Hannah Bailin is one of the top young digital artists on Long Island. The Huntington High School senior has been producing gorgeous pieces that reflect her growth as an artist.
The teenager is one of the top members of the Class of 2019. Her stellar academic record has landed her a spot on the high school’s high honor roll and every faculty member in the building respects and admires her.
Ms. Bailin is planning to attend Rochester Institute of Technology where she intends to study new media design.
“I love the feeling of art supplies stained into my hands; the grit and disorderliness of the workspace after a piece has been finished,” Ms. Bailin said. “I also love the crisp and clean workspace of Photoshop and Illustrator, my face radiating in the intense light of my computer monitor. I’ve learned over the past few years you don’t always need a traditional paintbrush and a canvas, digital adaptations can be of equal value.”
Ms. Bailin works hard and is always growing. “I’ve always had an admiration for traditional mediums,” she said. “It constitutes the majority of the art I’ve consumed over the internet. The influence of traditional art forms, specifically watercolor and contour line drawing, can be observed in a majority of the artwork I chose to create.”
The teenager has worked closely over the years with Ms. Mohanty, who is an award winning artist in her own right. Ms. Bailin’s work is increasingly gaining notice in the Long Island art community.
“The beauty of merging traditionally created elements with technology is that you can see variations on a theme quickly and concisely,” Ms. Bailin said. “Need to blend? Use the blend tool. Need to darken or lighten a particular area? Use the burn or dodge tool. For me, this makes constructing art less of a frightful task and allows me more time and freedom to explore concepts and ideas. It has also helped me develop a better understanding of how to manipulate the visual components within a piece of artwork to accurately portray my artist voice and thoughts. My admiration for the digital age of art does not negate my enjoyment of still getting my hands dirty manufacturing such things as paint samples using watercolor or using pen and ink to illustrate. I can take these creations and scan them onto the computer. From there I can let my imagination take over.”
Ms. Bailin likes to experiment with her techniques. “I took cues from artists such as Raphael Vincenzi, Karren Klassen and Darren Hopes the first time I attempted to combine traditionally made elements with digitally drawn images,” she said. “I was awed at how realistic these artists made their watercolor and acrylic paint strokes look. I assumed the work had been created entirely of digital elements at first glance. I wanted to know how they did it. I discovered their painterly effects look so convincing because they are in fact incorporating hand-rendered elements with digitally imagined components. What a revelation.”
The senior began experimenting with this technique by scanning into a computer a handful of watercolor samples to add as texture to a flat art design piece of hers. “Pleased with the outcome I became even bolder with my next piece,” Ms. Bailin said. “I printed out some line art I had created on the computer using a tablet onto watercolor paper. Then using paint and brush I manually finished the piece, rescanned it back onto the computer to deepen the colors in Photoshop. I created my next piece this time doing the reverse, filling in my line work with my own watercolor samples.”
As her time at Huntington High School nears an end, Ms. Bailin continues to use each day to grow as an artist and in every other day. She has been working more closely with Ms. Mohanty than ever before.
“My explorations have lead me to the belief that traditional and digital mediums go hand in hand,” Ms. Bailin said. “The digital environment can appear to be void of spontaneity, happy accidents and surprises, but nothing could be further from the truth. Using the artistic programs can help dull colors pop, shadows can be deepened, highlights brightened, the possibilities are endless. Adding traditional aspects to my artwork allows me to make something new every day. I continue to experiment with this technique because in a nut shell, it is fun and something that has helped me test the threshold of my creative nature.”
