I have been a traditional artist all my life. If you don’t know what that means, it is working in traditional media; paints, pastels, pencils on physical surfaces like paper and canvas. The category includes sculptural media and others as well, but I don’t usually work in those so I won’t focus on their qualities. I was introduced to Photoshop in college around 2000 or 2001. I have always thought it to be interesting but never really truly saw it’s potential until years later. To be honest in my youthful ignorance I probably had some biases against it, some sort of art snobbery. I remember in my digital design class I did an artwork depicting a man looking disheveled and depressed surrounded by computers and working away. When I talked about my work with the class my professor through a pen at me. I had said something like, “he’s just sitting there in front of a computer screen wasting his life away clicking at his mouse.” Something to that affect. I was criticizing his life’s work as a graphic designer who had used design software since it’s inception into the market place, so I don’t hold any hard feelings towards him. He was completely justified to be upset. I’m kind of embarrassed to share this story. But I share it to give perspective about what I’ve been up to. I certainly no longer feel that way about digital art. I haven’t for a long time. In fact I think digital programs have been a gift to the art world and they are amazing tools that help artists make amazing images…seriously there are a lot of amazing images out there, it’s mind blowing! So since college I have dabbled in digital art but never really committed to understanding it and taking advantage of it’s assets fully. I’ve been trying to do that for the past year or so but really have been pushing hard since last September or October. And lately, specifically I’ve been trying to duplicate a traditional art approach into my digital painting workflow, which I have found, at least with this particular approach has been super difficult. “Pinkscapes” the painting depicted in this post is the result of trying to do just that. I don’t feel like I accomplished the desired approach, but I am happy with the image. The reasons I think I did not accomplish my desired approach boils down to the fact that the brushes I’m using in photoshop are not live brushes, meaning, after making a stroke the pigment stops flowing. If you were using real watercolors on paper the pigment would continue to flow through the water and create some amazing blooms of color. I usually use those blooms as inspiration to create my shapes and forms by going over it in colored pencil and I create an image that for me is super satisfying. Photoshop without those live brushes do not present those shapes as happy accidents, you have too much control. It’s not really a problem in general but for what I’m trying to do it doesn’t seem to work. But you know, working in photoshop consistently for the past year or so has been a real joy and developing work flows to create great works has been fun and really fulfilling. I will continue to do so indefinitely.