I’ve painted and drawn my whole life, but have no formal training in art.  Regardless, I love the feel of the brush and pencil in my fingers, just like I love the feel and smell of a book.

I swore I’d never succumb to reading on an e-reader.  Then I got my first Kindle and I was hooked.  Now, I hardly ever read a real book.

I felt the same way about art.  Sure, other people use graphic design software to create art and illustrations.  But not me, I said.  I’m a purist, I said.

Lately however, I’ll admit there’s been a bit of a shift in my position.  Although I haven’t created a piece of art from start to finish on my computer yet, I’m inching closer and closer.

I paint with acrylics on canvas, stone and wood, and I create illustrations for a story I wrote with color pencils and pastels.  I don’t have any desire to learn how to fill in color with a keystroke.  Leave that for younger, more technologically evolved artists.

I recently started uploading photos I took of my storybook illustrations.  As I do, I’m compelled to “fix” them like I do all my photos–that is, straighten, crop and brighten.

I’m amazed at how much better my drawings look when I’m done.  I fiddle with contrast, heighten or tamp down highlights and shadows, increase color saturation…I can’t leave them as-is anymore.

Earlier today, I was going through some photo files on my computer and found a picture of an acrylic painting that I painted a couple of years ago. It’s of a workboat on the Chesapeake Bay.  I’ve never liked it much.  So of course,  I photoshopped it.

I fiddled and tweaked, and above is the result.  The first version is the “Before” and the second is “After”.

I’m not even sure how I created the pinkish highlight, but I don’t care.  I like the new version.  I’m tempted to use it to go back with paint and try to “fix” the original painting, but why bother?  Also, there’s a good likelihood I’d only make matters worse.

I’m afraid that this old-school purist is on a slippery slope.  I’ll be filling in color with a keystroke any day now.