Going Digital AND Traditional?
In my week hiatus I did a fair bit of reading again. I checked out a book on how to use digital photos in art work from the library several weeks ago and finally got around to reading it. It is Theresa Airey’s Digital Photo Art, puiblished by Lark Books.
The book contains some introductory material, including information on various mediums that can be used and what brands Airey has found to work well for her. It is a decent sized section of the book and does a good job of overviewing a wide variety of materials. There are then nine seperate sections on different types of art work you can create from a digital photograph that includes such things as printmaking, photo transfers, hand coloring, encaustic painting, etc. Some of these sections are entirely computer based while others employ the digital photos soley as an “underpainting” of sorts.
Sprinkled amongst these sections are 12 artists portfolios that focus on artists who use digital imagery in their art. Some of these were very informational because the artist walked us through their process to create a specific piece. Other portfolios were not so informative and read more like PR copy. Despite the book being published just last year most of these portfolios did not include web site addresses for the artists. I would have liked web sites for all of them (though everyone probably did not have a web site) so that I could see more of their work.
I did not find any of the techniques to be earth shattering or out of the normal range of my thinking. The book was still inspiring as it brought to the forefront of my mind techniques I have maybe forgotten about. It also introduced me to a few new add-ons and software packages for photoediting that I would like to look into. Though pretty much all of the step-by-step exercises that were all digital relied upon these extra software packages.
Overall the book was inspiring and informative. It would be even more so for someone who hasn’t combined digital imagery with their non-digital artwork before. Despite that, I think this book may find its way into my studio library as I think it would serve as a nice resource to break through a creative block.
