If you take brush in hand to sweep a luscious wash of color onto a sheet of fine, textured paper, you may be shaking your head at my efforts to duplicate your results digitally. So, are my watercolor camellias ersatz? Obviously I am working with pixels rather than pigment, applied using Photoshop brushes created by KyleT. Webster, with a GrutBrushes Art Surface paper texture as my base. And, I admit that underneath all is a photo from which my composition emerged.
Emerged, yes, ever so slowly. To me, one of the advantages of making art digitally is the ability to try and retry, to discover new techniques, to toss away what doesn't work and keep refining until what you see begins to accord with what you imagined. Quite a few hours sped blissfully by before I put my signature on this deceptively simple image. And the fact that, unless I print it out, I have a virtual rather than an actual artwork is perhaps an advantage, as I can enjoy seeing it anytime on my computer screen, rather than having it tucked away and forgotten somewhere in a drawer.
Ultimately, I think what a “real” watercolor and this digital watercolor have in common is that they both spring from a desire to create and the delight that comes from being able to do so in whatever medium you choose.
