Self Portrait on the computer... by Amanda Bates

Fascinating to see this digital version of your self portrait Amanda, that electronic pen that you have is really effective !

It has worked well Amanda . Met an artist the other day who uses her I pad in an amazing way.

You are really doing well with your digital art. Saves a lot of money on paints and brushes as well doesn t it :-). Will cost a little extra in ink for the printer though. I order my digital prints as I would photographs.

I've always been just a little bit anti-this - being a Luddite at heart. However, I've got a wet oil on the easel, another one sitting on top of a cupboard, and a bit of a build-up of acrylics and watercolours about the place..... not to mention sketch-books poking out all over..... Now, if I had one of these devices, I could just store things on a memory stick or DVD, do as many as I wanted, and show 'em online to my heart's content...... So, waddo I get, then? (And how do I afford it...?)

This is what I have: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trust-Ultra-Thin-Design-Ergonomic-Wireless/dp/B003MG11AM/ It's distinctly at the budget end, at less than 30 quid, but it works

But it still isn't as satisfying or as tactile as spreading paint over a canvas.

I'm grateful that you said that - I don't want to give up the, as it were, manual satisfaction of taking brushes, and/or knives, and paint, and shaping them on the canvas, paper or board. Even so - I know I'll have to try this digital interloper sooner or later: I've used Paint - very, very basic software - and found it useful in planning work; the software you're using here is a world away from that, of course.

Well, it's true, Robert. It completely lacks the smells. too. It comes close to drawing with a pen (not dip pen) or a fairly ordinary pencil (HB, say), but, even then, plastic on plastic can never feel quite like graphite on cartridge paper. The set-up that I have is more oriented towards drawing than painting, as I noted here: http://amanda-bates-artist.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/digital-paint-and-pencil.html