Recently I came up with an idea for using technology to create compositions  for painting.  In the past few years I have realized that there are many views and opinions of technology.  Many people either embrace it or hate it and especially the more senior population usually fearing it because they are afraid it is too difficult.  There is also the opinion both with art and publishing/writing that it is an intrusion of something sacred. I have heard the opinion that digital painting is not as revered as traditional painting techniques, but I can assure  you that digital artists have to be very educated on what they create just as traditional artists do.  Digital art is in some ways more complicated than producing art by traditional methods.  Illustration many times requires small and sometimes major changes to the composition and digitally these changes can be corrected quicker than with traditional methods.  This is because each area can be selected and erased without having to redo the entire artwork.

 

All things considered I am still attracted to traditional painting methods for fine art painting and am learning to combine it with illustration for my children’s books.  I recently was thinking of how to combine both to my advantage when planning a large canvas painting.  I had painted the background and the left side of the canvas but was aware that there needed to be a  focus on the right side of the canvas. The usual traditional way to solve this problem would be to draw something in charcoal or chalk, see how it looked and then erase it try something else if it did not work.  With this method it is very difficult to compare one idea to another because you have to erase each one to draw the next.  I decided to try to  use an alternate method using my iPad.  First I made a picture with my iPad of the painting (this could be done with a smart phone and then transferred to iPad or a tablet).  Then using an art app, Sketchbook Pro, I uploaded the photo of the painting into it and created a second layer that is transparent over the photo of the painting and sketched my first idea. It was a rough sketch and just enough to get an idea of how the image would look, but I also had another idea. By adding a third layer by adding the third layer I could also add my second idea and evaluate how I liked it. The great benefit of using this method is not only are you not having to erase your drawing each time on the painting while deciding which one to use but also that with the digital layers you can also control which one is being shown and  combine or subtract to create which idea works best.  Upon deciding the final choice you can then look at the drawing on the iPad or tablet and draw it on your canvas or paper  and finish the piece traditionally with your chosen media.  Please view the video above for more detail and a visual description of using technology to create compositions for painting.