Introduction to Digital Art

Subtitle: Learning the Basics of Art and Design with Adobe Creative Cloud

Written by: Kristen R. Kennedy
Edited by: Kelsey Smith

This book was made with help from a special grant. The grant came from a U.S. government group called FIPSE. But that doesn't mean the government fully agrees with everything in the book.

This book is free for people to use, change, and share. People can even use it to make money. But if they do, they must say where it came from and share their new version the same way. If you use this book's ideas somewhere else, please say it came from the College of Lemoore, in Lemoore, California.

Some pictures and words in this book came from other places with different rules. Those parts cannot be copied the same free way. Some work was made by students. That student work cannot be copied or shared outside this book.

About the pictures: The pictures in this book are shared freely, are very old (so no one owns them anymore), or are used in a fair way allowed by law. Some pictures were made by students and are used with their permission. If you made a picture in this book and did not agree to this, you can ask the author to take it out.

About the cover: The cover picture was made by a computer art tool called DALL-E 4.0.

A computer helper called AI: A computer program called ChatGPT helped make outlines for each chapter, based on what the class needed to teach. It also helped make the writing clearer, cut out repeated parts, and suggest details. It helped write some lists of words and a source list too. Another AI tool, DALL-E 4.0, made some of the pictures. A tool called Grammarly checked the spelling and grammar.

What's Inside This Book

This book has a beginning section with:

• A preface (a note before the book starts)
• Information about the textbook
• What the authors hoped to do
• How to use the book
• The authors' teaching beliefs
• Thank-yous
• A foreword (an opening note)

Then come the chapters:

Chapter 1: The Digital Art Revolution — Learn what digital art is, how it changed over time, why it matters to cultures, how artists create it, and what digital art looks like today.

Chapter 2: Digital Art Foundations — Learn how to set up a digital art studio, explore art computer programs, use Adobe Cloud tools, understand how program screens work, learn about color, and learn about resolution (how clear or sharp a picture is).

Chapter 3: Web Wizards & Digital Sources — Learn the rules for using pictures from the internet the right way, how to search for images well, how copyright and licensing work, and what "appropriation" means (using someone else's work in your own art).

Chapter 4: File Organization for Creatives — Learn how to organize and manage your digital art files, and the best ways to save and share your work.

Chapter 5: The Digital Design Process — Learn how artists come up with ideas, the parts and rules of good design, and how to guide the eye through a picture (called visual hierarchy).

Lesson 1: Vector Graphics (using Adobe Illustrator) — Learn about logo design, a design idea called Gestalt theory, tool tutorials, and practice projects — including redesigning a famous logo in a funny way.

Lesson 2: Digital Photography (using Lightroom) — Learn what photography is and its history.