miam75•7d ago

Walked into an art gallery in Portland and realized my digital work was missing something

I went to this small gallery in Portland last spring for a friend's show. All the prints there had this real texture to them, like you could see the brush strokes or paper grain. My digital stuff always looked too smooth and fake next to that. So I started adding custom paper textures and brush overlays to my digital pieces before I export them. Has anyone else found a trick to make digital art feel less sterile?

2 comments

2 Comments

averywilliams7d ago

That smooth digital look is actually what a lot of collectors pay for though.

thomas.parker7d ago

Remembered seeing those older film scans with that almost painterly grain texture and honestly thought anything digital was just cheating or lacked soul. Then I picked up a vintage digital camera from like 2006 at a thrift store and started messing around with it. That flattened out smooth look with the blown out highlights actually gives some of my shots this dreamy feel I could never get with my regular DSLR. A friend even asked if I was shooting through some kind of fancy lens filter or something. So yeah you're totally right, what I used to write off as sterile is actually its own whole vibe.