As junior Char Nakashima-Conway glanced out of the window of a Japanese restaurant in the Mission district of San Francisco, she saw what would become her submission for her weekly photo challenge assignment in art class: a black and white view of a patio and a street behind it, framed by telephone wires.

“Sometimes you just take the picture just to take it and sometimes it fits exactly what Ms. Bailey’s assignment is that week,” Nakashima-Conway said. “It’s a good excuse to be looking out for beautiful things.”

The photography Nakashima-Conway has done for her class’s photo challenges is just one example of the ways students are using technology to create artwork both for school and in their free time. Besides photo challenges, art students create digital art portfolios, incorporate photographs they take into their art, write blogs and learn about appropriation and copyright of existing works, art teacher Gillian Bailey said.

Every week, Bailey and her Art I, II and III students examine and discuss the images taken for each assignment in a gallery walk to reinforce concepts they learn in class and introduce new techniques.

“Many people don’t realize how much of an aesthetic sense they already have ingrained,” Bailey said. “Especially young people: you are assaulted by so many images a day that you don’t even realize how much imagery you’re taking in. You have become really visual thinkers.”

Bailey said that perhaps because creating a photographic image requires only clicking a button, people tend to consider photography easier than painting or drawing. Really, photography has the same standards as any other visual art form.

“Good composition is good composition,” Bailey said. ”Just because something’s taken on a cellphone doesn’t mean that you didn’t make decisions or specific intent while taking it.”

Through photo assignments, students begin to analyze the artistic elements of these images, which helps them understand the artist’s intent in advertisements or even the creation of their own art, Bailey said.

Nakashima-Conway’s photography experience changed the way she composed a watercolor piece of her pet cat.

“You think more about where the light hits something, or how you frame it to make it look more visually interesting,” Nakashima-Conway said.

For the shot from the restaurant, as well as the other photography Nakashima-Conway does, she said that she knew to press the shutter when an arresting and unique perspective revealed itself.

During the busy school year, photography has allowed Nakashima-Conway a chance to become more aware of her surroundings and find the beauty within them.

“Especially junior and senior year, you just don’t allow yourself time to look at things that are visually interesting just to look at things that are visually interesting,” Nakashima-Conway said.

Another student utilizing technology in her art is senior Onyx Yskamp Long, who uses a computer to draw whenever she feels inspired. Yskamp Long, who uses Manga Studio, has progressed from scribbling to learning to work with layers, tools, materials and special features, such as a 3D model.

She finds that digital art allows her to create effects impossible to do with non-digital tools, leading her to suggest that newcomers should try breaking the traditional rules of art.

“There’s an oil paint tool and a watercolor tool. In physical art, you can’t mix those two mediums because oil and water just don’t happen,” Yskamp Long said. “I found, especially when drawing the hyperrealistic version of Loki, that mixing those two tools could get a really flowing and well-designed look.”

Yskamp Long also said that those inexperienced in digital art should not feel discouraged by their lack of hand-eye coordination as they start to experiment.

“When you’re drawing on a piece of paper, you can see what you’re doing, you can see where you want your hand to go,” Yskamp Long said. “When you’re looking forward and drawing on your lap, there’s something that just disconnects there.”

Developing that synchronization takes time, Yskamp Long said.

“When I’m doing it, I don’t even look at the board,” Yskamp Long said. “You’ll get it.”

She said that 2D art classes should spend more time with digital art, because the ease at which students can undo mistakes allows them to practice and experiment digitally and then apply their ideas to the physical world.

“Digital is very forgiving,” Yskamp Long said. “If you paint on a canvas, you can’t ever remove the paint.”

Yskamp Long said she sees digital art as just another medium, but others have not treated it with the respect it deserves.

“Art’s been around forever and it’s changing now and people are kind of hesitant to let it change this much, but it’s important that it does,” Yskamp Long said.