Digital Fantastical Landscape & Reflection

Fantastical Landscape

The process of making a digital painting has been an experimental one. Before creating my final product, I spent a lot of time "playing" and experimenting with the Wacom tablet that I purchased earlier. I made about four different landscapes with various techniques I found on Photoshop. Each of them were then promptly deleted so that I could start with a clean slate for the next. The ability to start over in less than a second made this process feel much quicker as well. Because of this, the potential it has in the classroom is endless. Students would be able to pursue many avenues quickly without becoming frustrated, like they could be with a material that is slow to use or produce something.

Eventually, I found that the technique that worked best for me was the painting brush that acts similarly to an oil painted brush. With this knowledge and practice, I found myself leaning on the experience that I have from working with oil paints most during most of my artistic career. Similarly, students can have the same experience when moving to fine art to new media. Unlike oil paint, I found it drastically easier to change colors digitally than it is physically. But, it is easier to mix colors physically because I can easily control how much pigment I mix into the color I had. Since it was simple to change aspects of the painting, it has unlimited potential in the classroom for students who are also detail oriented.

The possibilities found in digital art are endless and can be challenged in the classroom. One can only wonder how to make a digital painting look like a "real" one made in a fine art studio.