Digital Art Is Not Art!! (Part 2)

See Part 1

For those that think digital art is not art, tell me this. Is your favorite writer/novelist/screenwriter not really a writer at all because they typed the whole book/screenplay on a computer? Think about how ridiculous that sounds. And make sure not to comment here, instead write me a letter and send it to me through the postal service. Or I wont take you seriously for typing your comment. Doesn't that sound silly? Then why is it so easy to say digital art is not art. Hell, I use a tablet and hold my pen the same way I would a pencil or brush. I pick and mix colors the same way I would traditionally. I sketch things out the way I would traditionally. If anything, the people who paint beautiful digital works with a mouse should be given an award! But oh they used a mouse? Not art..

One intelligent response I did get was that with oil paint the light reveals the brushstrokes and textures of the painting, and you can't light a digital piece. This is true. But if I'm displaying artwork online, the only light on the art is coming from inside your computer monitor. So an oil painting, watercolor, or digital painting make no difference. You say you can "undo" in digital art, but not in traditional. Ever paint with oils before? That stuff takes hours to dry. You make a mistake and you can very easily wipe it away. Is that a cheat? No. It's just a tool. In digital art you can color pick from photos. You know where that came from? Gouache painters back before digital art used to match colors from photos to make interesting photo-esque color palettes. It's faster in digital. But is that a cheat? No. It's a tool. Before paintbrushes were invented we used sticks to paint and scratched artwork onto cave walls. Are paintbrushes a cheat?! They're a tool. What makes a tablet any different?

And for those who think digital art is easy.

My very first digital painting. 2008. Crap. 

 Recent digital painting.

If it was easy, that first one would look much nicer. Right? I actually had to practice, learn about color, learn about lighting, etc. The same exact stuff you learn with any kind of art. It actually takes skill and practice. And learning oil painting actually caused me to improve drastically with my digital painting. And knowing digital painting made learning oil painting easily. Different tools. End results are still art.

My first traditional painting

My first oil painting

My second oil painting

I hope this helped those of you digital artists who have gotten ignorant comments like this before. And I hope for all the ignorant digital art haters, I hope you learned something about this art form. :)

-ZhouRules (Chris Shehan)