I work in mostly digital mediums right now. Let's face it--since I have the software kicking around anyways, it's much cheeper. This was done in Photoshop with my pen tablet. It's more than economics though. It offers so many possibilities, especially when I am looking to combing photography and painting. My photographs are already digital, so if I can include successful painterly aspects before the image is matured to a hard copy state, the blend of mediums will be more thorough.
Thought I would put some of my traditional skills to the test and do a digital painting from life. Hence, the above image. This was done by looking at my actual feet, not photograph. My strong traditional background makes me distinguish between the two. This is a study and it's not perfect. I did it in about 35 minutes, I would guess, and it was fun. No, it does not replace paint. But I think it is not so much inferior to paint either. I see digital fine art becoming a more respectable medium in the near future as more artists turn to it. Artists are by their nature innovators, and they search for new and inspiring things. Perhaps I'm speaking more for myself, but I think a new medium begs to be pushed and explored. It's potencial still has yet to be fully realized. Commercial artists see this already, and it's really only a matter of time. I'm sure many fine art circles already respect it, but I think there is a more old school pool of thought that dismisses digital completely. I guess that is their loss. Just as photography took time to be recognized as fine art and before that, print making, this media will take time to be fully accepted.