Digital Art ?

I hear a lot of argument about digital art. Personally I think most artists are working digitally to a greater extent these days. If they photograph their conventional artwork it becomes a digital copy of the original work, and if they then start modifying the digital photograph, the image becomes progessively more digital and distinct from the original. So whats the problem ?

Personally I enjoy the process of taking a conventional work and then producing digital works based on the original. I can't really see any problem artistically with that. I define myself as an artist who incorporates digital methods.. I make this distinction because some artists are 100% digital.. i.e. the work is never anything other than 100% digital content. This content can be generated entirely from within a computer as is the case with fractals and mathematically based digital art. Some artists create digital art using digital photographs or imagery created via a tablet. In my case my art is produced using a mix of conventional and digital methods.

(Hope your still with me ?)

The digital revolution is here.. in fact it really is the mainstream now. Like music art is being digitized in a big way. Artists can either embrace these new processes or not.. but they are here to stay.

How many of us only know an artists work because of digital versions shown on websites and reproduced in magazines, even artists who never saw a computer in their lifes have had their work digitized ?

(This is all very interesting but is it fun.. but dear reader you must keep going ?)

The only thing the buyer of digital art needs to think about is that it is simply art produced digitally.. which can be good or bad like every other form of art.

But there certainly are distinct characteristic's of digitally produced art.

One of the characteristics I like about using digital methods to create art is that you can easily start using a dark colour or even "black", most conventional art works start with a white page or canvas and the artist builds tonality and shade from this white base. Its not all that common or easy to go the other way and start with a very dark canvas and then lighten it. So this is just one of the attributes that makes digital art different.

I don't think any art buyer should worry that digital art is somehow of less value than conventionally produced art, for me thats only a matter of time. Eventually collectors will fully understand that early and good digital works also have value.. what do they say about any investment buy while the value is low because as "sure as eggs is eggs" values will go up.

(Look you've come this far so don't stop now.. you're getting close to the fun part