THe art Of Digital

By Ben Wilson

Arts are prevalent throughout Austin in things like murals, music, and film. Digital art is part of this, and is an essential part of artistic culture.

Austin prides itself as a vibrant and creative city. It is associated with music, murals, and many other forms of art. However, one aspect of art that goes unnoticed is digital art, which can refer to arts or design done on a computer. Many commercial settings, such as advertisements for companies, shows, and games make use of digital art, which has also facilitated the creation and sharing of art worldwide.

One thing is often forgotten about digital art are the real people who make it and the complex processes involved.

Hezekiah Adedoyin, an Austin-based designer, said that before talking about digital art, it is important to differentiate between digital art and design.

“I think a lot of times people will confuse design with art. They are two different things,” Adodyin said. “So, design has a specific function, so being able to actually solve problems with it and art is definitely meant to express emotions or express ideas. ” are websites where people will post collections of their digital art, and others will occasionally take on freelance work for individuals.

“Mostly logo designs, poster designs,” Nelson said. “There were some bands that I would do poster work for periodically album, cover designs, or some book cover designs every once in a while to get editorial work. “

Freelance artists don’t work for companies very often either, explained Kevin Philips, another freelance artist.

“It’s been almost all direct people,” Philips said. “I have had advertising jobs in the past that involved advertisement agencies and I’d be doing comic book-type stuff for them.”

Advertisements use the design aspect, and other forms of digital art are more often used in things like animation and short films. Although digital art is used in the commercial setting, there is still plenty of digital art that people do as a hobby, or fan arts of other already existing things.

Bill Nelson, a freelance artist who teaches digital art and design for high school, said there

With comic book movies remaining popular in theaters, he said it helps to make a style that clients like. Philips does much of his art in comic book style. “I’m in Houston and I have done the poster for the Houston rodeo, I did the poster in a comic book varies greatly among artists.

Phillips said, “I can’t recommend Clip Studio too much for anyone who is interested in [drawing] comics”

Nelson uses different software and applications to draw. He prefers Adobe organic or painterly or anything like that,” Nelson said. “For things that are more logo driven, things that are more crisp and clean and, and made for I’d say websites or whatnot, I would definitely go with Illustrator.”

There is a variation of hardware that is used, such as tablets or pads. Tablets usually refer to drawing tools that have a display, and pads refer to ones without.

“I do everything digitally now, I have a display tablet so I can draw directly on screen, and that’s what I have been doing” said Phillips style,” Phillips said. Other than places where it’s used, the creation of digital art is also an involved process, which

Suite applications when making art for clients.

“I use almost entirely Photoshop for anything that’s going to be more

Although many people create and make digital art, most of them started more traditionally with physical mediums. Because of this, drawing directly on a screen is more comfortable for most peoplez and is why most professionals uses Cintiq, a line of drawing tablets that includes a screen. However, some having gotten used to drawing without the screen and still prefer drawing pads without a display. “I’ve gotten so used to drawing with the tablet that when using a Cintiq I [want] to see my hand in front of me, and when I just use the tablet all I see is the cursor and I actually like that more.” said Nelson. Drawing tablets without a display are also much cheaper than drawing with a display such as a Cintiq. Cintiq tablets range from around $700 to above even $2000, whereas an average no-display drawing tablet costs about $200. All of these different tools allow for many different styles to emerge. In Austin, there are some museums featuring some digital art, such as Wonderspaces, an interactive art exhibit featuring many various art styles. These museums feature artists that create in many different styles, both visual and auditory. “Learn as much as you can, practice as much as you can,” Nelson said. “And don’t get pinned down to just one style.”

There are many new and growing artists as well. Some might become proficient at one style, but Nelson advises against this. “I see a lot of students that might be extremely proficient at drawing or creating anime stuff,” Nelson said. “But you know, can you do other things? Don’t limit yourself to just one style, try to be able to do things that are photorealistic, try to do things that are more on the cartoon sensibility, you know, all of the above than trying to have as you possibly can. So if somebody were to say, ‘I really need somebody to make this or I want to make a certain thing’ that you could feel confident that you’d be able to do it.” The process of creating digital art is important, and is the results enjoyed by many. Many pursue it as a career, while even more do it as a hobby, but artists like Nelson still enjoy the process of making it.

“You kind of get in that zone and you focus and that kind of relieves a lot of stress,” Nelson said, “and then I would say the feeling of accomplishment once you’ve created something is probably one of the best feelings ever.”