Digital Painting and Drawing

A process in which painting or drawing takes place in a digital setting. Starting with the availability of computer graphics software for personal use in the 1990s, transformations in technology have enabled painting to migrate from the canvas to the screen. Contemporary artists are now able to access a wider variety of art tools, such as customizable brushes and virtual palettes, that allow for immediate and precise painterly effects. Digital gestures can be captured through keyboard commands, graphic tablets, mouse movements, or touchscreen swipes, while advances in inkjet printing allow for computer-generated paintings to inhabit the walls of a physical gallery space. Even traditionally “analog” artists have embraced digital painting in their practices: David Hockney’s recent series “The Arrival of Spring” (2013) features iPad drawings executed “en plein air,” while John Baldessari’s new edition “Engravings with Sounds” (2015) blurs the line between digital painting and printmaking.