Hello and a warm welcome from TrulyDGtal.com!
My name is Bobby Chen. The proud owner and digital artist of this website.
If I may even call myself a “digital artist” at all. At the time of this writing, I am still an unknown small shrimp in the big pond of the Digital Arts World. I have to humble myself in front of the millions of brilliant women and men, young and old, ahead of me.
Yes, I am already in my early sixty years of age. No, I was not an traditional artist. I never had any prior training in arts: not with paintings, colour combinations, nor sketches, etc., No, I am not a technologist nor programmer either, that may propel me ahead in the digital world, (although I am proud of this beautiful site I created on my own). So who am I in the earlier part of my life? I was an unknown financial person serving in senior management roles for many well-known U.S. multinationals in Asia Pacific most of my life.
So what qualifies me to even venture into this field? One, because I believe art has no limitations and my lack of art experience actually propelled my creativities. Two, someone told me about our “individual achievements time zone”. That Bill Clinton was the youngest person to be elected President in modern U.S. history and Joe Biden the oldest. Both achieved Presidency but each in their “individual achievements time zone”. I was motivated because of it.
And yes, that is my dream. A dream that I might not even be able to achieve this lifetime in my “time zone”. But the thought of perhaps generations after me could somehow look back and appreciate my concept of digital arts, a compilation of the wise and famous people ahead of me in this field, the mixture of technology (digital and science) and arts, my creativities and styles, and the digital art innovations, values, and classifications, I would be honoured and humbled.
Whereas I need not repeat what the wise has taught me directly or indirectly here with appreciations, I could elaborate a bit more the on the mixture of technology (digital and science) and arts, my creativities and styles, and the digital art innovations, values, and classifications,.
My Concept of Digital Arts
First, on the subject of how I view Digital Arts World. I believe that Digital Arts are ventures beyond the traditional arts. I know this is a loud statement and it has to be clearly defined. To break it down to smaller pieces:
- I believe Digital Arts are hybrids between science and arts. In other words, we could use technology to help express what traditional arts could not. For example, in traditional arts, paints dried and image does not move. In digital arts, there are no real paint and the image could be moving, thanks to the format of the image.
- Traditional arts complete an image on physical objects such as canvas and paper, using paint, brush, pencil, etc. Digital arts are more diversified in the use of tools. If traditional arts have to become digital arts, digitising using scanner or camera is necessary as the first rule of thumb. The digitised image could stay in its original form or take steps further to ended up in a different format and look as all images in digital formats could go for a “plastic surgery” failing a better word. By that I mean using software and tools such as tablets to enhance the image until it reach a final look, form, and/or format. Obviously, some images are even more original if they were drawn/derived using software itself. Examples in this category is 3d characters and models. Notice all processes should be done digitally (without physical pen and paper) to become a truly digital art.
- The “digital side” of arts in digital arts allow arts to enhance audience participations and hence interaction using different mediums as an extension of the original piece. For example, a thumbnail on video could serve as the original piece of art. The video that the thumbnail is attached to could serve as an extension or interaction with the audience. As you would soon noticed, I used a lot of this method in my digital arts and in more complexed situations, and even in crossbreed situation over traditional and digital arts.
- Just like traditional arts could become digital arts through digitising, digital arts could become traditional arts mostly by printing. The challenge would then be how one could retain as much as possible the properties while the arts were in their digital forms after printing them out. As mentioned in my earlier paragraphs, interactions across traditional and digital arts are my specialties. I never believe in arts that are dead.
My Creativities and Styles
- As mentioned earlier the creativity parts of my work lie in the fact that all my works are “transformed” digitally. The word “transformed” is chosen because not all my finished products stem from original work by me. However, the originals (and most of the time multiple originals) from different artists (from traditional to digital) and professionals (from film makers to photographers) are mixed, transformed, format changed, etc., to the extend the originals are no longer recognizable on the finished products, qualify to be their own originals. Obviously the more works were put into the transformations, the higher the value is the digital asset.
- So far as styles are concerned, I like colourful arts with a lot of contrast although some of my works are done on purpose to reflect the mood of the subject.
Digital Art Values and Classifications
- Arts are very subjective works. Hence, rather than discussing how I value arts worth I rather take it from the standpoint of how technology has changed art values, especially digital arts. If we look back just forty years ago, and when internet was less prominent, the time takes to notice an artist may be forever because news (short of seeing the actual art piece) took time to travel far. Whereas internet has shorten the time to credit an artist, it could also devalue the works because the artwork could easy copied and distributed by people that do not respect copyright.
- Sure, artists should be awarded and credited based on the time, innovations, creativities, etc., he or she put in on bringing the artwork to its final form. However, love is in the eyes of the beholders. Therefore, how much a piece of artwork worth at the end of the day may not be what the artist intended it to be at the start. To further combined this argument with the previous paragraph, there existed a time when artists placed high value in their works but ended with their arts becoming trash values because of paginations.
- Well, the pagination phenomena will be ended soon in the digital world with the introduction of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), which are “licensed” art for short of a better word. NFTs give artists, including me, the breathing room to create something of value for people who likes to invest in arts, and perhaps be rewarded handsomely for holding the artworks across time span. Please check this site out for my NFT works and if you need to invest in them and know the process of paying using crypto currencies, please visit my shop at opensea.io
- But not all are interested in being art collectors. There are people who love arts and appreciate their existence as decorative items. These arts should be made available at an affordable costs, to the extent that pagination is not necessary. In additional, the technology inserted in these artworks would sometime make a person look like a thief if the artwork was used without paying. This is why science meets arts in downloadable Digital Arts. As fun person who likes to over-delivered, you would find these products to have advanced, heads-turning properties so long you follow on the instructions on the artwork itself. If you like what you see in this category here at this site, please purchase them at etsy.com
Thanks for finishing reading this article. I hope you now have an idea of who I am. Enjoy taking a look at my works here and have a great day! Also while you are here, why not fetch a free gift from me as a token of thanks for visiting my website. See if you could find the secret gift under the Magic Arts Menu. Good luck!