Digital Art.... Real Art?

                                                  http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/
The features I liked about artpad.com is that you can change the brush sizes and replay over what you had painted.

Art definitions:
Ahromatic - Black, white and greys. Artwork that is executed without color.

Acrylic - Thicker and stronger than tempera or watercolor paint, Acrylic is a water-based "plastic" paint.

Albumen Print - This printing process is used in photography printing processes. Egg whites are used in the emulsion.

Alternative Process - This photography term covers approximately 35 different processes for the final unconventional effect.

Armature - A structure used beneath something else for support. For example, a sculptor might create a clay sculpture with a wood or wire armature beneath it as support. Think about the frame of a house being constructed before all of the brick or siding is built on top.

Artists Proof - A small group of outstanding prints for the artists use which have been set aside from the edition prints.

Is digital art a valid form of art?Art is normally an opinion in it's self. Some consider music or dance an art form while other wouldn't. But an opinion was brought to my attention today that some people consider digital art, weather it be drawn works or photos that have been manipulated and taken useing computer technology. Someone claimed that it lacked "human touch" and failed to have that link to the soul. But if that is the case, is a poem that has been typed on the computer and posted through say an art forum or a website not art? Someone took the time to make something beautiful, as to weather others find it beautiful is another matter. But someone has made a creation, is it art or not? after all they did not sit and touch their computer screene or mark the screen up with a red pen. No human touched it, no person can reach out and feel it with their fingers. But isn't it still art?
The claim was that art on a computer relied too heavily on a programs ability to take a simple skill and turn it into work equivilent of Da Vinci or Picasso. I'm not saying anything against the classics, they are wonderful, but it requires skill to use a program and produce a work just as it takes a different skill to take a brush and put color to canvas.

What are some of the advanatges that digital paint and draw programs offer over the traditional methods (canvas and paint)

The many advatages of digital painting is that you can undo and redo your mistakes unlike traditional painting there is no option, it is hard to undo. Some tools such as pencils and charcoal allow you to erase. Some may let you paint over your mistakes – oil painting. But they are nothing compared to the control given in the digital painting. Another is Layers. Digital softwares let you organise your layers. This allows for greater control in terms of edits and corrections. This cant be made using traiditonal mathods. Colour pallete  is another great advantage, you may use a wide variety of colours that can contain at least a million colours. Another great extent is that you can choose your colours accurately unline traditioanal painting methods. The last advantage is canvas size. In digital painting the canvas size in only limited depending on your computer memory and size.  To an extent, traditional medium lets you choose large canvas sizes but like with digital medium, you cannot change the size half way through you artwork – you will have to decide and stick to a size once you start in traditional mediums.