Digital Artworks

For me, the digital age began in 1999 when I bought my first versions of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.  I taught my self the useful aspects of Photoshop, but to this day, Illustrator remains mostly a mystery, though I do use it mostly as a middleman….I use a CAD program called Autosketch with which it is compatible to do a lot of mechanical drawing, as on a drafting table, that having been a favorite subject in high school.  I convert these Autosketch drawings to Adobe Illustrator format and then open them with Adobe Photoshop to use them in digital art and design projects.

Digital visual art is commonly referred to as Giclee Prints.  Giclee is a French word that simply means to spray, for example, as an ink jet printer sprays ink to create images or simply print a written document.  I’m not French, so I simply refer to my digital imagery as digital art and digital prints.  Digital prints are of superior quality on quality rag paper and archival inks and are printed one at a time.  Though they reproduce imagery, they are not a means to mass-produce cheap art reproductions.  Because of their quality, they are also more expensive to print but they are worth it and stand the test of time. They are every bit as valid as a lithograph or etching or any type of art printing technique.  

My digital imagery can start as a reproduction of something I did in a particular technique, like for example charcoal and pastel drawings.  Then, that matrix image is photographed and introduced into the computer and processed, mostly, with Adobe Photoshop where “art” occurs.  I get the impression that some think using a computer is somehow cheating…it isn’t.  Skill is required with the programs one uses and not everybody has those skills or the abilities to transcend the medium in the same way that not everybody can paint or draw at the professional level either.  Bato Con Sunglasses and Hombre Que le Gustan las Mujeres are examples of what was explained.

Then there are those images that are created in the computer employing a variety of techniques such as montage, photography and freehand drawing that is then refined and digitized.  Examples of this mode are Huizache Jaguar and Mona Lupe:  The Epitome of Chicano Art.  Some more are in progress and there is no timetable for completion but they will become available for sale.  Some prints will be printed in limited editions and some will be available in unlimited but numbered prints so that buyers will know how many are out there.