Messing around with digital painting

The recent arrival of Corel Painter 11 inspired me to fire up my dusty, unused copy of Painter X and have a go at it. Recently I’ve been devouring watercolor tutorials and feel a general sense of renewed vigor for artwork in traditional media. This is a big departure for me, stepping away from the lavish accouterments of Photoshop with its fancy layer-styles and vector tools.

Why digital media?

Traditional is good. Traditional media runs, bleeds, soaks, and stains. There’s a tremendous feeling of connectedness with the media that uniquely inspires. So why use “traditional” media on the computer? Why fire up Corel Painter X? Why get an expensive Wacom tablet to explore what your hands can produce with a $10 Moleskine notebook and ballpoint pen? Why digital art?

Because I’m a technophile.

Even if it ultimately proves that traditional media is better, I’ve got to give it a try since I have the tools in hand.

Artistic review and analysis coming up!

And I plan on sharing the experience…

First article will discuss “Why Digital Media?” and the follow-up will discuss which software products and hardware digitizers seem the best combo, all considering price.

In closing, I’ll add that both the “watercolor” flowers and the “pencil”-sketch presented on this page were both created digitally, using Corel Painter and ArtRage respectively.