I am a digital artist

CanadianGran

I see the software as a medium where art is created. You can be a textile artist and use fabric, or a glass blowing artist who creates with glass. There are infinite mediums to create art.

For instance, if you are familiar with the glass art of David Chulily you know that he creates fantastic glass installations, but he no longer actually blows the glass himself. Is he an artist, and are his works art? I say yes.

So I do see that digital art is a valid form of artistic expression. You don't need to have paper and pencil, or paint and canvas to create art.

This is true of many artists who have "made it". One of the most famous wallpaper designers whose name is known everywhere employed a team of people to do the work while he just had the ideas. I know this is common.

I have seen some amazing AI art, but I was encouraged to try it and I did not enjoy it. I prefer to paint in the traditional way, but each to their own.

Thought you might like to see this!

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/artanddesign/article/2024/jun/13/photographer-takes-on-the-machines-in-ai-competition-and-wins

I have visited art galleries all over the world and admit to loving the old masters. I have hundreds of art books.

Some "art" can be challenging.

Tracey Emin's controversial Unmade Bed installation sold for £2.2m at auction at Christie's in London.

I dont particularly care for cows cut in half and encased in plastic. Or skulls encrusted with rhinestones.

However they do make you think and shake you up a bit.

It’s sad to see so many scathing remarks here about digital art.
I’m sure that it requires skill in the way any other art form does.

I don’t pretend to be an expert in any form of art, but if I see something I like, then I like it, however it is created. I have no background in art, so really am not qualified to say what is and what isn’t art - but surely it’s subjective anyway? Things I like may well not be to the taste of others, doesn’t mean it’s not artistic though.

If you don't speak up they will allow it BTW.
I think they are also using Facebook images??
I don't use Facebook.

JamesandJon33 I have images of my art on Instagram.
I spent 20 minutes yesterday telling them I did not consent to my work being used to train AI imaging.

I have an email back to say they won't - so 🤞

Just wait for AI, the computer will do it for you.

JamesandJon33

No MOnica it is not the same whatever the results. Simply because the computer comes between eye and hand .

Well actually so does a paintbrush, pencil, charcoal or whatever other medium an artist chooses to use.
So now not only are you restricting artists to those who have art school training but you are asking them to have personal contact with the medium. There are artists who do this (paint with their hands and bodies) but as far as I know it has never been a requirement. Nor actually has art school training. In fact in the history of art, art schools are a recent phenomena.
There is also a huge number of artists who create work in digital media. I suppose you don't consider them artists.

No MOnica it is not the same whatever the results. Simply because the computer comes between eye and hand .

I like creating artworks on a computer or using photoshop techniques to create artwork. I just have to accept that I can’t achieve the same artistic level with a pencil or a paintbrush. If you can do both, well done.

JamesandJpn33 But that is not the question. The question is: is drawing on a screen with a mouse art in the same way drawing with a pencil on paper is - and to that the answer is - yes - because my digital drawing will be every bit as bad as my pen and paper drawing, using a mouse and screen will not miraculously improve it or change myperformance in any way and it the same with a great artist like Hockney. His work would be brilliant whether he was drawing with pencil on paer, cursor on a screen or making potato prints.

JamesandJon33

Same with Francis Bacon. I presume you mean the artist, not the writer, and statesman.

But Francis Bacon (yes the artist, we are discussing art) had no art school training. He was completely self taught.
So according to your designation untrained people cannot be artists Francis Bacon was not an artist.

But an artistic mess !!!

Some famous works are 'a mess".

Same with Francis Bacon. I presume you mean the artist, not the writer, and statesman.

You answered your own question there*MOnica*.
‘ David Hockney draws and paints digitally and it is superb. If I drew and painted digitally it would be a mess* I wonder why.?
The things he learnt at art school, colour, space, anatomy, tone, perspective, style etc all impact upon his digital work.

What difference does it make whether he is a trained artist or not? Having an artistic training doesn't give you magic skills or specially trained fingers or anything else.

David Hockney draws and paints digitally and it is superb. If I drew an painted digitally it would by a mess. The same would apply if the works we respectively produced were made using pen and paper or paint and canvas. David Hockney would produce works of art. I would produce artworks that the average 5 year old would be embarrassed by.

So the argument seems to be that only trained artists can produce digital art.
Does this apply to all art forms?
If so what does this make Francis Bacon?

As I say again. He was a trained artist .

But purplepixie what is the difference between holding a pencil in your hand and drawing on paper and holding a mouse in your hand and drawing on the screen. It takes the same manual skills to do both.

The computer programme is in no way affecting what you draw, and presumably if you can use a rubber to erase part of a pencil drawing to change it, it is no different to using a computer erasure to erase part of a computer drawing.

The computer is not improving your art or changing it in any way.

Have you seen any of David Hockney's recent computer paintings and compared them with pictures he did with pen or paint? Can you see a difference.

I don’t think it can be called art if it is digitally made but hey that is me. Each to their own.

It is drawing/painting on a screen with a cursor rather than a pen or paintbrush. David Hockney does it as well as other accredited and recohnised arists.

I don’t even know what digital art is. 😂

Well, and if you think about it, many painters in the past used a camera obscura and a series of mirrors to essentially 'trace' a scene onto a 2 dimensional plane. Does this mean it is not really an original piece of art?

I stand by my statement that digital art is a new medium for creating artworks.

Callistemon21

^and some like those Australian firemen calendars^ .

I've missed those 😯

The Irish Farmers calendar is quite nice too.
Seriously, art encompasses so many forms of visual communication. Found objects, street art, op art, cubism, impressionism, futurismo etc. etc.
All these forms mean something to somebody. If you know what you like and only like representational art that is fine but don't diss other art forms. Art is continuously evolving. People have been shocked by new developments for centuries.