Brushes with a byte.

Paint software operates on a technical level in profoundly different ways than do felt pens on paper or oil paint on canvas. Teachers can capitalize on these differences to help students explore new ways of thinking about art and making art images. Paint programs also share many conceptual features with traditional drawing and painting. These similarities can be exploited by the art teacher to underscore key concepts and techniques of traditional life drawing or perceptual training.

Similarities

There are three important similarities. First, with paint software, students continue to make pictures on a two-dimensional surface called a bitmap. As in painting, there is no side view. Students must rely on traditional conventions such as contrast and shading to create illusions.

Second, one stage of the artwork (a preliminary drawing) can be completed before the next is begun. Each new set of marks covers the last by replacing or redistributing them.

Third, in the design of most paint programs, attempts have been made to imitate the effects of traditional tools like watercolor paintbrushes, pencil crayons or airbrushes. The tools can also be fine-tuned to behave in traditional ways: "strokes" can be made narrower, or concentrations of "paint" can be made more or less dilute.

Perceptual Training

The reproduction of a scanned image or photograph is a valuable computer assignment for perceptual training at the middle school level. Working with the images side-by-side on the screen, students can develop a new copy of the original in order to explore the tools and functions of the computer program, as well as to strengthen the cognitive and perceptual dimensions of traditional image-making.

The first stage of this process should be an evaluation of the original image. Does it have a good composition? Are the textures, shapes and features clear? Are the colors bright or dull, natural or distorted? Is there high contrast, or are the values muted? Some students might decide to keep the composition and viewpoint as they are in the model. Others may choose to increase the contrast, soften the texture or alter the shape. By discussing and justifying choices about the composition and characteristics of their own models, students will become clearer about the subsequent steps they will take.

In the second stage, students should identify the best tools and mediums for the kind of rendering they wish to make. Will the textures and colors be sharp and clear, soft and diffuse, detailed or in flat, defined sections? For example, a student might need to select a sharp tool for control over fine detail. As with traditional mediums, the selection of "paper" (if the program offers a choice is also an important decision.

In the third stage, students should choose or create their palette. Most paint programs offer a good selection of basic colors. They can be further adjusted with different concentrations of hue (color), saturation (the deepness or intensity of the color1 and value (the lightness or darkness of color). Since students interact directly with sliders to alter concentrations, they gain useful experience with color theory.

Making Connections

The computer allows students to adjust perceptual errors. For example, students can adjust shapes in their initial sketches by selecting faulty areas with an outline tool and moving them. Students can also be encouraged to make frequent connections between corrective techniques in traditional mediums. For example, the "Ultrafine Eraser" tool can be used in conjunction with the "Sharp Pencil Crayon" tool to cut into the pencil strokes and make some strokes shorter or finer. Most of all, using the computer teaches students that every step of the art-making process is the result of a decision on their part. Students can thus gradually learn to master control over their techniques without the penalizing consequences of most traditional mediums.

Mia Johnson is a writer and art educator at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.