. Everybody would love to play God and create their own fantasy worlds. Digital artists working with 3D software are doing it.