I love to take photos, but rarely have the time to go far and take any interesting ones. Not to mention, I don't have the greatest camera. Sometimes I find myself taking the same photographs over and over again. Lately, I have been in that same old creative rut.
So, I decided I'd look for a new photo technique. the last few that I have tried out didn't seem to have much of a response. So here is what I came up with. I hope everyone likes it as much as I liked making it.
Many of my designs are, in some form, symmetrical. Part of this is just a personal preference, but in part, it is also simply human nature.
When viewing art, or experiencing anything for that matter, many people find they are more drawn to balance. Balanced colors, balanced lighting, balanced shapes - some sort or harmony that draws us in. For me, I find that making a balanced image, in many cases, leads me to something symmetric. making an asymmetric design more balanced is more difficult, for some people, but usually leads to a more interesting artwork.
I do challenge myself to make asymmetric design and still keep the balance that makes a work or art pleasing. That being said, I still often find that some great designs are completely symmetric.
This one, for example, is almost perfectly repeated around the center. Although there are subtle distinctions between the sides, the general shapes, colors, and lighting is fairly identical. I called it "Bluebirds" because the shapes at the center resembled the head of a bluebird.
Lighting can make or break an image. Getting a good balance of lights and darks is a great task that can really set an image apart from the rest. Changing it, without any other changes, can totally remake the entire atmosphere. With fractals, this is also true.
You can see in this image, I have used the lighting to make the bottom more or the focus but the lines still bring your eye to the middle and up toward the center.
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.
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
My newest fractal design is titled dispute because of all the different ways it demonstrates contrast. It has smooth curves and straight lines. Light areas and dark. Positive and negative. I just think that is is an interesting image all around. Tell me what you think or any other contrasts about it you find?
Another set of cool, abstract business cards. I like these so much I may use them myself next time I order them. Unless I make something else I like better that is.
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.)
Although most often I do very little post editing on my designs other than contrast, brightness, and adding a background, sometimes, I come across one that really just wants more done to it.
Originally this design was rather boring and I was honestly not happy with the fact that I had used a couple hours of rendering that I could have made something better. I decided that I was not going to just waste it, though.
I repeated the design, shrinking each one proportionally smaller than the layer above it and also lightened each one as they shrink. On a light blue and white gradient background and they worked really well. I'm pretty glad I didn't just toss this one aside.
EDITED TO ADD: I just realized that this design had been selected as a Today's Best Award on Zazzle. Quite a shock since I had just had one a few days ago as well. Now I'm REALLY glad I didn't scrap this one.
