What's New

Times Square Can You?

Times Square Canyon - digital art - Dan Beck 2008

Visiting the East Coast this week …

I had been asked a couple of years ago to do a digital painting of Times Square - I thought about it - even googled some images but knew I hadn’t been there in so many years I couldn’t do it justice.

In general I like to work from my own impression and feeling of a place and then use the language and vocabulary of the digital medium which is at my disposal.

In this case, it is using the mouse pad and finger painting in an abstract manner to capture the feeling and enormity of the show of technology ads and bright lights of the city at night. In particular - looking up Broadway in what feels like a canyon of buildings and lights - jagged, beautiful, and bustling with moving lights and people.

It is a couple of days (or a couple of years) later - but this is also sometimes my custom…

See Also

• Digital Art - what does it mean - and the outhouse studios interpretation
• Other Artists’ Takes - some New York artists’ impressions of Times Square

symbols underneath and choosing one’s ending

Symbolic Language 2 - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

So this piece like its predecessor is an abstract work built upon some mystical symbols found by opening a computer cache in a program that didn’t deciper it correctly - at least I think.

But I really liked the symbols and I copied and pasted them into a painting document - with having some fun in mind. Above is where this particular piece was first finished - I had an afterthought to add some texture - which I did - something one couldn’t do with oil painting for instance.

It almost feels unfair to prefer the first finished version above - if it were another medium I would have had no choice. But different rules apply to digital painting and its art prints - and though I think it incredibly important to maintain some limits - this is not one I’ve agreed to.

See Also

• Jazz 3 - kind of reminds me of this digital painting though I arrived at it quite differently
• DaniDraws.com » The Ten Commandments of Digital Painting - I found this pretty amusing - needless to say I don’t agree with it all - resolution in the program I work is only 72 dpi - I have had no difficulty printing large - but had many objections from people with similar understanding. And tablets are more difficult for me since I started using a mouse - though normal drawing is still more natural.
• Amateur Illustrator : Illustration Community - I wasn’t sure at first about this article - but I did find the progression of how this artist works rather interesting - perhaps you will too

The Sea and the Digital Medium

Boat on an Ocean - digital panting / art prints - 2000 - Dan Beck

Not sure how this will format, which is part of the reason for choosing this digital painting today.

This piece feels like a very long time ago - a different life time. It was an image out of my mind - and from another mixed media piece.

I just wanted to see how the sea might look using the digital medium. You may or may not notice, but every section of color is outlined in this piece. At the time I created this piece, I did not know how to control the thickness of the line, let alone the color, or how to have no line at all.

But that was not why I said it was a world ago.

See Also

• Boat on an Ocean - art print options and availability for digital painting Boat-on-an-Ocean

• SeaFogged - a look at a more recent take on the ocean albeit a much calmer one.

• WetCanvas: ArtSchool Online: Digital Art: Digital Painting for the Beginner: L5 - come across this a few times - and thought what a different approach. Results aside, it is interesting how many different ways there are to paint let alone create.

Quick Study 0 - digital painting - Dan Beck 2007

Thought I would break the ice with this new blog category by sharing the precursor to the last digital painting I was able to blog about. I got to the point above and thought the piece might be complete.

Declaring a piece finished is no different for the digital medium than any other - but I have found that with digital art, I can create and save a number of different endings.

What struck me about the above stopping point was how pleasing the textures looked and how balanced in the degree it was worked.

The rawness reminds me of a woodblock print or a monoprint. And though I wasn’t done, I like the way this piece looks and feels - enough so to save and share.

See Also

• Beach Today - piece I am reminded of with a somewhat similar feel
• Major Genres: Beauties, Actors, and Landscapes - The Floating World of Ukiyo-e (Library of Congress) - a website filled with examples of woodblock prints
• Feast from the East - a recent review on show which included woodblock prints - two examples