 When I first started looking for a way to combine my love for photography and painting, I knew I wanted to do something that would set me apart as an artist. By the time my art career began to take off and I started winning awards, I had already invested years working on my photography. I knew I wanted to take my imagery to another level. I wanted to push the envelope.
As a photographer, I had already mastered Photoshop, so I was excited when I discovered Corel Painter. For those that aren’t familiar with it, Painter is software that imitates real world painting mechanics on a digital platform. With the use of a pressure tablet, painter gives me the freedom to play with hundreds of art mediums without the mess of paint, ink, charcoal, or chalk pastels. For me, it bridges the digital and traditional art worlds together. Of course I had seen Photoshop filters that claimed to imitate a painting or a drawing, but I never found any of them that truly resembled the realistic earthy feel of an authentic painting. Honestly, it has taken me more than five years to master my unique approach to a hybrid art that meets my personal standard and delivers a museum quality experience. The time consuming process enables subtle elements to unite into art that is truly unique and dynamic. I combine Photography and Digital Art using half a dozen software programs to create a digital under-painting that I print onto museum quality canvas. I stretch the canvas by hand across a wooden frame and prepare it for painting. Using acrylic paint I hand brush vibrant and sometimes darker colors into the composition. The contrast of the acrylic blends with the ink and produces a vibrancy that ink alone doesn’t. Acrylic gel hides the contrast between the ink and paint turning the composition into one seamless work of art. I personally do everything by hand, including my signature. So when it’s done, each piece is a one of a kind, hand painted, digital, acrylic painting. And although the development of each step took countless hours of experimentation, none of them makes my art what it has become. Now that I have developed a recipe for creating my Hand Painted Digital Art, I am now focusing on the more important element of composition. How I create my work has taken a back seat to the imagery. I’m no longer focused on how I do the things I do, but instead the why I do the things I do. Where am I taking you? What story do I want to tell? The answer is hidden in plain sight, deep within the colors shapes and patterns. Follow me down the rabbit hole and maybe you’ll discover the wonderful world we never see.
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