Friday, August 29, 2008

Friday Vlog / The Wacom Tablet

Today I want to talk a little about my Wacom tablet and the painterly work I do here at Art Paw. Every day a hundred new digital artists join us on-line and a large percentage of those folks will discover the rewarding niche of Pet Portraiture. About 5 years ago as the digital competition started heating up I quickly realized I needed to do something to separate myself from the pack. Back then I had started smushing pixels around as a method to compensate for low res. images and the pixelation that occurs when you enlarge smaller files. Using my Wacom tablet I quickly dove head first into developing my own painterly style of working that I am becoming well known for today.
About Filter Driven Work:
I am the first to say that there is nothing wrong with Photoshop filters or what I call "filter driven work". Unless you use Photoshop yourself you might never know if a photo has had a filter applied, hand painting, or wacom painting applied. I am going to post a few samples below to illustrate some differences. I am not going to try to boast that digital work that uses a Wacom tablet is far superior to other types of digital work because that is just not necessarily true at all. What I can say however is that it has brought me back to my fine art roots and allowed me to develop a style that stands apart from much of the work that is out there.

The beauty of the Wacom tablet is that no 2 people are going to have the exact same approach or touch with it. It responds like traditional media and if you like to press down hard and get big fat heavy lines in your work you can do that and your work will look totally different from someone with a lighter touch. Oh and if ya want to see today's Vlog scroll past the images to the end of this post. Nothing earth shattering today ... just me & my tablets, oh and I got a new haircut.





4 comments:

Leslie Moore said...

Good to see you on my blog, Rebecca. I think your work is great! I, for one, have LOTS to learn about digital photography. Looks like you're the one to teach me! I, too, had a beloved Scottie, Tess, who was companion to my beloved Westie, Roger. What a pair! They're wonderful dogs, aren't they!

Manon said...

I don't know much about digital art but I love your work. The comparisons are interesting and I seem to prefer Wacom.

Unknown said...

Rebecca,

Sheila sent me over. I also have a Wacom. It's a Graphire. Yes the original one. Bought newer ones but gave them away.

Have you tried ArtRage 2.5? Now that is a digital paint program that is the nearest to hand painting. They have a free one you can try. But, I'll bet you immediately buy for $25.

It will make stencils and also has trace which you'll find extremly useful when doing your art.

Your dog portraits are beautiful.

Judith

P.S. You can see the dog portrait I did of my deceased dog for my Mother's birthday present on my Blog:

www.agoodread.com/Blog

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for sharing! I would also love to see some pieces in progress. I love your blog!