A popular medium used by many contemporary artists is digital illustration, or digital drawing. This medium allows the artist to experiment with unique effects and designs that can be challenging to achieve when using traditional painting and drawing techniques. Digital illustrators create many different images ranging from character portraits to fabulous landscapes seen in a fantasy world. 

This issue’s featured artist is Rowan Kollmar, a sophomore of the NMAT program. His favorite medium to use is digital illustration, and he uses it to create stunning portraits, unique characters, and vivid landscapes.  

One of the illustrations that Kollmar showcases is The Burning of the Amazon Rainforest, which was a project from a digital illustration class. 

“I was tasked with illustrating a topical issue of my choice for this particular assignment,” he said. “I decided to depict the burning of the Amazon Rainforest, however I intentionally portrayed the forest more ambiguously, rather than specifically showing the Amazon, so that it can be relayed to the destruction of any forests.”  

Another one of Kollmar’s illustrations is a portrait of Steve Harrington, a character from the popular Netflix series Stranger Things. This portrait is done with detail and uses vivid red and green hues and was also a project from the digital illustration class.  

Kollmar also commissions work to others when they want a specific character designed as part of an “art trade” which is an online exchange between artists to share works with each other. Luna and Hoshi, a portrait of a girl and her cat, is an illustration that was part of this “art trade” requested by an online friend. Lucia the Owl is another work created for an online friend that depicts a snowy white owl and reflects the friend’s personality. 

Digital illustration is a popular medium used by many artists today that allows more opportunities to be explored in drawing and painting. There are many unique techniques and effects that an artist can use in digital media that are difficult to achieve in traditional art, and the final results are stunning.