How has the Digital Age wholly transformed the landscape for American illustrators, including the production pipeline and distribution systems?
The American illustration landscape drastically changed in the 21st century as it was now no longer a question of using print but a question of screens replacing print. The digital pipeline has replaced print model of delivery. The quality in terms of pixels is also high, giving it a competitive edge over the actual illustrations. Currently, there are computer-generated images that appear more elegant than handmade paintings. Photoshop brought with it numerous advantages like photo editing through Photoshop’s. This includes portability mainly due to ease of movement from one place to another. The endless varieties of endless kinds of art can also be explored online (Hoffman, 2016).
It was also cost-effective since there was no much cost in transportation. Illustrations could thus henceforth be done using Aldus PageMaker and QuarkXPress, which were now in the personal computers. Apart from a change in the tools used, there is also a different way of delivering the pieces through the internet. With these technologies, both painterly and realistic textures can be customized. It is now possible to make resizes, transparency, and border lines for an artwork by a click of a button (Horps, 2014).
American illustration has thus been transformed in the sense that artists save time and are relieved of the pressure associated with the physical handling of art tools. Artists are no longer worried about mixing brushes accidentally or losing the desired color composition due to neglect of the paint for a while. At the same time, the digital era has eased the correction of mistakes made in the painting process, as all you need to do is press undo. Concerning production and distribution, it is most convenient as it has faster features for production and duplication (Horps, 2014).
Reference
Hoffman, B., 2016. Art And Cultural Heritage. Raintree, p.5.
Horps, W., 2014. Art, Technology, Technique. London: Pluto Press, p.62.