Then an instructor told me about the Philosopher's stone I was looking for. Wacom. No, wait...WACOM!! The Wacom company, for those of you not in the know, makes the finest add-on component for a computer known to man. The Wacom stylus. So simple, so elegant in design, so much a joy to discover and pleasure to use.It's a pressure sensitive pen that you move over an included pad and it works like a wet dream. Paired with the likes of Illustrator, Photoshop or Painter it opened up a realm of avenues and options to what I could do in the digital domain. I could draw, actually draw with this thing, and I could paint with as much if not more confidence than on canvas. I still want to thank the person who imagined the 'undo' button in regards to digital painting. I was now able to try so many different things with an image that would have once been too cost prohibitive to do with traditional means. I was transformed, a digital convert preaching the pixelated epiphany I'd experienced. So like any good zealot I wanted to SHARE. I talked to every other artist I knew about this new way. Mostly, I was regarded with mild curiosity on the matter. It still seems hard to convince some folks of the validity of a digitally painted image. I still preach it though.
What is the truth about digital painting, then? The answer is deceptively simple. Like any other form of painting it requires movement. And involvement. It means, in my opinion, buying that Wacom (you'll thank me later) and actually applying brush strokes to the "canvas". Spending the time to actually think it through. Sure there's a learning curve, but it's not nearly as steep as some other methods of painting. Otherwise the only other option is to scan and filter. There are good points to Photoshop's watecolor, sumi-e, and brushstroke filters, but I seriously doubt anyone intended for an artist to slap a filter on a photograph and claim that it has been painted. Analogy, I can kill in Tekken 4 for Playstation2, but I don't presume to think that I have any martial arts ability or training as a result of the hours logged smacking my older brother around in the game. So, yeah I have a real problem with the people online who do it, and the people who knowingly pass it off in the real world for profit. Personally I equate it with the people who paint for hotel room decoration. Call what you are doing photo manipulation or simulated synthetic paintlike imagery or something. Just stop belittling what those of us who truly paint by calling what you do anything to do with painting. Everytime I make a microwave dinner I don't consider that I just cooked anything. I hit a couple buttons and the machine did the work. Same thing. Stop. It's annoying.
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