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.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Rainbow Swirly
So I've been going through my computer and adding some of my old designs that I had passed up to my store on Zazzle. This colorful one is a small section of the classic Mandelbrot fractal. some very careful coloration has been added to make it have a dual color pattern.
This is the design on the new iPod case from Zazzle. Now until the end of the month, you can get 25% off your first iPod custom case ordered by using promo code ZAZZLEIPODME at check out.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Pandora's Box Fractal
Zazzle just introduced a new item! the Speck® Case for the iPod Touch is now available for customization. As an introductory special, they are giving 25% off your first one when you order before July 31, 2011. Just use Promo Code ZAZZLEIPODME on checkout. Here is my latest design featured on the new iPod Touch cases. I'm working on getting my other design on there as well, but I have lots to catch up on.
Familiar Fractal Design
I can't really put my finger on it, but this one appealed to me for some reason.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Designing for appearal.
Plenty of people find fractal interesting, but really don't have much use for them. Most people really don't buy art to put up in their houses and when they do, it usually is long term thing. although I do get some sales from my fractals, its usually smaller items like postcards. So I decided to try to make a fe designs that would look really good on shirts.
The problem with fractal artwork is that most of them go off in all directions forever and ever. Putting a design like this on a shirt leads to a very iron-on squared off look that I for one, am not a big fan of. There are some that I do like that are make this way, but they are just not as popular.
Trying to create a design that will not only be self-contained (meaning not going off in to infinity) and also look interesting was more challenging than I though. Here is what I came up with.
100 Designs in 100 Days - Day 5
Well this is actually yesterday's design. I'm just now getting all of the past few day's designs posted. I have several other obligations as well as computer issues that delayed me posting them, even though they were done.
This design actually started as a fractal design in one of my other Zazzle stores (check it out here). I thought it would make a great business card design in a few different colors. In fact, its likely going to be the next design I order for my own cards.
Lucky Randomness!
Usually, when you create a random batch in Apophysis, you have a good chance of having something that is decently usable, with some modification. Rarely do you ever get more than one (in my usual batch size of 20) And rarely do you get something that is great as is.
There are a few things you can do to increase your chances of something usable. First you can limit the number of triangle in the random batch. I usually start with 2 or 3. Its easier to get a good start if there are fewer variables to contend with. That's also why I usually only pick from 2-4 different variations for a random batch. I can always add more triangles and adjust variations, but a simpler starting point makes it easier to get a good idea of where to go with it.
Well the other day, I had THREE that were great and one that was just perfect as it was. I tried to add to it, but everything I did to it, just made it look more busy or less interesting or just plain weird.
Although I did do a bit of Photoshopping to add contrast and deepen the colors and adjust the view to align with the frame, the first one is exactly how it was when it was generated, even the color gradient. The others I did adjust a bit, but not too much.
Catching up on posts.
I have to admit, I have been a bit lazy when it comes to posting about my newest designs. SO the next couple posts will have a few designs to get caught up rather than each getting their own. (but I'm still dividing them up a bit so there is not just one HUGE post with all of them in it)
A little while ago, I posted a link to an Apophysis tutorial for creating split and bar fractals. (LINK) since then I have been playing with it a bit more and created a few more designs with it. Here they are! (I just realized they have very similar gradients...lol)
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)
