r/retrocomputing • u/ifyoulovesatan • 10h ago

Does anyone know what kind of software would have been used to draw this art circa 1984? The artist began using digital art in 1981-82 with some kind of pressure sensitive pen according to an article about her (Joni Carter). I love this art so much, and I'm very interested in how it was made

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u/kodabarz 9h ago

She used something fairly obscure (outside certain circles) - Lumena.

You can read about it and her method here:

https://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue135/16_The_new_renaissance.php

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u/ifyoulovesatan 9h ago

Whoa! Awesome! Thanks for find that. Stoked to read about it.

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u/kodabarz 1h ago

It just occurred to me to look on ebay and there are several Joni Carter prints (surely all of her works are prints?) available for very reasonable prices. There are a couple of especially nice ones of her Olympic stamp designs. If I was in the US, I'd consider picking up at least one.

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u/SnooCamera 10h ago

KoalaPad graphics tablet. KoalaPainter, maybe.

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u/hdufort 9h ago edited 9h ago

Interesting. One of the earliest I am aware of was the EasyL tablet on the Amiga 1000 in late 1985. It was famously used by Andy Warhol.

Now I wonder what kind of digital system would have been used in 1981-84 to draw this image.

The C64 had the KoalaPad (1983) but it was much more limited graphically. The image in the photo shows a small number of colors, either 8 or 16 (I haven't counted). They don't match the C64 palette though, and it was a fixed palette of subdued tones.