[Lunatique]

I feel a little conflicted about any kind of photo illustration/digital art hybrid topics (Fred Miranda's got one too, and I participate there). I lead a Art Techniques and Theories forum over at cgtalk.com, and I have also co-written a book on digital painting, and based on all the cases I've seen, the problem more often than not isn't technique, it's artistic knowledge. A lot of photographer's digital manipulations/editing looks gimmicky and crude because they lack the foundation knowledge of artists (anatomy, perspective, composition, color theory, values, edges..etc), and learning simply the right buttons to push in Photoshop or Painter isn't going to fix the problem--only learning the necessary art foundation knowledge will. But this isn't what people want to hear--they want to hear that there's a magical tool/procedure in a software that'll give them fantastic results without having to do too much work, and the idea of actually learning the important visual art foundations is just too daunting.

Too often we see gimmicky photo-manipulations that have no meaning and purpose. How many of you are sick and tired of seeing selective colors in a B/W photo? When it's done to convey meaning or bring focus to something that deserves attention, it can be interesting or even powerful, but what happens is that most photographers do it as a gimmick, without any forethought to why they're doing it, and the result usually displays only one thing--bad taste and lack of creative judgment. It's the same with using filters or cloning in Photoshop and Painter to "turn a photo into a painting/drawing." Without a healthy amount of knowledge about the craft of drawing and painting, or basic art history, familiarity with different artistic mediums..etc, most photographer's attempt ends up looking like cheap imitations that anyone who draws or paints will shake their heads looking at these "conversions." What about skin smoothing? I doubt I'm alone in feeling that once that technique has been learned by the majority, all photography forums became flooded with "plastic" and "fake" looking people. This is what happens when you only learn a technique but lack the artistic judgment and knowledge to apply the technique appropriately.

My personal philosophy is that if you're going to do something, do it with forethought and a sense of artistic integrity--even if it's "just a hobby." The more you put into it, the more fulfillment you get out of it.

Essentially, I think it's very important to actually teach the foundation art theories that is so important to creative judgment, along with technique and tools. Because without the former, we'll just end up seeing a lot of meaningless use of tools and technique. If this is something that interests most members here, I'll be happy to do my part for this new forum.