What Digital Art Means...

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It has come to my attention that some people think that photos taken by someone else can not be used to transform it into a digital art painting. But they're completely wrong. I had to recently block someone, because they went on everyone of my posts that has my digital artwork, trying to discredit me, and stir up trouble stating that I am using someone else's work. In fact... I checked their profile, and they just joined today. No posts...no followers/following...nothing. Yet the first thing they do is find posts; so they can share with others derogatory information about other members, for the sole purpose of stirring up false information, when they do not have the foggiest clue what their talking about? I have only one answer for that: Of course I am... And so do a lot of digital artists. Yes... Digital artwork can be done free-hand. But most of it is done by a combination of free-hand, as well as taking photos (or parts of them) and coming up with a whole new variation that is completely different and fresh, from its original source. Many famous artists have used these techniques. I am part of a well known website that sells paintings done by a ton of digital artists; and you will see thousands of transformed photos of all kinds of artwork, that you will see in a different format on the internet; yet with the exact same image. This is what I am doing. All photos I am using I have gotten either from photos that I have taken myself, or websites (that has posted very clearly...that their art is free to use for both commercial and private use.) I am very careful not to intentionally plagiarize anyone's work. In fact...many times there is so much plagiarism going on throughout the internet, it has become difficult to determine who is the original artist. Which is why... Once a digital artist creates their own rendition of the photo they are using, it no longer becomes a photocopy, but an original creation. There is also another website that I go to in which I ask permission to use their photos, and give them the reason why. Some will say yes, and others will say no. The ones that say no, I don't touch their photos. Nevertheless... Everything I have used, I have gotten full permission to use them. Anyway... I went on the internet and looked up the best definition I could find about what digital art was...and I found it on Wikipedia. I took experts from their definition, and copied it below. (If you want to read the full version, just go to their website.) "Digital art is an artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process. Since the 1970s, various names have been used to describe the process, including computer art and multimedia art. Digital art is itself placed under the larger umbrella term new media art. Digital art can be purely computer-generated (such as fractals and algorithmic art) or taken from other sources, such as a scanned photograph or an image drawn using vector graphics software using a mouse or graphics tablet. Though technically the term may be applied to art done using other media or processes and merely scanned in, it is usually reserved for art that has been non-trivially modified by a computing process (such as a computer program, microcontroller or any electronic system capable of interpreting an input to create an output)... Digitized text data and raw audio and video recordings are not usually considered digital art in themselves, but can be part of the larger project of computer art and information art. Artworks are considered digital painting when created in similar fashion to non-digital paintings, but using software on a computer platform and digitally outputting the resulting image as painted on canvas." So in a nutshell... Digital art is just as legit as any other form of traditional art. And it is in no way considered plagiarism if you use a photo to do it. Because this is what digital art is... Taking photos and turning them into paintings. In fact... Depending upon the techniques we use, sometimes it can be just as time consuming as those who use traditional art methods.