Bob Tidy
DIGITAL ARTIST
“Working with my own photography, combined with digital painting techniques, I create original digital compositions, with no AI involvement
PROFILE
My work has evolved from a career in graphic design and a passion for art and photography. The digital graphic program I use gives me the opportunity to explore ideas and to be creative both quickly and with the freedom to explore.
Being graphically minded, my interest lies in creating concepts and blending images and themes, rather than working with conventional "painting" techniques.
Behind the door series
click image to explore
WORK SAMPLES click image and scroll
WINE SERIES click image and scroll
Behind the door series
Like many others, I have been fascinated for some time with the classic and rustic doors of the region. One day I asked myself "I wonder what lies behind that one". I also realized that the doors presented a frame to place a subject into. It was only recently that the idea arrived to play a visual trick and open the door to step outside, and not inside.
That is when the images came alive and I could tell a visual story with Algarvian, Spanish and Moroccan themes and built on the initial appeal.
The Digital images are 50 x 100 cm and available to other sizes in the same 1 : 2 proportions, either as one off originals printed to canvas or as limited edition prints (1 to 5)
I am often asked, what exactly is digital art ?
The direct answer is art produced with a computer, the more expansive version is not so simple. The very concept of computer generated art often represents a challenge, partly because it is seen by some as an imitation of the real thing, or as something new that needs time to adjust to, but also because it can result in work that cannot be created with the conventional way of “painting”.
The important word to stress here is “with” a computer and not “by” one. Like a conventional painter using brushes, or a sculptor using hammers and chisels, artists like myself who use a mouse and a graphics program, are simply adopting their preferred tools in the process of creating their art.
A computer does not create my art, I am in complete control of what it does.
Starting with a blank screen (my canvas)
I load my own photos in layers on Photoshop, literally one on top of the other. Then I blend, change opacity and erase areas to create multi image compositions. At this stage I am only thinking graphically about how images work together to tell a visual story or to combine associated themes. This could mean being realistic or completely abstract, or mixing the two.
The second stage is digital painting
With a mouse in hand, I can select from a huge range of “brushes” then select from a palette of thousands of colours and do the same as any painter, just electronically. Digital brushes are created by scanning a brush stroke of organic paint, or a pencil line, a pastel stick or anything else. They also include textures and graphic effects and they are just images converted to electronic information (pixels) that can be edited.