Digital art is taking leaps and bounds every day to become one of the most popular art forms in the modern day. Be it painting, illustration or just pencil like drawings, the power of digital art has come such a long way that the artists can often replicate what is possible for artists who use physical materials.
There is a lot to unpack in the digital art world as there is such a wide variety of digital art types to choose from, but where would one start? This is the equipment to have when starting to make your own digital art.
The Computer
The basis of digital art and essentially the only part of this list that is absolutely required to make digital art is a computer of some kind. A computer does not necessarily need to be a standing desktop in this case, a desktop, laptop, tablet or even mobile phone is capable of making art, as long as it is a powerful enough computing device, it should be able to do the job.
It’s worth noting here that the type of device you will need will vary greatly on the type of art you wish to make. For normal painting style pictures, a mobile phone will have the computing power necessary, for large 3D rendering projects a powerful desktop will save you a lot of time and struggle. It really isn’t a “one size fits all” situation, as each artist requirements will be different.
The most popular devices for digital art are a desktop computer for its potential power, a laptop for its great portability, and a tablet for the portability and ease of use with touch sensitivity.
Input Method
Each method of computing will come with its own input method, mouse and keyboard, touchpad, touch screen or styli are all great options to start with but do lack accuracy and sensitivity a lot of the time. While it is possible to make fantastic art with these devices in the standard configuration, there are extra tools to help you make the most of your artistic expression.
- Computer
For computers and laptops, we often see drawing pads as the go-to tool for a digital artist. A drawing pad like the popular Wacom Cintiq touch offers the artist the ability to get real hand motion and feeling directly translated to the digital art. A physical canvas to draw on which replicates itself on the computer. With these drawing pads and associated pens, it’s common to have multiple pen pressure sensors and tilt sensors, allowing for easy manipulation of line brush thickness, intensity, and style.
- Mobile
Mobile phones and tablets already have the touch sensitive display needed for drawing and for mobile betting for Kiwis; however, they often lack the accuracy of a stylus. Some may come with a stylus, but it can be rare to have a good pressure sensitivity stylus as standard, so a stylus like the Adonit PRO 4 will save you a lot of time and effort messing with settings to change line and brush settings.
