Creating art via computer technology isn't new. The
Microsoft Windows program, Paint, has been explored by children from donkeys
years all around the world but recent years have given computer art an artistic eye and has simulated it
more close to the real world. In many parts of the world, digital art is
gaining popularity at a very fast pace. Soft wares like Corel, Autodesk,
SketchBook Pro, Art Studio and Sculpmaster, as well as ArtRage, have been added
in the curriculum of many digital art classes.
Being a teacher and going with the flow, even I added
ArtRage as the part of the curriculum for the lower classes. My first few
sentences in the class introduced ArtRage theoretically, but just after few
sentences children use to take over my speech with their act and leave me with
my mouth wide open. The students of Class VI, VII use to create picture
perfect portraits of Dawn, natural sceneries with typical forests at both sides
of the flowing river, the setting of the sun and what not. I believe what
children loved was that they could squeeze paint onto their screen and
manipulate it with their palette knife. Another thing that attracted them was
that they could adjust the wetness of the brush and paper to create watercolor
paintings to their specification. They could import their own photos and
convert them to oil for smearing, or use them as a reference image to create
something new.
Digital artwork has
actually exploded over the past 10 years with graphic tablets and painting packages
becoming more affordable and available to everyone. More recently, devices such
as the iPad have taken digital art production, with apps for sketching and
painting on the go.
Software’s like ArtRage on a TabletPC take advantage of the
unique interaction of pen and screen to produce a realistic painting feel. The
more convincing part is that, it allows artists to quickly try out its various
features before committing time and money to expensive materials. The
advantages over traditional painting are obvious: colors are quick to access
and any mistakes are easily erased with a ‘back’ button - a good job, as there
are so many times, impatient people like me, accidentally smudge things up the
wrong way and leave it in between thinking it as- not my cup of tea. Some apps
let us even start with Backgrounds as realistic as canvas, blackboards or even
concrete can be chosen among dozens of presets.
We need not be a designer or a painter to use these apps. We
also do not require a lot of skills or prior knowledge of creating a painting, but
just a desire to make something. The market is so full of intuitive and
creative apps, we have to just find one that suits our personal style, and dive
into our next digital masterpiece.
