Digital painting is a new and rapidly gaining popularity type of art in which the artist uses a graphic tablet and stylus pen instead of traditional painting tools including acrylic paint, canvas, and brushes. Many artists favour digital painting since it saves money in the long term (fewer materials) and is essential in industries like animation, illustration, and 2D game art, which are difficult to do with traditional painting.

A novice can practise on the graphic tablet without wasting paper or colours. The rapid brush strokes are easy to handle for experienced artists, and there are many more colour palettes to choose from.

Because computers are now so much faster and more powerful, it’s also a lot easier to get into digital painting. As a result, users can work with extremely fast brush strokes, finer pressure sensitivity, and larger files without experiencing any lag.

Although digital painting has gained an enormous audience and fan following in the last few years, it has also been a victim of criticism, mainly due to the lack of awareness of what truly stands for. Following are some of the questions that people have asked concerning digital painting.

Is digital painting easier than traditional painting?

It’s reasonable if the term “digital” confuses because it can imply that everything is done digitally because the word digital usually entails that things are easier and faster. Creating art on a digital device has the advantage of built-in capabilities like ctrl+z and ctrl+s, which allow for easy redoing, which is not feasible with traditional painting. It also includes perspective grids, but that doesn’t make digital painting any easier than traditional painting.

A computer can only help ease the process; whether or not a human can make art is entirely dependent on their desire to do so. Full mastery of all major art fundamentals, such as perspective, anatomy, colour theory, efficient shading techniques, and more, is required to be a competent digital artist.

These aren’t things that can be achieved automatically; they’ll take a keen eye to understand tiny details and a thorough understanding of how to put together a beautiful composition, exactly as in conventional painting techniques like canvas painting or pencil sketching.

Digital artists must also have a sufficient level of technical knowledge to grasp a particular digital application. Each application requires its own set of tactics, which must be explicitly taught and implemented.

To summarise, digital art may appear to be simpler than other forms of art, yet it may be more difficult than traditional painting.

Is digital painting real art?

This question is very common, mostly because most people think that it is a spontaneous process, meaning, give a command and the computer prints. What most people don’t understand is that it is not like those theoretical models where people write the code or push the print button to get the end result. Well, even writing code is not an easy task. It needs anormous amount of learning and patience to know how to code.  But anyway, let’s not dwell on it, rather get back to digital painting. So, yes, even in digital painting, the artist has to learn from scratch, not only painting with a digital brush but also the application in which the art is created. Also, only a person with innate passion for art can only aspire to master this form of art.

It is as the famous saying goes, “It is not everyone’s cup of tea”.

If you have been doubting yourself in following the steps towards a successful career in digital painting due to the prevailing irrational belief among the mass, forget what people have fed you. Digital painting is the pinnacle of modern technology and will rule for years to come.

Just wanted to quote Will Durrant before I say goodbye today, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit”.