Digital painting. Progress of digital painting

Last week the company Wacom, a virtual monopolist in the world of digital drawing, presented new technology WILL– Wacom Ink Layer Language. This is a new universal standard that provides cross-platform and working together locally or in the cloud, regardless of device and ecosystem. The technology involves the use of not only specialized tablets for digital painting, but also smartphones and regular tablet computers equipped with styluses.

Digital painting, that is, the creation of electronic paintings using computer simulations of artistic instruments is a very interesting area. We don't hear every week big news about a new graphics tablet and we don’t wait with bated breath for new tools, however, this area of ​​​​consumer electronics is steadily and continuously developing. not at all as highly specialized as, say, programming. The availability of technology and tools allows even non-professional artists to create their own digital paintings. How has this industry developed and what can await us in the future? Let's try to find out!

The direction of digital painting is quite young, which is obvious - for its emergence it was necessary to sufficiently develop computers and information input and output devices. In general, no one knows the exact date of the first computer drawing. And what can be considered such? Should pseudographics be classified as digital drawing or not? The first noticeable and colorful works made on a computer appeared in the mid-90s of the last century, when widespread use of SVGA monitors and video cards capable of displaying 16.7 million colors.

Interestingly, the ancestor of modern digital artist tools, the first graphics tablet, appeared long before the development of personal computers. In 1888, a certain Elisha Gray patented the first graphics tablet. But the first device, really similar to modern ones, consisting of a pen and a flat pressure-sensitive device, worked in conjunction with a computer Stylator and was used for handwriting in 1957.

In 1964, a graphics tablet was introduced, which used a grid of semiconductors under the input surface to which ternary Gray code-encoded electrical pulses were applied. The pen received this signal, which could then be decoded back into coordinates.

But the first consumer graphics devices called KoalaPad were designed to work with Apple II computers, their history began in 1984. Along with the tablet, the user was offered a special software for drawing . Over time, Koala tablets began to work with other computers (the graphics program for the IBM PC was called PC Design), and soon the market for consumer tablets expanded - new companies entered it.

Since the end of the twentieth century, the rapid development of digital painting or CG art(Computer Graphics Art). The reason for this was, firstly, accessibility. In order to draw on a computer, in addition to the computer itself, it was necessary to purchase only a graphics tablet and software. The second reason for the increase in popularity was the increase in the speed of the artist’s work. Graphics programs offer a large number of tools, not to mention a rich color palette. To the modern artist You just need to make two mouse clicks to select the desired color - there is no need to buy and mix paints. And don’t forget about the biggest advantage of a computer - any erroneous action in the program can be easily undone. IN digital drawing it is easier to make changes, and you can send it to the destination address immediately upon completion - there is no need to wait for the paint to dry and transfer the canvas to digital media.

The growing popularity of technology has allowed the development of corresponding tools - in the arsenal of a modern digital artist, illustrator or graphic designer great amount effects, brushes and filters that are simply not available in traditional painting.

U digital painting great prospects, but also great limitations. Since the 18th century, there has been virtually no technical development in traditional art; modern artists create with almost the same set of tools as their colleagues did a hundred years ago: canvas, brushes, oil... But at the same time, the resolution and pixel density of displays increases every year, the quality of color rendition improves, Computing power is growing, software is developing - all this is a determining factor for the development of digital drawing. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, the resolution of modern monitors is still far from the resolution of the human eye; the monitor is not capable of displaying the amount of detail that can provide live observation of a section of canvas of the same size classical painting.

Another modern problem of digital painting is simply the lack of appropriate educational institutions. Digital artist today he is, in fact, self-taught. Most famous digital artists have graduated educational establishments in traditional painting and only then independently switched to digital creativity.

Although there are very few manuals on digital painting, the choice of graphics tablets on the market is quite extensive. Company models are popular in Russia Genius And . The cheapest model costs a little more than a thousand rubles, but a professional tool with a large diagonal and functionality can cost 200 thousand rubles.

Creating a drawing/painting from start to finish on a computer is a relatively new direction in fine arts. The exact date There is no point in establishing the creation of the first computer drawing (you can get bogged down in determining what is artistic and serious enough for a drawing as such); however, the approximate date for the widespread appearance of impressive and colorful works, made on a PC - 1995-1996 (this date marks the appearance and widespread distribution of relatively affordable SVGA monitors and video cards capable of displaying 16.7 million colors)). In digital painting, a computer is the same tool as a brush and easel. In order to draw well on a computer, you also need to know and be able to apply all the knowledge and experience accumulated by generations of artists (perspective, aerial perspective, color circle, glare, reflexes, etc.).

Examples of digital artists' work

• Theft in a caravanserai by Guro.
• Snowdrop, by Anry.
• Sir Kurush, by Anry.
• Daisies and gargoyles, by Ellyon.
• Evil Guy, by Ellyon.

Advantages of digital painting

Availability

In order to create digital works of any level, you need to purchase/have a personal computer of sufficient power, and several programs for computer painting. All this will cost ~$1500 (most of this amount is the cost of licensed programs) in the initial version (professionals buy more expensive computers, monitors and tablets, but they only increase the convenience of work). You can read more about the equipment of a modern (as of 2006) CG artist in the article “Digital art: where to start?”.

High speed

Particularly critical in the paid sector artistic activity: design of books, movies, games. Specialized programs for CG artists (for example) contain a large number of tools that speed up work. Choosing the right color is a matter of seconds (unlike traditional painting, where you have to mix paints to get the right color - requires experience and time), choosing the right brush/tool ​​is also an almost instantaneous operation. The ability to cancel your actions, as well as the ability to save at any point in your work and return to it later and again big list opportunities and advantages - all this makes the work of a professional artist several times faster with the same quality. Besides, computer work immediately ready for use in digital technologies of cinema, games, layout - a canvas painted in oil must first be transferred to digital form.

Unique tools

For example, working with layers or applying textures from photographs to the areas of the painting you need; generation of noise of a given type; various brush effects; HDR pictures; various filters and corrections - all this and much more is simply not available in traditional painting.

Prospects

Traditional art practically reached its limit in terms of perfection of technology and means back in the 18th century. Since then, nothing new has been added - you still have pigment, oil (or a ready-made mixture of them), canvas and brushes. And nothing new will appear. It’s fair to say that modern computer painting is still far from the best paintings of the geniuses of the past in terms of quality and scale of work - but it has room to develop. The resolution of monitors is growing, the quality of color rendering is improving, the power of computers is growing, programs for digital painting are changing and improving, there is a fundamental possibility of creating new methods and devices for working with color/outputting color (projectors or holography).

Ease of use by some groups of people and ease of operation

If you know how to work on a computer and are an inquisitive and energetic person, it will not be difficult for you to understand the interface of computer painting programs - it is the same as most Windows programs + a completely logical digital artist’s toolkit. Both paid and free video lessons for working in one program or another. In relation to cg-art programs, such video lessons contain a recording of all stages of the digital artist’s work on a painting.

Disadvantages of Digital Painting

Difficulty of mastering

At the moment, there are very few schools or more serious educational institutions teaching in this specialty - mainly the most energetic and curious people and especially children who can learn and find information on their own; designers and printers (with experience working with graphics on a PC); Most famous digital artists graduated from educational institutions in traditional painting and only then independently switched to CG art. Also modern digital artist It’s unthinkable without the Internet (communicating with colleagues, employers, searching for new programs or drawing methods, etc.) - and again, not everyone has it. There are practically no books on creating drawings on a computer, but the situation is gradually improving.

The current limit of computer technology

Modern monitors still do not work at resolutions close to the resolution of our eyes. That is, the monitor is not capable of displaying such an amount of detail and detail that can provide live observation of a section of a classical painting of the same size. You can print your painting on a printer - but this gives rise to the third problem of CG art:

Problem with outputting a computer image to a tangible medium

Monitors operate in a color space of 16.7 million colors. Printing on paper cannot physically cover this entire range of colors - the color space covers a smaller number of colors and shades. At the moment there is no decent medium for digital drawing. Monitors that can show all the colors of a picture (and have brightness, contrast, color settings) have too low a resolution that does not allow them to show all the details of the picture (they don’t show it in full size without interpolation - a regular monitor cannot simultaneously display more than 1-2 megapixels; special and quite expensive LCD monitors can show about 8 megapixels).

Copyright issue

The one who has the original (source) file of the drawing is the owner of the drawing. But, like any digital information, the file can be duplicated (copied) and replicated in unlimited quantities without any significant costs. The simplest example protecting your drawing - posting a reduced copy on the Internet (usually professional artists draw in high resolution- 6000×10000 pixels and even more - it’s convenient to draw details and post them on the Internet small option- 1600×1200 or less; or even a fragment). In this case, whoever has a large version of the drawing is its author and owner. The copyright on a digital drawing is easy to change and real help Only well-known artists can feel its presence.

Links

External links to Russian-language forums

where artists of all genres communicate

• GURO ART FORUM- the oldest specialized forum founded famous artist Guro in December 2002
• SKETCHERS.RU- a somewhat younger resource that has many convenient functions (magazines, galleries) for artists. Founded on January 17, 2004 by artist/designer AJ.
• RealTime- subsection of the Real Time school. One of the few institutions offering training computer art in all directions (2D, 3D). At the beginning of the development of the forum, the direction of the drawing was led by the most famous Russian CG artist - Henry. The forum is currently inactive, but the archives are very useful for both beginners and professionals.
• 3d center- Popular website and forum on CG (Galleries of 3d and 2d works, W.I.P, lessons and articles).

Computer models, and due to the use of human computer simulations traditional instruments artist.

general information

Examples of digital artists' work

• Opium, author Milenky Evgeniy. milenkiy.com - gallery of works
• Theft in the Caravanserai, by Guro Roman.
• Daisies and Gargoyles, by Ellion.
• Evil Guy by Ellion.
• Bank bridge in St. Petersburg, author B. Slobodan.
• A flying castle for a little princess, by Eduard Mango Kichigin

Progress of digital painting

Availability

High speed

Unique tools

Prospects

Ease of use by some groups of people and ease of operation

Disadvantages of Digital Painting

Difficulty of mastering

The current limit of computer technology

Problem with outputting a computer image to a tangible medium

Copyright issue

Links

External links to Russian-language forums

• 3d center is a popular website and forum on CG (Galleries of 3d and 2d works, W.I.P, lessons and articles).
• Guro art forum is the oldest specialized forum, founded by the famous artist Guro in December 2002.
• СGTalk.ru - forum on СGTalk.ru
• Manga.ru - forum for artists in the manga style
• Real time is a subsection of the Real Time school. One of the few institutions that teach computer art in all areas (2D, 3D). At the beginning of the development of the forum, the direction of the drawing was led by the most famous Russian CG artist - Anry. The forum is currently inactive, but the archives are very useful for both beginners and professionals.
• Render.ru - online magazine on computer graphics and animation
• "A Certain Aesthetics" is a community of young artists. Founder of Ketka.
• Sketchers.ru is a somewhat younger resource that has many convenient functions (magazines, galleries) for artists. Founded on January 17, 2004 by artist/designer AJ. This domain is currently not working. 2010.01.10
• Hofarts.com is a forum with a specialized “School” section and a CG news magazine.

Hi all! There are different types of collectors: some love stamps and coins, others love bottles from distant countries, but I became pretty hooked on the work of digital artists/simply artists/photographers n number of years ago. Therefore, in this blog test first post, I bring to your attention a selection of the most interesting (in my opinion) digital artists. Let's go!

Marek Okon- Polish illustrator with an amazing sense of detail and his own very special drawing style. He is incredibly talented in the field of digital “painting” and digital art. He currently works primarily as a conceptual artist, video game and literary designer. A large number of his works circulate on the Internet and his works are often used as desktop wallpaper.

Show picture

Daniel Conway- he is 23 years old and currently lives in the UK. Daniel has a degree from the University of Dundee (Scotland), where he spent three fantastic year(as he himself states) by studying both traditional and digital animation. As can be seen from his personal portfolio, Daniel works a lot in digital painting, having been practicing creating paintings for the past four years. Daniel Conway's artwork is instantly recognizable. His works are filled with vibrant colors, and fantastic scenes simply incomparable. They immerse us in a world where man and technology live in colorful harmony. Daniel's dedication to his craft is clearly visible in his galleries with many the most beautiful drawings that decorate the whole world. In recognition of his talent, Daniel Conway is rightfully considered one of the most successful artists in the deviantART community, whose leadership in October 2008 decided to award him a monthly honorary prize.

Show picture

Martha Dahlig(Marta Dahlig) is one of the contemporary artists who creates in the style of digital art. Marta Dahlig was born on December 23, 1985 in Warsaw. As a child, I was fascinated by the works of Tadeusz Micinski and Boleslav Lesmian, who created a wonderful galaxy of fairy tales about magical creatures, about princesses and sorcerers.
Now Marta is a 4th year student (although the information may be outdated) at the University of Krakow at the Faculty of Management. These modest data are all that is officially known about the artist for now, simply because she filled out a profile on the website where she posts her works.

Show picture

Franz Steiner- advertising photographer, 3D designer and art director of her own studio. The studio specializes in photo retouching and creating 3D images. The studio's employees are fluent in professional retouching tools, collaborating with large and well-known fashion magazines, studios and agencies. The works of this studio are always distinguished by their special brilliance and charm. Their works shine, play with reflections and undoubtedly attract the eye. Such high-quality work helped attract such clients as: Apple, Microsoft, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, Braun, Volkswagen.

Show picture

Matt Allsopp- an illustrator with an amazing sense of detail and his own very special drawing style. He specializes in illustration, character design, and concept art. His updated portfolio features work for Killzone 2 (a series of illustrations created for Sony and Guerrilla), character designs for Fight Night (EA Sports), as well as dozens more stunning illustrations created for clients such as Microsoft, Fujitsu and the BBC .

Show picture

Reid Southen- a young and talented illustrator from Michigan, often working under a pseudonym Rahll. He is a freelance illustrator, collaborating with video game and film production companies. His style differs from most ordinary artists - the absence of unnecessary details, thorough drawing, ideological nature and scale. His portfolio is a combination of personal creative work and commercial assignments. To understand the extent of her enormous talent, you just need to look at his amazing website.

Show picture

Radojavor- Slovak illustrator with excellent command of graphics. His updated portfolio is a combination of personal creative works and commercial assignments. Amazing patience and perseverance do not dry out the works - they remain alive and picturesque (if one can say so about his illustrations). The artist's works are drawn characters, ships and planes. They live in his illustrations own life. Therefore, I propose to move directly from the texts, closer to his masterpieces.

Show picture

Graphic designer, creator and illustrator Pirosca Marce l from Romania, who draws completely unusual objects and objects. He creates websites and enjoys photography and design. Most of his works can be viewed on the studioul website. In general, Pirosca Marcel is a completely mysterious young man who, apparently, is so absorbed in his work that he has no time left for anything else.

Show picture

Alex Broeckel - talented artist from Germany. He has been a professional 3D artist for over 12 years. Spent most time as a designer, digital artist in the entertainment industry. Worked on TD coverage for films such as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, as well as Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist. His portfolio includes: fantastic ships, stations, planes, military bases and battles. In general there is something to see.

Show picture

Digital artist from New Zealand Stefan Morrell creates authentic futuristic illustrations in best traditions genre. To do this, he uses his drawing skills, as well as his 3D skills. In his portfolio, Stefan briefly describes how this or that work was completed and how long it took him.

Show picture

Chase Stone, also known as Chase-SC2, is a 21-year-old illustrator from the United States who, according to him, in my own words has been drawing all his adult life. He also trained as an illustrator at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and believes that classical drawing techniques are very important even in digital illustration, in which he will gain glory.

Show picture

Talented 3D designer Max Chelyadnikov works in several areas at once: modeling, visualization and animation. The use of 3D in design makes it possible to turn any customer’s idea into reality. And the experience and skill of such professionals as Maxim allows us to guarantee high quality work. It provides services for creating high-quality photorealistic 3D visualizations for use in advertising, presentations and technical documentation. Makes advertising effective, turns ideas into reality, creating professional advertising videos and presentation videos.

Show picture

Incredibly high quality! That's the only way to describe it professional level works of Turkish 3D designer Morteza Najafi. The main directions of its activities are: graphic design, 3D modeling and animation. His page presents a relatively small list of works, but it is from these works that one can trace the designer’s development in a professional direction. Morteza Najafi was able to develop his own unique style and today he is a successful and sought-after specialist in the field of 3D modeling.

Show picture

Octane Render is a combination of architectural and design abilities, a sense of style with 3D graphics and 3D modeling technologies in the hands of professional designers. Octane Render creates architectural visualizations, 3D design and animation, as well as video creation. The portfolio is divided into categories: product design, architecture, jewelry, automotive design, fantasy & characters, nature & abstract art.

Show picture

Max Kostenko- talented Russian illustrator. Engaged in the creation and development of characters, as well as different types illustration. Max collaborates with many Russian studios and agencies around the world such as: Kotetkat (France), lemonade (UK), Lebedev Studio (Russia). Recently I completely changed my web design, which I don’t regret. Now he draws funny, and not only, little people for his own pleasure and gets a lot out of it great pleasure, and sometimes even money.

Show picture

Dan LuVisi is a digital artist working in the field of cinematography and video game creation. His boundless talent was recognized while he was still in school. His career began at DC Comics, where he drew various superheroes. Subsequently he worked for the benefit of Hasbro, Fox, Universal and Microsoft. He developed his own style, his works are recognizable and unique. In addition to being a talented illustrator, Dan LuVisi is also a costume designer, enjoys painting, storyboarding, and drawing posters and packaging.

This article is the second part of a series of articles about computer graphics. In we learned about how special effects are made in the film industry, and also followed historical development special effects in cinema.

So let's continue...

Digital painting

Digital painting is the creation of electronic images through computer imitations of the artist’s traditional means (my free interpretation of the concept from Wikipedia). In fact, you'll almost never see a computer artist using the term "digital painting." Firstly, because there is already a foreign abbreviation - CG artist (sometimes CG specialist). Secondly, those works of art (that’s right!) that such artists create do not really fall under the definition of “painting”. Thirdly, everyone is already accustomed to using the abbreviation CG, since it is generally understood by Russians, Americans, Chinese, etc.

The concept of “art” came to us from Latin and Italian languages: art – art, artistry, skill. Usually among CG artists, the work is called 2d art (if drawn on a tablet) and 3d art (if done in a three-dimensional editor).

2DArt

The work process is very similar to the work process ordinary artist. Only instead of an easel there is a monitor and a tablet.

Since previously monitors were limited in color scheme(and even earlier they were monochrome), then digital painting appeared only when svga monitors and video cards appeared.

Having a tablet with an artist is a mandatory attribute for the drawing process. And don't confuse tablet computers with drawing tablets. A digital painting tablet looks something like this:

You simply draw on such a tablet with a special pen (pen, brush, sometimes a “stick” - a plastic stick), and what you draw is displayed on the monitor screen, namely in the graphics editor window.

Everyone uses it graphic editor, in which it is more convenient for him to work. But most often they use “Photoshop” - Adobe Photoshop.

Why do CG artists draw on tablets... At least try to draw an oval using a mouse! No matter how developed the technology is, you will still have to draw with your hands (and some people can draw with their feet). This means that to become a good CG artist, you need to be able to draw well on paper, know the basics of perspective and everything else that you can learn in art school.

Entirely computer-drawn paintings and images have many useful qualities. Firstly, such work is easier to redo. If the customer does not like your work (painted on canvas), you will be forced to completely redraw it from scratch. Certainly, small parts can be corrected, but significant changes cannot be made. But a CG artist will simply open a file of his work in Photoshop, where all his changes are scattered in layers. Then he will edit the necessary layers and get an improved work. This way, artists can rework, for example, the background, which is impossible to achieve on canvas.

Secondly, if you need to transfer a painting on canvas into digital form, then it is simply scanned. No matter how good and high-quality the scanner is, the quality component will still be lost during scanning. But a painting completely created on a computer can be drawn in great quality, and then it can be printed either the size of a picture in a book or the size of a house (the main thing is in what resolution the artist worked).

Here step by step example creating the work “On Tall Trees” by artist Anastasia Kustova in Adobe Photoshop:

As you can see, it all starts with a sketch, then the details are worked out. In the first part of the article about computer graphics, I provided a list of sites where you can see amazing works. And since not all people have time to visit art galleries, but everyone has access to the Internet, then everyone can join art. Who knows, maybe very soon digital painting will replace classic way drawing...

Here are examples of several works performed exclusively using computers and digital means:

To create a picture using a three-dimensional editor, you first need to model all the objects in the scene, then apply textures to them, and adjust the lighting. And after setting up the scene, it is rendered. Rendering is the process of drawing a three-dimensional scene as a two-dimensional image. Those. with this kind of work you need to be able not so much to draw as to be able to model (the process is similar to creating a sculpture).

Work done in 3D editors has several advantages.
Firstly, a ready-made scene can be rendered from different viewing angles, resulting in a new composition. Secondly, if you need to print an image on a huge poster, then in the rendering settings you can specify any resolution (depending on the power of the computer). Thirdly, such a scene can be used to create animated film or interactive presentation. Those. In 3D editors you can create both special effects for films and create masterpieces in the form of paintings.

Here are examples of 3D art:

That's all. On my own behalf, I would like to add that the ability to draw well and the ability to transfer one’s mental images to a canvas or to a computer monitor is positive quality person. Learn to draw! You don’t have to paint like Van Gogh or Shishkin, you don’t have to take special courses. There are now many tutorials, video tutorials and other useful things on the Internet. The ability to draw means the ability to fantasize, the ability to concentrate and the ability to endure. In general, go for it! Take a pencil in your hand and start drawing something right now! Who knows, maybe you have talent and you will become the new Picasso, or you will create special effects for Hollywood blockbusters...