Last week I completed another graphic arts course with UCLA Extension. This winter quarter I learned about digital painting in Adobe Photoshop. For twelve weeks I learned multiple techniques for creating digital paintings from scratch. Some of them were started by hand with paper then later scanned and rendered with brushes to become full color paintings. Other assignments were started by digital sketching and/or photo compositing. The goal of every assignment was to create a full color painting with a range of values and textures that were intended to look like paintings not reality.
Going into this class I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew that learning to paint digitally would be a great tool for communicating design ideas for murals, scenery designs and lighting concepts. What I hadn't expected was that the paintings would strongly reflect my own style and would be executed much in the same way that I would start any other painting or mural. I also hadn't expected that they would look like real paintings and be able to stand on their own as art.
Overall this class was an incredible experience that has provided me with a strong set of tools that I can apply to so many areas of my work. I have been able to find a lot of inspiration with this new way of working. For me, digital painting will never replace actual painting but I have learned that digital painting can still be a very respectable means of expression. One cannot be a good digital painter without the same raw talent that it takes to paint with a tangible brush and canvas.
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