What is the main difference between digital art and natural media art?
Probably the single most important and obvious difference is the fact that digital art offers the creator and viewer a much wider range of colors to create with and look at. While the visible spectrum remains the same in most situations, the “color space” of an image changes depending on how the work of art was created. Broadly speaking, most images will either be created and rendered in the RGB or CMYK color spaces. The letters refer to the primary colors of the two groups: the additive primaries RED, GREEN AND BLUE and the subtractive primaries CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW and BLACK. The words “additive” and “subtractive” refer to the fact that the additive primaries are the primaries of actual light wavelengths visible to the human eye. Those colors come about by combinations of the three “additive primaries” of the visible spectrum, RED, GREEN and BLUE. The subtractive primaries are used in color printing where the four colors make up reproduced colors. The term “subtractive” refers to the way in which percentages of the four colors are arrived at in order to make the four color films which become the printing plates that actually go on the printing press. By combining different percentages of C,M,Y, K the printer is able to reproduce a surprisingly large range of colors. In some cases colors are added to the four to give the printer a wider range of colors to work with (a bigger color space).
But within these two broad categories there are limitless possibilties. With digital art the number of available color spaces is vast. At a guess, I would say that I have over one hundred ICC (International Color Consortium) Profiles on my machine. Each profile defines a particular combination of printer and substrate and can show what an image will look like using a certain printer and paper. The “soft proof” option in Adobe Photoshop, when teamed with a properly calibrated monitor can show you a facsimile of the image if printed on a certain combination of substrates (papers, films, etc.) with a particular printer. Photoshop “proofs” the image on the computer using the appropriate ICC Profile. In some cases the differences can be huge and have a great effect on the appearance of the final print.
Natural media colors are usually made up of a mixture of different substances and held together by some kind of binding substance, like lindseed oil. For instance, certain shades of red paints are derived from the color of tiny Kermes insects (Kermes vermillio, Kermes palestinensis) which are scale insects from the Mediterranean region that are parasitic on several species of dryland oak shrubs. A brilliant red dye is extracted from the shell of the female insects, which huddle immobile in clusters on the wood.
Today, many so-called “natural media” colors are made in the laboratory, some are still derived from ancient natural sources.
For me, the ease of use and the limitless range of colors available on the computer make it the ideal medium for creating art.
My mother, Marjorie McKee, who painted with oil paints, was very preoccupied with color and I know would have loved to paint on the computer. Unfortunately, the technology of color on the computer did not develop enough in time for her to experience its freedom of expression and variety. I believe that many of the now famous painters of the forties and fifties who were her friends would have loved the medium of the computer.
I believe the computer is the most significant change in art technique since
humankind first drew effigies of animals hunted for food on the walls of a cave.