Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Cosmic Clutter
This fractal, titled "Cosmic Clutter", features an a random design of various abstract spheres, like planets, and clouds, like nebulae, all converging in outer space.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Kinda on a Swirl kick - Serene
Lately I've been on a bit of a spiral kick. Most of my designs seem to have a spiralling shape in one way or another. Thos one, with its various shades of blue and white, just seemeld like a very calming serene image.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Repetition for emphasis - Choices
One of my older designs, I had post-edited by repeating it onto several layers to give it depth and add interest to the design. This image, I created a similar effect, but I managed to do so without post editing in Photoshop.
Swirs in Swirls in Swirls - Farce
A farce the name used to describe a play within a play, such as the one that takes place in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" but that isn't where the name actually started. It was originally the name give to a feast made by stuffing stuffing a smaller animal in to a larger animal and again into an even larger animal and so on. A modern example is a turduckin - which is a chicken that is stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey before the whole thing is cooked.
This design kinda made me think of that. It features a large spiral made of smaller spirals that are again made of smaller spirals.
Another Today's Best! - Queen of Hearts
I should really read my email more carefully. I got another Today's Best Award for one of my designs on Zazzle and didn't know it until a few days later. Here is the design that was selected as an iPad cover. Hope you like it.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Artisan
This fractal, titled "Artisan," shows that an amorphous shape can actually still have structure. Although there is no hard lines to define any, there are still distinct patterns of color that repeat through the design. The focus is centered around 3 separate areas that are interconnected with swirls and wispy lines of color.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Neon Purple Flower
Another very altered image. This one is of a purple flower that I took a while back. It was partially out of focus so I toyed around with it and tried out the same technique that I used on my last photography post. I think it came out really nice.
I don't know about everyone else, but I am terrible about taking a great shot out of focus just enough that its still pretty good, but it IS out of focus. These are great for Photoshopping. If it doesn't work out great, no loss, it was a pic you probably were just going to delete anyway, right?
Monday, July 4, 2011
A Happy Accident - Seclorum
Ever have one of those days when NOTHING seems to go right? Well, a couple days ago, I did. Among other things there were stressing me out, I could not not get any of my designs to come out looking good at all.
When I reopened one of the designs I was working on that day, I somehow clicked something that changed it into this design called "Seclorum". Why "Seclorum"? Well I don't know, it just sounded cool, OK. (I don't have to have a reason for EVERYTHING I do, do I?). I really have no idea what I changed cause I don't know what the old settings were and have no idea what I clicked that changed, but the design that came up was pretty cool and I decided to just take it and run.
Personally I thin this one works really well on the iPad cases from Zazzle. No I just have to make enough sales to get an iPad AND this case. (hint hint)
Friday, July 1, 2011
What's in a name? Mind Over Matter
In case you haven't already noticed, I like to name my fractal art work. Although I do like to give them titles, that is not the whole reason why. In fact, there are a few reasons to name abstract artwork.
- First, by naming them, it makes it easier for you to keep track of them and remember them. its far easier to remember if you blogged about your creation titled "Mind Over Matter" than one you just called "Fractal 47".
- If you are selling your art or prints or other related items with your image on it, your customers are more likely to remember the name if its something familiar to them. I can't count the number of times I have seen an image and couldn't find it again because I didn't bookmark it and couldn't remember what number it was. "Was that Apophysis 45 or 54 that I really liked?" People will be more likely to find it again by its name.
- If someone is looking through a gallery of thumbnails, unless they are an artist or a connoisseur of the program you use, a name like "Bluebirds" is more likely to catch their eye, and potentially snag them as a customer, than "Apophysis 01072011"
- Using common words like "Tunnels" or 'Dispute" is more likely to be found by a search engine. That's not to say that you will end up near the top of the results for those common words, because that may never happen. BUT if you end up on page 10, then it still came up in search results and some search engines rank partially on how many times you come up in results. (I am NOT an SEO expert by any means so please do not ask me any SEO questions.)
So even though I do like to name my abstract designs, its not just something I do just because I like to. It does serve a purpose and, even though the impact of doing so may be small, it is a POSITIVE impact.
You can check out my most recent fractal design, titled "Mind Over Matter" below
Another round fractal - Incantation
The marbleizer script I posted about earlier has really been lots of fun to play with. I have a long list of designs that are good, but just need something else. I've been working through these with the marbelizer script and a few have had terrific results.
This one, I titled 'Incantation' was one of those. I really liked some of the patterns it created, but there was just something lacking. I ran it through the marbleizer and I really liked it as a circular design. tell me what you think? (personally I like it best on the dark tee shirts, but that's just me.)
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Lunch Time Fractal
I know that sometimes, I have trouble naming my designs. I know that many artists just call them by technical names like "JuliaN 17" but I like to give them all names. I don't really know why, but I do.
Sometimes, the design just makes me think of an object or it reminds me of a certain idea or has a feeling. Other times, it is, in all honest, totally random. that is where this design falls.
I was working and really all I could think about was going to get some lunch. I only eat out one day a week and this was the day so I was REALLY looking forward to getting some pizza. After a few setbacks, I was starving and so I names this design "Lunch" and set it to render in Apophysis while I was off eating.
X marks the Spot!
This fractal design is more than just a big X. It has lots of levels of complex patterns and colors. I really have to admit that this is one of the favorites I have made in a while.
Marbleizer script for Apophysis.
Here is a great scrip I came across that makes any of your designs or a random batch in to marbles, well with a bit of tweaking that is.
It suggest to make a random batch or to use some files you already have loaded and the just run the script. I found that using a random batch you kinda get hit or miss results, but overall it works really well.
Please feel free to post links to your images you make with this here.
This is one of the best results I got using it and some toying with just two triangles. I'm sure that much more complex designs are possible.
Can you say NEON?
Most of my designs, I have no plan at all when I start out. I just jump right into Apophysis and make a random batch and see what comes up interesting. Sometimes, I have to make a few batches before I get anything good, but sometimes I'll get a few good ones from a single batch.
This design, though, I decided to challenge myself. I wanted to plan a design and see how close I could come to making it. So I thought about it and I had another design made with a different program that almost appeared to be a neon sign because of the bold colors and high contrast. I decided I wanted to make a neon spiral with various shades of blue.
After some playing around, I just couldn't come up with exactly what I had envisioned, but this design certainly does fit the description.
