Digital painting is the process of creating artwork digitally on a computer or tablet, which can make it resemble a watercolor, oil or acrylic painting. Digital artwork is done through specific painting softwares that use a variety of brushes and other such actions much like traditional painting.
Many artists turn to digital painting since it requires no materials and turns out to be cheaper in the long run. Two things are required for digital painting – a drawing tablet and painting software. It’s also a necessity in the world of animation, illustration and 2D art. It’s easily accessible since computers are much faster and can handle very fast brush strokes, more accurate pressure sensitivity and larger files.
The modern painting software features digital layers to save time which is not possible to achieve with traditional painting methods. The idea of layers is to paint on different imaginary layers that all stack together to create the final piece. This feature makes it easy to change something by simply deleting a particular layer and recreating it again. There’s a bunch of shortcuts in digital painting that can save time. Concept artists can easily photobash, which is the feature of merging photographs or 3D models into 2D paintings.
The software is used by artists to focus more on illustration work and developing their own personal style whereas others who work in the entertainment industry create digital production art like concept art or animation-focused work.
There’s no right or wrong way when it comes to digital painting. Given the right skillset, everything from web comics to character design and illustration pieces, can be painted digitally. The only art supply that a digital painter needs is a drawing tablet that connects to the computer and lets you draw on the surface with a special stylus pen, which records every stroke onto the computer in real time.
Web comics have become more popular than print comics and with social media, graphic design, vector art and the like have become genres of art as well. Another interesting fact is that the simplicity of digital art makes it easy for even a teenager to start practicing digital painting in school and eventually make a career out of it.
There’s a variety of art software available. Photoshop is the industry staple and is preferred by many artists. There is a small learning curve when it comes to digital painting. Even someone with ten years of experience in traditional drawing traditionally will take a few weeks or months to get familiar with working digitally.
The entire experience changes and takes time getting used to.
Digital art is considered to be the pinnacle of modern art. Digital art requires no extra supplies, is less messy and easier to correct mistakes. Digital painting is the future, especially for art in the entertainment sector.
India is home to many talented digital artists like Aashit Singh, Ankur Patar, Medha Srivastava, Nikhil Shinde and more.
