Digital Art

Digital Art

I'm a digital artist. When I started creating digital art several years ago, I began by throwing caution to the wind. I figured a "style" would emerge as I progressed and learned. By the time I started this website three years ago, it was obvious that very few of my images resembled one another. I use no formula, no custom presets. If I could offer you one word that describes my style it's "experimental". I'm all over the map and that's what makes it exciting for me. If you expect a certain "sameness" throughout my work, forget it!

When I first ventured into photography many years ago, I was a purist. But over the years, oddly enough, I've become pretty much the opposite. The descriptors are more along the lines of funky, wild, crazy, bright, and saturated! To me, that's what digital art is all about: taking a basic photograph and manipulating it using Photoshop and a multitude of the fabulous plugins, presets, and artistic filters that are now part of my arsenal.

Here's my process: I usually start with a photograph, occasionally I'll begin with a blank page and a funky idea. First I edit the photo the traditional way for color, exposure, sharpness, etc. After that I follow no script. I go with my gut feelings and the messages my imagination coughs up.

Each "piece" I do is an entity unto itself. Sure, I have my favorite filters, but I try to stick to the integrity of the image as it evolves. I put it through its paces, applying filters, color gradients, patterns, brushes, effects, and backgrounds. This can sometimes take a couple of hours, but more often a few days, working off and on.

When I'm satisfied I have made something website worthy, I'll save it to a folder I call "Short List". I can't be satisfied with one try, though. There are thousands of ways the same image can be enhanced, manipulated, molded, and blended, and thousands of stunning final images possible. I can only hope to scratch the surface! I usually end up with a group of about seven or eight image files in my Short List folder.

At this moment, I have eight such groups of images in there. That's 61 individual image files.

When I'm ready to upload, I won't have seen the images for a while, so I'm looking them it with fresh eyes. I open up the oldest group in Photoshop and view them critically. I'll choose what I consider to be the best one (occasionally, I'll trash them all). My goal is to upload two new art pieces a week.

I'm confident enough to think my stuff is pretty good, but realistic enough to know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And there's plenty of competition out there!

If you have any comments, pro or con, do email me. I'd love to see them.

Richard