Most people would at some time or other have pondered on having a portrait commissioned of a love one, pet or even favourite landscape at one time or other, but to us mere mortals the cost of having a traditional artist paint a painting for us is a pipe dream, who has the money for such things, or the time to visit an artist’s studio, even to spare the time to sit for hours on end, session after session. That day has passed and a new dawn has arisen in the form of the Digital Artists.
With the massive leaps forward in digital media it is now possible to take a photograph and using the very latest technologies create a digital painting worthy of even the masters themselves approval. These artists use digital palettes with unlimited colour choices at their fingertips, digital tablets are available which have amazing abilities to capture the artists true stokes including how hard, or soft they move the stroke across the canvas, arguably and most probably at the top of this field is the Wacom digital tablet range. I have experience of a few makes of digital tablet, Wacom in my opinion wins hands down. These tablets have, at the top of the range, over 2000 levels of sensitivity giving the artists full control over pressure, angle and oscillation of the brush or pen, this enables the artist to paint as if in a traditional media such as oil, watercolour or acrylic. The advantage to the artists is, no mess, unlimited colours and brush types, multi type media using only one brush and the ability to have more control and freedom with both their works and imaginations.
So – you have made the decision to opt for a Digital Artist rather than a traditional, well done, you have just embraced the new century. Now what should you look for in a Digital Artist?
Firstly a sample of their work, whether it be through their websites, exhibitions, reviews or just old fashioned word of mouth its important that you see samples, preferably with before and after images. The benefit of an artist with a website is that there will be samples of their works on-line and a means to contact them should you have any queries. On the subject of queries, always check out the ‘About’ page and the ‘FAQ’ page of a website, if there is none ask yourself why not as this is where you should find all the answers to any questions you might have. If you are lucky enough to find independent reviews of an artists work you are in a great position as independent reviews show both the good and bad, are written by real people who have used the site before you and who thought it worthy of comment. Independent review sites like freeindex.co.uk are invaluable to potential customers
Once you have found an artist you are happy with carefully read their terms and conditions as should you require a painting from a photograph you most certainly will have to be the owner of that photo or have permission to use it so as not to infringe copyright, otherwise we would all have a Mona Lisa hanging in the hallway. It is my experience that most people have a photograph in mind that they wish a photo to painting to be produced from and in that regard you should be aware of some simple rules to guide you.
Your photograph should be good and clear and ideally over 3 megapixels in size, most cameras of today are well above this specification so should not be a problem, but don’t despair as it is possible to produce a painting from even a mobile phone or scanned image, in fact, some companies will offer a free scanning service. Should you use a company offering a free scanning service make sure they also offer a free return of your original photograph.
You may of course wish to go out and take a photograph, perhaps of your baby, pet or favourite picnic spot, if this is the case you may benefit from the handy tips below;
Make sure your take plenty of photographs both in portrait and landscape so you have plenty to choose from
Enable your digital cameras viewer to show the grid view, this enables you to take photographs with good composition, more commonly known as the ‘rule of thirds’ the grid on your camera will allow you to understand and to take better photographs so check it out.
Make sure you don’t chop anybody’s head off or the top of buildings, it is always wise to leave plenty of room around your subject as it can be cropped at a later stage should it need to be
The most important thing is not to try and enhance the photograph in any way, let the professional do this for you.
I hope this article has been of some service to you, feel free to link to it and for your information I would recommend you seek out digital artists such as Jeremy Sutton, Fay Sirkis and of course myself James Martin, you may also wish to visit my website for further information at www.fyneart.com
Topic:artist paint, colour choices, digital painting, digital portrait, digital tablet, digital tablets, new dawn, pressure angle, tablet wacom, traditional artist