I was deciding what gift to give my mother for her birthday, I wanted this year to be special, she is crazy about art so a painting of her favorite horse from a quality photograph was the best idea and the choice for me was: go all out for a traditional hand-painted piece or do I decide to get a digital version?

I don’t really know anything about digital painting so I needed to do some research to find out how a digital version would fare today with the traditional method that I know so well. And this is what I found:

You can find companies on the Internet that act as intermediaries with selected artists who work from their own studios often from home and who paint my photo by hand. Professional college graduate artists with fine arts degrees will paint from your digital photo, which I found quite expensive to commission from your own artist. Then there is the alternative of first printing the outline and completing it digitally by using a software to make it like the coral painter illustrator or Photoshop. This can be called a ‘realistic mixed media’ painting, but I found a difference between certain techniques that can be applied using a computer.

Distinctions from a digital painting system to a digital painting program

Until I did this research, I did not know that there was some kind of difference in painting using a computer program, BUT in fact there is a clear difference between a ‘digital painting system and a digital painting program and the painting program is built into the paint system. The next thing I’m going to convey to you in the most simplistic language possible, as this is new to me too! So I’ll explain it in my own basic dialect.

When an artist uses their screen to draw or paint an outline by hand with a digital pen and then fill in all the colors, this is what is called using a ‘digital painting program’, then it is printed in a laser or high quality ink. high quality. -The jet printer or robotics are used to paint on traditional materials such as linen or cotton once the artist has finished on the screen using a digital program as mentioned above. Companies that offer portraits and mixed media paintings will not be as advanced as to use robotics, I don’t think so, but for the sake of this being a comprehensive and detailed article, it should be mentioned. You can see a much more detailed explanation on Wikipedia at the end of this article for your reference.

This is the closest thing to the real thing that can be achieved. In principle, the artist is using the same process in a digital format as paintings on a real linen or cotton canvas. The principle is the same and requires a degree of artistic skill to produce, essentially by hand on the computer screen.

Then there’s the ‘digital painting system’, which is much more technical in scope than it can do and makes the old system child’s play, frankly, not to denigrate the skill of digital artists, of course. But it incorporates the digital painting program within the application.

The digital painting system is what you see on screen in blockbuster movies like Jurassic Park, for example, which is the use of pixels.

So there I have my options, I don’t need to go as elaborate as a ‘digital painting system’. My two options are now clearly defined by my research, either:

A digital painting using a program or a realistic brick and mortar artist who paints on canvas with oil paints or watercolor paints.

The pros and cons

The advantages of a digital painting are simply a very fast response, great appearance and lower costs.

The cons are, although they look very authentic, to the true craftsman they would realize the fact that it was computer generated or at least mixed media.

For the hand-painted artwork, the pros are:

The real deal hand painted by an authentic master artist on quality canvas, a true bona fide oil or watercolor painting, first by delivering the outline in pencil and then using a layering process to add color and realism in the traditional way.

The downsides are a longer response time and a more expensive proposition.

The decision

After all of this, I feel well researched and can make a very well-informed decision on what would be the best art gift for my Mother and frankly, there is only one! The hand-painted portrait is NOT the computer version.

Why?

Why did I decide to paint my photo by hand? Well, it all came down to authenticity. I had no problem with the quality of the other, in fact it looked very impressive, it was just not for me to present my Mother (when I had all the information in front of me) a canvas that is not the real one. . He’s in his sixties and I wouldn’t appreciate it unless it was worked by a real artist.

And to add to my options, I could have an artist paint in charcoal, which is one of my mother’s favorite mediums. At this point I have managed to reduce it to an oil painting or charcoal drawing which with some companies you can buy ready to hang included in the price. After much deliberation, I finally decided to commission an oil painting of a photo of my mother’s favorite horse that recently passed away. It is a photo of the horse in a meadow running towards my Mother, absolutely comforting when you see her.

The artist

The choice of the artist was easy after finding the right company (company info in the box at the end), you can choose in the job gallery which artist you like and then request that particular artist.

Conclution

I hope this article helps you if you have the same dilemma as me. I really think the digital versions are really special in terms of graphics, color and quality, but this time it came down to a very personal choice, that’s it. I would recommend both.

Thank you for reading!

Reference link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_painting