Digital painting is an emerging art form in which traditional painting techniques such as watercolor, oils, impasto, etc. are applied using digital tools by means of a computer, a digitizing tablet and stylus, and software. This is not 'computer-generated art; the artist uses painting techniques to create the digital painting directly on the computer.

 

Digital Photography and digital printing is now an acceptable medium of creation and presentation by major museums and galleries, and the work of digital artists is gaining ground. The work of digital painters and printmakers is beginning to find acceptance as the output capabilities advance and quality increases. Internationally many museums are now beginning to collect digital art such as the San Jose Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum print department also has a reasonable but small collection of digital art.

 

The digital artist has at their disposal several tools not available to the traditional painter. Some of these include: a virtual palette consisting of millions of colors, almost any size canvas or media, the ability to take back mistakes.  A graphics tablet allows the artist to have very precise hand movement simulating a real pen and drawing surface. There are various types of digital painting, including impressionism, realism, fantasy and watercolor.

 

Michael Campbell saw the potential of this new art form in 1990 and started experimenting with software and printing methods. Since then he has developed his techniques so that he can apply them to the world of portraiture as well as creating decorative pieces based on landscape or still life imagery.  At a small fraction of the cost of having a traditional oil painting portrait Michael can produce a portrait stretched and varnished on artists canvas which not only has all the intrinsic beauty of a fine oil painting but because it is based on information from a camera it has the authentic 'photographic' likeness of the subject which may be missing in a traditional painters interpretation.