This image of a succulent plant may look for all the world like a watercolor, but it was created digitally by Honolulu artist Bobby Crockett. In the beginning, there were ocher, charred sticks and the wall of your cave, and that gave birth to art. And yet one thing hasn't changed at all. Whatever the tools, art still requires artistry. Art produced on a computer, long criticized by those who believe the process that creates it is too formatted and the final product unsatisfactory, has shed much of that stigma in the last few years, due to improved materials and more malleable software and gear.
Many digital artists find ways to blend the new with the old technologies.
I can take photos, and I can edit out telephone lines in them . . . . Some of her prints are assembled in layers and other elements added to create a three-dimensional work. Others, however, use computers almost exclusively in the creative process. Digital tools do empower tremendously. What you find out is you have the tools of watercolor, the tools of acrylic, the tools of printmaking, but you have them in a way that's more fluid.