Digital art most commonly refers to art created on a computer in a digital form. Digital art can be purely computer-generated such as fractals, and algorithmic art or taken from another source, such as a scanned photograph or an image drawn using vector graphics software through a mouse or graphic tablet. Digital Collage, Mixed Media, Photopainting, digital photography are all types of digital art.

An example of "mixed media" combining a number of techniques can be seen in Nicole's gallery 1 and Gallery 1b.

Gallery 2 and Gallery 2b present the "2D creations", totally using computer painting tools emulating a natural media style.

Digital art is yet to gain the acceptance and regard reserved for traditional art forms  perhaps due to the erroneous impression that "the computer does it for you". One reason why the established art community finds it difficult to accept digital art is the inexact perception of digital prints being endlessly reproducible.

Nicole's statement: "I always cringe when reading this sentence about the computer doing everything for us as I can assure you great quality digital-art takes many, many hours, days, weeks of hard and dedicated work!"

Many artists though are erasing the relevant image file after the first print, thus making it a unique artwork. Another reason is longevity; with today's digital printing technology though, fading of colours will not occur for 60 to 100 years.

Quoting Bruce Price (Artist/Author/Crusader)  there are at least six categories of digital artists:

• Conceptual Artists
• Programmer Artists
• Photo manipulators/Collagist Artists
• Realistic and Abstract Artists
• Experimental Artists
• 3 D Artists

An acetate-like transparent sheet. Layers are placed in a stack.
Some layers are covered entirely in paint; some have unpainted areas, therefore remaining transparent. Layers can be added, deleted and moved. Layers can be edited at will without affecting the rest of the layers, until merged. A new image consists of one layer, similar to the canvas of a painting. Each image must have at least one layer. A newly created visible layer will be labeled as transparent if it contains no data. Layers can also be compared to a safety net! Imagine the artist has been working many hours on an image and decides to change one detail perhaps replacing it or moving it to another area? Well, a layered image allows the change without affecting the entire image.

Plug-ins (or filters) are aimed at supplying additional image effects. They also accomplish tasks difficult to achieve with an application alone by extending its capabilities. Plug-ins give a new dimension to
painting ; the computerized ready-made effects still give a lot
of control to the artist, opening wide a new door to creativity
since the options offered by the computer are numerous, a change
of only one number in the combination will produce a different
result.

Some extracts of the text above were found in the Wikipedia on-line encyclopedia All text is available under the terms of the GNU free documentation license.

*Permission granted by Bruce Price to quote him.

This is an interesting link on Plug-ins and Filters. Some Photographers find them very useful and personally I use a few in my digital art to create special effects and textures.

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