Post #597325 by Bruddah Bear on Wed, Jul 13, 2011 1:28 AM

Now, just because I can sort of use Photoshop to manipulate the images above, it doesn't mean I'm a digital artist, just a guy who can use Photoshop. I've run into those who also just manipulate images created by someone else who call themselves Digital Artists but couldn't create anything original to save their lives. I respect artists like Doug, Thor, and others who can use the digital medium to CREATE something original, they can do excellent work in other more traditional mediums as well.

Even at my local community college in the art dept. there is a heavy gravitation to digital medium, and many of the digital medium students imply that traditional mediums are dead, or at least passe. They want to be digital artists because that's what they hear of, all sorts of companies wanting digital artists. When I hear the phrase "Digital Artist," the first thing that comes to mind is the above mentioned image manipulator, like how Ernie demonstrated, and I get the impression that's what many employers seem to think a digital artist is. I don't think of Doug, Thor, and the rest who can create original works as "Digital Artists," rather they are "Artists who create works in the digital medium." They are first and foremost Artists, the medium is secondary. Whereas, in the job market, the emphasis appears to be heavy on the digital, and not so much on the artist.

Something Thor mentioned also struck a chord with me, when he wrote about the guy who used the works of other artists to build a "toolbox" he called it. Box of cheats is how it struck me. It sort of like the practice of "sampling" employed by some recording "artists" in the music industry. Used to be they would snatch a riff here or there, but now It's like entire songs are lifted, they slap a beat and their own lyrics over it, maybe add an accent of their own here or there, and they want me to consider what they've done as being original. Not. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but they aren't doing a cover of or even a tribute to the original. So it goes with the image manipulators and that guy with the digitally simulated techniques who couldn't replicate them himself in traditional mediums. It further confirms for me that the world has some very small people who only appear as big as they do because they stand upon the shoulders of giants.

Electronic technology is here to stay, society is constantly changing, and not always for the better. It's up to artists to preserve what we can of our representative cultures.

That's my take on it, sorry if I stepped on any toes, no offense intended.

I'm glad I only "dabble" in 2-D mediums. Gimme da mud!

Bear
And NO! There is no such thing as a ceramics APP!

[ Edited by: Brudda Bear 2011-07-13 01:34 ]