Catwoman Cover 

This Catwoman cover by Stanley ‘Artgerm’ Lau is made with digital painting techniques, a process in which the hand skills of traditional media meet the possibilities of mass reproduction. The texture of the image looks soft and the image has great tonal control. If this was created using traditional paint, it would require considerable skill, and time. Here, digital tools allow the artist to produce this effect rapidly, and make slight alterations as required. Note also the rendering of the costume, which appears to be made from a modern, high-performance fabric. This would be a relatively recent development in fashion, and the image subtly conveys the idea of the comic book superhero as an allegory of modern production. It’s easy to think of digital art as somehow dematerialized, but it is important to remember the embodied skill of the artist, and also the labor involved in producing and consuming this art.