Everyone, by and large, has an idea of what digital art is. But what is digital surrealism? In this post, we are going to look at what digital surreal art means and what some of the characteristics of surrealism are. You will get to meet some of the top artists in this field: modern surrealists, digital and pop surrealism artists. At the bottom of this post, you will also find a few pieces of surreal digital art for sale, if you’re interested!
Digital art is a creative field that almost everyone knows. But what is digital surrealism? This is what we are going to shed some light on in this post!
While the so-called Millennials still got to know a world without internet, smartphones and social media, computer technology started evolving in the 1980s and changed our lives completely – including the creative field of art.
Traditional painting and drawing found its counterpart in digital painting and drawing, and many other new forms of computer-driven art came into being.
Before diving deeper into digital surreal art, let’s see first what surrealism means in art.
What does surrealism mean in art?
Surrealism is one of the most influential art styles and also one of the most significant cultural movements. It finds expression through literature, philosophy, and visual arts.
French poet, essayist, and critic André Breton (1896–1966) launched the surrealist movement, outlining the movement’s philosophy in his manifesto of 1924.
As for the visual arts, Belgian painter René Magritte (1898–1967) is generally seen as the founding father of surrealism. His surreal paintings blur the lines between dreams and reality, displaying juxtapositions of the ordinary and strange.
One of the primary characteristics of surrealism is its irrationality. Surreal art is all about giving free rein to the subconscious and unlocking the power of your creative imagination.
Full Article: Surreal Art – What Does ‘Surreal’ Mean In Art?
What is digital surrealism?
Digital surrealism differs from traditional surrealism because it uses a computer and technology to create the artwork.
Whereas traditional surrealists use brushes, paint, pencils, charcoal, etc., modern digital surrealists usually work with a graphics tablet and a software program.
Creating surreal digital art requires at least as much skill and practice as traditional art. You do not only need to learn the skill of creating surreal images, but you also need to master your software app.
Advanced digital art software like Photoshop comes with a pretty steep learning curve. You will have to get to grips with the numerous features that the program offers before you can actually exploit all the functionality to create your best surreal art!
Feel free to check out some of my Photoshop tutorials to help you take your art to the next level quickly.
What are 3 characteristics of surrealism?
Now that we’ve figured the difference between traditional surrealism and digital surrealism, let’s have a look at some of the characteristics of surreal art.
1. It must be out of the ordinary.
The primary characteristic of surrealism is that it’s out of the ordinary. Already the founding fathers of surrealism, André Breton and René Magritte, emphasized the ‘strangeness’ of surreal art. They both agreed that the aim of surrealism was to allow the author to dive deep into their subconscious and express that dream-like, irrational world in their creations.
2. It must trigger curiosity in the viewer.
Another characteristic that surreal works ideally have is that they trigger the curiosity of the viewer. Because surreal art is so strange, it should spark the interest of the people contemplating it. The combination of ordinary and metaphysical objects should make the observer wonder why. Why did the artist create that scenery and what did they mean to express through it?
3. It must shake the observer's conventional beliefs.
Surrealists believed that using their subconscious as the source of their artistic inspiration would allow them to break free from the conventional, rational order of society. Magritte’s goal, for example, was to create art that made the viewer think. That’s why surreal art has the premise to make the viewers question their beliefs that society dictates them.
How do you make digital surrealism?
There are many different types of digital art. There’s digital photography, digital painting and drawing, 2D and 3D rendering, photo manipulation, comic art, and many more.
So the way you make digital surrealism depends on the type of digital art you incline to.
However, what all digital surrealism has in common is the use of technology to create that art and the characteristics we talked about above.
So as long as you unleash the power of your imagination and bring your strange and fantastic ideas to the digital canvas, you are making digital surrealism!
Modern surrealist artists
Modern surrealist artists can be found in all artistic fields.
Some iconic modern surrealist artists include Salvador Dalí (Spanish painter), René Magritte (Belgian painter), André Breton (French poet), Max Ernst (German painter), and Frida Kahlo (Mexican painter).
Digital surrealism artists
There are so many awesome digital surrealism artists, I don’t know where to start…
I’ m not sure if there are ‘iconic’ surrealism artists to name here, so I’m just going to mention some of my favorite digital surreal artists that include Ray Caesar, Lostfish, Bob Doucette, and Paolo Pedroni.
Pop surrealism artists
Pop Surrealism, or Lowbrow Art, is an art movement that developed around Los Angeles, California, in the late 1970s.
Initially, Lowbrow was a revolt against political and social norms and against the academic conceptualism of the 1960s. The goal of the movement was to rise out of convention. In this respect, it was very much like surrealism.
Some of the leading pop surrealism artists are Robert Williams, Mark Ryden, Audrey Kawasaki, and Tara McPherson.
Full Article: What Does ‘Lowbrow Art’ Mean?
Pop surrealism or lowbrow is also the art genre where I humbly range in my own digital creations. Moreover, another characteristic of pop surrealism artists was that the great majority of artists used to be self-taught, which I am myself, too.
Below I am showing you a few pieces of my surreal digital art in the lowbrow style.
Surreal digital art for sale
Are you looking to sell your surreal digital art? That's a good idea because many people are interested in purchasing beautiful and exceptional art to decorate their homes.
Wall art ranks among the best selling digital art on Etsy, so it’s definitely worthwhile to give it a shot and start selling prints of your work over there. By clicking this link → you will get 40 free listings when you sign up for Etsy.
When offering fine art prints, it’s important to choose a high-quality printing paper. One of the best prints are Giclée prints. Giclee printing is the gold standard among fine art prints. It produces superior print quality that can last for several hundred years.
An excellent printing service for Giclée prints is Giclée Today. They offer a large choice of premium archival papers and canvas prints with UV coating at affordable prices. And, there are no minimum order requirements!
If you don’t want to only offer physical prints, you can also sell high-resolution images of your artwork. The good thing is that such virtual files are immediately available to download, so your customers don’t have to wait a couple of days like when ordering prints.
Make sure to save your work in a file type that preserves the quality of your work and allows the buyer to print the image themselves, if they wish to. Another thing to pay attention to when offering virtual files is the image license agreement. This agreement determines whether the buyer is allowed to use the purchased file for commercial use or for personal purposes only.
I have a detailed blog post to help you write a digital image license agreement. Plus, there is a Royalty Free License Agreement Template and an Extended Royalty Free License Agreement Template available for you in the Freebie Library. Those templates are fully editable and adaptable to your personal needs – and they are completely free!
∗∗∗
That being said, I hope I was able to give an idea about what digital surrealism is and how to make your surreal digital art available for sale!
Feel free to check out my surreal digital surreal creations below or browse around more in my Web Store, if you are interested. Of course, you are also welcome to contact me for a custom Giclée print! (ᴖᴥᴖ)
-
-
Select options
- Art Prints & HR Images, Surreal Stories
Zara
- $15.00 – $92.00
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Select options
- Art Prints & HR Images, Surreal Stories
China
- $15.00 – $92.00
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Select options
- Art Prints & HR Images, Surreal Stories
Space Captain
- $15.00 – $92.00
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Select options
- Art Prints & HR Images, Surreal Stories
Wounded Vanity
- $15.00 – $192.00
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Select options
- Art Prints & HR Images, Surreal Stories
Anahita
- $15.00 – $120.00
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Select options
- Art Prints & HR Images, Surreal Stories
Teatime
- $15.00 – $92.00
-
-
-
-
-
-
