What is Digital Painting?

Digital painting is much the same as traditional painting – except that the computer screen is the canvas and an electronic stylus is the paint brush. A graphics tablet is used to capture the position, tilt, and pressure of the stylus – very much like a real paintbrush. Painting software receives this information and records the brush strokes in the image on the screen.

The artist can select from a very wide variety of brushes, which can simulate traditional media such as oils, watercolor, charcoal, etc. or can be vastly different. Most of these brushes can be easily modified with options for size, shape, bristle characteristics, and transfer characteristics. Within the software, the artist can select colors from a palette, mix their own, or pick from another layer.

Digital painting provides the artist with additional tools for enhancing an image. Many types of filters are available to refine an image. In addition, “texture” layers (usually non-representational images) can be blended in to provide additional interest to the picture.

With the myriad of options available digitally it is no surprise that the styles of digital artists vary greatly, just as with traditional painting.