Digital Art

[PictureMaker]

Hi All! I posted an example of Digital Art on the Digital Forum with the Question; “Does digital art have any commercial value – and if so, how does one go about it?” 98 People viewed it, and 0 answered the question. Do you think I should read the answer in this?

[BrianWarner]

You ever considered that maybe the 98 who viewed it don't know? Give it time. I'm sure someone will have an opinion.
While we're on the subject I'm sure some digital has value. How you go about selling it is up to you but you might try galleries. Might try selling on line also.

[Bringer]

Hi,

Ray Caesar.
Enough ? :-)

[AllisonR]

well, as this is just opinion - there are some phenomenal digital artists out there. People that are proficient in multiple 2 and 3 d programs, and creative enough to combine this into fantastic work. So I think digital work has to be beyond fantastic to be sellable. Because if there are 5 million professional painters, want to be painters, sunday painters... and about 50 people interested in buying the paintings, then there are 5 million digital artists, and about 5 people interested in buying the paintings.

Go to conceptart.org forums and look at some work.

I see some painting on Wet Canvas where I can instantly see a Photoshop standard filter or two applied and then painted and labeled art, and it drives me up the wall. Often I can even point to the exact filter and settings. (I come from the print industry, where standard filters like sharpen, blur, distort, stamp... are used a lot, and the other filters are (supposed to be) used sparingly and subtly.)

You have to decide what you want. If you are passionate about digital art, then you will find a way to do it, money or not. But if you are looking to do digital art because of the money, then look elsewhere. IMO, at this time, even traditional painting has a bigger marker. (Exception is working in the animation industry can give a good salary, but I think this more applies to those that have been doing it for 20 years. They are cranking out digital artists from the universities faster than you can breathe now, so jumping in now to make money is a wasted cause.) again - all my opinion.

I don't do digital art anymore. I stopped in about 2000, maybe 2002. And I have taken the work off my website because it is not that good and not representative of what I do any more. Here is some artwork from that time. I sell them on occasion to people who are looking for a cheap and quick gift item, maybe do not have the money or interest in buying original paintings, but at 125 kroner (25 us dollars) it is not worth my time.





uploader is not working. will try later.

[Edradour]

Does digital art have commercial value? Yes
Could you make a career in Digital Art? Possibly, AllisonR's reply is comprehensive.

Take a look at a few magazines designed for digital artists - Advanced Photoshop occasionally has articles for prospective art students, with guidance about career prospects. (link http://www.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/)

[shadwell]

i know some phenomenal digital artists one of wich supplies a work every month to a mainstream aviation magazine

the market is there you just have to fill 3 criterias as in normal art

1 be head and shoulders above everyone else

2 supply what the customer wants

and

3 be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time !!

[PictureMaker]

Thank you for the comments. I appreciate it!

[AllisonR]

You're welcome. I got the uploader to work. Now you know what old digital art looks like.

[NeilF92]

One name springs to my mind - Gareth Hector . He is an excellent digital artist who sells.He is a very talented conventional artist and brings this expertise to the digital medium superbly well. Recently he has picked up his brushes again and produced conventional work of the highest order but his digital creations are equally outstanding
Gareth creates and uses 3D models to create amazing action paintings .
Google the name - have a look at the standard - you may be inspired to emulate even though the bar is set very high and keeps being pushed upwards.

[Keith Russell]

Musicians have had to face the fact that, these days, to "make a living" as a musician, it's best (perhaps essential) to get paid "up front". Once the music is created, people want it for free. So, it makes the sense to get paid to create the music--instead of the "old model", where many musicians made good livings getting paid in exchange for a copy (recording) of their music.

Digital art can be sold as prints, just like "traditional" art. And, "analogue" artists still face the problem of folks who want to download digital images (regardless of whether the source image was originally created digitally or not) for free.

But, commercial art is nearly all created digitally--and has been since the early 80s. There are probably hundreds of thousands of graphic designers out there making livings for themselves, creating digital imagery...

...so digital art certainly has real value.

[Bringer]

Just one more thing.
There's a company - at least there was - that would display artists' paintings on TV screens at public spaces.
You could contact public spaces that run images on TVs to show your work.
Different types of art styles and media have their own qualities. You just need to be creative in marketing them.
I know it's not easy, because if it were, I wouldn't be writing this at home but in a hotel in Toscany :-)

José

[fritzie]

Isn't something like fractals digital art? There are many posters and calendars people buy of fractals.
Or when you say digital art, do you mean art that resides in the computer digitally without being transformed to a physical form?

[Ultie]

It's actually really valuable in the commercial world. Most illustrators I know, the ones that are my age at least, are primarily digital. Game industry art, movie promotions, all digital.

[Horsa]

In th emovies and television there is what I call "Bad CGI Moment" whe a shot is obviously done just so they can show off the cgi, not because it adds to the story, or even can't be done with traditional effects, the cgi just looks so k3wl.

I have seen the same with digital art, and also with traditional art. If you want to sell your art it has to be worth while as "art", at least to the buyer.

Anything that people think "Oh, I could do that" is going to be a hard sell. Unfortunately the ubiquity of Photoshop and MS Paint, not to mention Poser etc means that right or wrong a lot of people are thinking "oh, I could do that".

But, digital art is art, it has the same value as other art. It is just a matter of finding the customer in an overcrowder marketplace.

[Keith Russell]

I've read that you can succeed by having any two of the following qualities: be nice, meet deadlines, and be really, really good.

Originally Posted by shadwell

i know some phenomenal digital artists one of wich supplies a work every month to a mainstream aviation magazine

the market is there you just have to fill 3 criterias as in normal art

1 be head and shoulders above everyone else

2 supply what the customer wants

and

3 be lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time !!