Enter the digital

Entering the domain of digital art is a very wonderful and crazy process.  I feel like it is a whole new artistic frontier, one which we are only just scratching the surface of.  The options available to the creative imagination are nearly infinite (even more than before!)  Of course, it is no replacement to art training, especially drawing, and the foundations of art.

It really seems like the trickiest thing to art training, especially looking at using my art skills professionally, is imagination.  Developing a strong sense, of concept, narrative and story is very challenging.  This is a muscle that I have not flexed in a long time- but the prospect of it is very exciting!  To render and develop and entire world, with its own characters and inhabitants, technology and philosophy and religion...

But, it all starts at ground zero.  Basics.  A foundation in the "real" world, studies of animals, technology, buildings, people... and that is what I have to really start doing.  Getting the proper visual vocabulary to be able to render things around me, not as they actually are, but as my imagination conceives of them.

I have also decided to try out some art technology.  I acquired an ASUS ep121 from best buy, which has a 2 week no questions asked return policy.  I am very curious about these new tablet PC's, which have enough computing power to run 3d programs and digital painting programs, and are fully portable, with a wacom digitizer.

So far it is amazing.  I did a sketch on it this morning of a scene from a dream last night, which was particularly jarring in my memory- a vast alien hive that had been built over and around what looked like an old parking complex....

This seems a good start... and i like the idea of drawing ideas from my dreams, and developing that part of my consciousness more.  I need that kind of imaginative power.  Well, that is what Magick is for.