Phil Galloway

This artist compares the benefits of traditional and digital mediums

What are your favourite new features in ArtRage 5?

The new Pencil tool is proving useful and I’ve just completed a full piece using only the Pencil and Watercolor tools. The new interface is smoother, has more options for personalisation and is more user-friendly, yet manages to feel like a professional tool.

The ability to be able to export to Photoshop is a godsend – the new version makes this even easier and swifter to utilise. I’m sure the Custom brush tool could sneak into my favourites list, though, as I play more with it in the coming months.

What would you like to see in the next version of ArtRage?

Coming from a more traditional background in fine art I’m all about the textures, the malleable qualities of paint and pastels and their interplay with each other. So I’d love to see more control over the digital medium’s traits on the canvas, such as thick impasto paint you could push and smear with your thumb, through to dribbling washes and buttery pastels that drip or flake down the canvas as you tilt it. I’m still on the search for an art app or program that can recreate the crumbly behaviour of charcoals, too.

Would you ever switch completely to digital media?

This is a question I wrangle with on a daily basis. The main body of my work is digital and I love the freedom to experiment without fear of wasting paper or paint. However, I don’t feel I could turn my back on traditional art media: there’s no digital substitute for the smell of paint, the feel of charcoal on your hands and smudging a putty rubber around a sheet of nice paper!