Digital Art makes use of digital technology to create a work of art. While there was some initial resistance to term these technology-based works ‘art,’ digital art is now embraced under the heading of the arts as it is still based upon creativity and includes elements of art and design. Digital Art brings together art and technology but also science and math principles too. Digital Art is continually evolving as its processes are influenced by continuously evolving technologies.
Digital Art is often viewed as the frontier of art today. There are various types of digital art including digital painting, website design, graphic design and illustration, digital photography, animation (3D models), and computer-generated images to name a few, but there are many subtypes under the umbrella of Digital Art. As the technology is a fundamental part of the artistic process, it has become integrated with the creative process as well and supports the artist’s design purpose.
One of the benefits of digital art is that it may be reproduced with accuracy. Though this belies the notion of “one of a kind art,” it harkens back to Andy Warhol and his art suggestive of mass reproduction. The early movement toward digital art can be popularly traced to Laurence Gartel, an artist who instructed Andy Warhol in the use of the Amiga computer, but certainly business and the field of advertising was already moving into the world of graphic design. Warhol and his notoriety, however, helped bring this technology into the world of fine arts.
Some may suggest that Digital Art is the replacement of manual or mechanical processes with digitization and it often does replace them. Yet digital art can also be combined with a manual process. For instance, the mere scanning of a pen and ink drawing into a computer demonstrates the marriage of the two processes. In some ways, the early debate about whether or not to deem Digital Art as art harkens back to the early days of photography when it, too, was initially shunned by the artistic community.
Others, however, simply refer to digital technology as a tool not so very different from the paintbrush or the canvass. Digital Art is a widespread movement that has been growing along with advances in technology. It is now taught in colleges and universities the world over right alongside fine arts classes. Moreover, Digital Art is also finding itself showcased in galleries and museums as well as employed by many other industries that depend upon it for marketing or entertaining as well as various other pursuits that depend upon this art medium for expression.