The Influence of Digital Technology on Art

 

First I want to give Thanks for blessings I have received being a part of the creative community. I have been very fortunate in my long career to meet great people, and have the chance to create great artwork. I’ve done artwork old school  (By hand) and now new school (By computer and software). I believe my experience of being involved in screen printing when artwork was created by hand makes me a better artist with the new tools and technologies coming out today. I know I greatly appreciate the new tools available today. Happy Thanksgiving to all.

 

The Influence of Digital Technology on creating artwork for screen printing:

 

Artwork for screen printing has been greatly influenced by the rapid development in digital technology. These innovations have expanded horizons of creativity and opened new artistic frontiers. They have also allowed artists to reduce time spent in the actual execution of artwork to a minimum thereby allowing the artists to get more projects done. The tools to output the artwork has greatly improved as well, therefore allowing more complex images.
The Negative Risks:

 

The broad array of options now available to artists through new technologies may sometimes have a dangerously negative effect precisely because they offer the artists means of expression they never imagined were possible. Faced with myriad options, the artist may be overwhelmed. The artist’s work may become increasingly repetitive and devoid of imagination or spirit. The artwork may also become too complicated for the printing process.               

 

Human Touch: 

 

Digital technology and modern techniques have had the strongest impact on the realism of the artwork. Use of Photography has greatly increase in the creation of artwork for screen printing. In the past, creating artwork for screen printing depended on the artist’s skills in wielding his traditional tools – the pen, the pencil, eraser and the Exacto knife. The artist, through conventional and calculated steps, was in control of all the elements of the artwork, including the realism or abstraction of their artwork. Artists today, on the other hand, operate with clicks of the mouse, and digital tools, which even if they mimic old traditional tools with respect to purpose, are still radically different with regard to usage and wielding techniques and to the means to achieve the desired artistic effect from them. There is no doubt that the human touch and skills in the old school method of creating artwork had a major influence on the shape of the artwork, particularly when an artist used their particular set of skills to create the special effects and touches in the artwork. Today’s modern technology has, however, reduced the need for the human artistic touch in favor of a vast array of diverse and different tools, each of which is a mechanism that gives access to an even bigger set of tweaking and tuning options that open up limitless horizons for artists to be more creative and accurate to a degree.  This set of limitless options available to the artist has reached such a degree that computer-oriented artists sometimes inadvertently produce magnificent masterpieces by mere chance. Consequently, artwork upon completion may emerge drastically different from the artist’s original conception of the project. The artist needs more than ever to keep in mind the limitations of the printing process. Although Direct To Garment and Sublimation are now changing that as well.

 

Challenges: 

 

Possessing this massive quantity of tools and capabilities must be accompanied by a comprehensive and in-depth knowledge of every detail of these tools and their capabilities, so as to enable the artist to successfully translate all of their creativity via the designated tool, using the fastest and shortest means possible. 

 

Artists today are presented with a gateway to creativity that is sophisticated and complex, with an enormous variety of techniques, and responsibilities. Therefore, artists need to hone their skills and understand these techniques well in order to maximize the capabilities they offer. Despite the challenge, the artist must once again become master of these new tools and techniques.  What hasn’t changed is the responsibility to convey the customer’s message in the final artwork used for printing.

 

In conclusion, there is no question that artists are facing increasingly more complex and complicated challenges to presenting distinctive artwork in the face of the many recent technological advances that have expanded and diversified the creative world. Clearly, artists today find it more challenging than ever to present original and innovative ideas, and they need to stretch their imagination to succeed. Moreover, the increase in the availabilities of these new tools and the speed that technologies are increasing, learning to use them and honing the artists skills will remain to be the biggest challenge.

 

Until next month.

 

Cora Kromer
cora@qdigitizing.com