Many things in our lives have gone digital, and art makes no exception to this rule. There are already countless forms of digital art, from drawing to all sorts of sculptures based on digital modeling and music, and the list can go on almost forever. Yet, among all these, a new made-for-art gadget must be welcomed: the Virtuo digital palette, a creation of designer Yana Klimava. The Virtuo is one of the most prominent intrusions of digital technology in the realm of “classic” art, boasting hi-tech and a “human” touch mixed together in a very interesting piece of gadgetry.

 

The Virtuo is a conceptual gadget, designed to allow novice visual artists to work and experiment with colors, and the way they mix together, and to see the results of bringing together various colors and painting tools.

 

Of course, the Virtuo is not a toy limited only to newbies: such an interesting and innovative art-gadget can also be used by more experienced artists looking for a less traditional way to set their creativity free. The principle behind this gadget is electromagnetism, and this involves no actual paint so there is no waste at all. Running on Bluetooth, the palette communicates with the “canvas” in real time, so the feeling of painting is very well reproduced.

 

As you use one of the five supplied painting tools, the palette reproduces the mixing of colors with LED lights, creating a very accurate visual representation of real-life colors. Moreover, the amount of prepared “paint” you take on your tool is determined by its dynamics on the palette in terms of time, pressure, contact position and so. Built-in accelerometers and pressure sensors translate the movement of the painting tool in their real-life action upon the canvas.

 

To make things be even closer to the real deal, the Virtuo allows only a limited number of undo steps and has no erasing options: you can only paint over a previous layer of color, pretty much like what painting for real is like. Five painting tools are supplied with the Virtuo: a pencil, airbrush, palette knife, paintbrush and a pastel, which is more than enough to let the budding artist in you express his/her vision of things. Unfortunately, no certain info is available as to whether the Virtuo will ever be seen in stores. With all that, since it looks like a very fun and creative gadget, we hope it's worth waiting.

 

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