Let There Be More Light

My second digital painting! I decided to try to do a black & white one, and I think it went reasonably well.. I'm happier with the hair and the shadin in this one. I got lazy with the background though and just slapped some paint on it. The title is from a random Pink Floyd song :)

I spent about 3-4 days on this one, and it was done in Photoshop with pen and tablet.

I used this picture by Glodis2-stockphotos as a reference.

I made a walkthrough for this one as well. Click for a bigger version and enjoy!

First painting: Violet

Phew, my first digital painting is finished! I'm reasonably happy with it, but there are plenty of things that could be improved. I definitely need to practise a lot on painting hair, because this looks awful! 
I painted this one in Photoshop with pen and tablet, and I spent about 5 days on it, painting 2-3 hours every day.
I used this beautiful picture by Dagwanoenyent-Stock as a reference.

I also made a walkthrough, if anyone should be interested in looking at the progress of the painting. Click it for a bigger version! :)

Gnarly Potpurri

More KPK Moebius fractals! This time with Naru's Gnarly Potpurri from tma.ucl, because gnarls are so much fun to make! I used Hopalong, Gnarl and Driftwood.
Both fractals are really simple, only 5 and 4 layers, and each took less than an hour to make. I should probably try to make something worthy of  posting on DeviantArt and RedBubble soon, but I don't have the patience and inspiration for it at the moment. 

I like this one the most, even though I'm not particularly fond of pink. I think it's mainly because I'm craving candy right now, and this one looks so sweet and sugary! =P

This one just makes me think of confetti and celebrations..

Moebius fun

I simply love the KPK Moebius' Julia Barnsley formula! Well, actually I love all the KPK formulas, but this one is especially fun to play around with. This fractal has 5 layers and the colouring algorithm I used was Thingamajigs II. For once I stayed away from the Cellular Automata's, and instead used a texture from Thingamajigs. I like the textures I get with Cellular Automata, but it gets a bit boring if I use it in every fractal I make. =D
I'm not sure about the colours yet and I might change them later, but right now I like it :)

Playing The Piano At Night

Ultra Fractal and KPK Treebarney formula.. I posted this one last week, but I've changed the colours and cropping a tiny bit. I'm much more happy with this version of it =D

Back in Scotland

I'm back in Scotland again.. The spring semester at Stirling Uni doesn't start until February 14th, but I had things to do here so I had to go now. My boyfriend, Aki, arrives here tomorrow, and we're gonna snuggle, kiss and practice Norwegian and Finnish. He is trying to teach me Finnish and I'm trying to teach him Norwegian. He already knows Swedish and understands a lot of Norwegian so it's really easy for him, but I'm having a hard time with the Finnish. It's really tricky! =D 
We're also gonna try to find a job for Aki since he's not studying at the moment, and I have already started writing applications for summer jobs in Norway.. I really need a job this summer, and Aki does too, so I figured I would start early. We're hoping for jobs at nursing homes and stuff like that =D
I haven't felt particularly artsy lately, I've barely touched the tablet and I haven't even bothered opening Ultra Fractal. I suppose it's partly because I'm homesick and partly because I'm missing Aki. I haven't seen him for weeks, because he's been in Finland. Oh well, he's coming here tomorrow so it'll be better then ^^ 

Treebarney

Two fractals I made with KPK Treebarny formula. It's a tricky formula, but still a lot of fun to play around with =D

Gnarly!

After admiring BeesKnees67's beautiful fractal abstracts on DeviantArt last night, I felt like making something brownish and abstract myself. The formula I used was Very Advanced Gnarl and the colouring algorithms are too many to mention! ;) 
This fractal has 12 layers and it took ages before I was happy with it. I like it a lot and I think it's a bit different from what I normally do. We'll see if I post it on DeviantArt or not, I haven't decided yet.

G R E E N

And here's yet another fractal that didn't go anywhere, although I didn't intend to make a DeviantArt-worthy fractal when I opened Ultra Fractal today. I just wanted to make something with a formula I hadn't tried before. 
The fractal has 4 layers and the formula I used is KPK Don Quixley (I love the KPK formulas!).The colouring althorithms used are Trapestry-x, Thingamajigs II, Harlequin II and Cellular Automata 3. Enjoy!

Purple Barnsky

Here's something I made for fun just a while ago. It's another simple fractal, nothing special, and it took me less than an hour to make it. It has 6 layers and the formulas I used were KPK SKCD Barnsky and Julia. The colouring algoritmhs are Trapestry-x, Paul Carlson's Orbit Traps, Rose Range Lite, Function Angle and Cellular Automata 4.

Pretty blue

I have no idea what to call this one and I'm too lazy to come up with a title. It's just a quickee fractal anyway, I'm not going to post it on DeviantART or anything. I started this fractal earlier today, and I worked on it on and off for about 3-4 of hours. Ultra Fractal, 5 layers and KPK Moon 1 formula. I used Kampyle Of Eudoxus colouring algorithm on two of the layers and Trapestry-x on the rest.

 

Fascination Street

The first fractal of 2011 is rendered, yay! It didn't take me that long to make either, only a bit more than an hour I think. I had to look through Winamp to find a suitable title for it and I chose "Fascination Street", which is a The Cure song. I think it kinda fits ^^
The formula is KPK Moebius' Julia Barnsley and it only has four layers.

  
In other news, I'm finally starting to feel better. My throat is still a bit sore and I have some trouble talking, but at least it doesn't hurt anymore. I'm just glad I'm well enough to fractal again =D

2010 In Fractals

Here's my year in fractals.. Happy New Year! :)


January: Waking Hour

February: Aurora's Garden 

March: Drifting Memories

April: Nocturnal Hymn 

May: Memories

June: Dark Reflections

July: Raspberry Swirl

August: Oriental Sunset

September: Season Of Rust

October: Apparition Of Sorrow

November: Fractured Imagination

December: S C O R C H E D

Fractured Imagination

Somehow I've managed to catch a cold, and I don't like it. My throat and ears hurt and my head feels like my brain has been replaced with needles and cotton. Needless to say, I don't feel particularly artsy and creative. I opened Ultra Fractal 3-4 hours ago and tried to make a gnarl, but I didn't even manage to change the gradient before my brain decided it was time to take a break. Break of course means spending hours eating chocolate and watching shows about cats on Animal Planet. 

But even though I haven't been able to make any fractals today, I've still managed to do some stuff related to art. Despite not feeling well, I went to the city centre and bought a kneaded eraser, and last night I bought a really cheap graphics tablet online (it was on sale). I don't feel like buying a really fancy and expensive tablet yet, I want to wait a while and see if I enjoy digital painting as much as I used to first. I can't wait until it arrives though, I'm really excited and looking forward to trying it out. =D

Fractured Imagination

Inside Mandelbrot's Mind

Here's a post about two older fractals I made for Benoît Mandelbrot :)

As some of you might know, Benoît Mandelbrot died October 14th 2010 at the age of 85.
From Wikipedia: "Benoit B. Mandelbrot(20 November 1924 – 14 October 2010) was a Franco-American mathematician. Born in Poland, he moved to France with his family when he was a child. Mandelbrot spent much of his life living and working in the United States, acquiring dual French and American citizenship.

Mandelbrot worked on a wide range of mathematical problems, including mathematical physics and quantitative finance, but is best known as the father of fractal geometry. He coined the term fractal and described the Mandelbrot set. Mandelbrot extensively popularized his work, writing books and giving lectures aimed at the general public."

So, like many other fractal artists, I decided to make a fractal in memory of Benoît. The first fractal I made was "Apparition Of Sorrow", which was made in Ultra Fractal using the mandelbrot formula. The mandelbrot-shape itself was not visible in this one because I tweaked the formula a lot, but it was still a mandelbrot fractal. This one was quite popular on DeviantART and I'm pretty happy with it myself :)

A little while after I and many others had posted our tributes to Benoît Mandelbrot, the gallery director of the Fractal Gallery decided to arrange a Mandelbrot tribute contest. The contest required that the Mandelbrot-shape was clearly visible in the fractal, and after weeks of dabbling and tweaking in UF, I finally came up with this: "Inside Mandelbrot's Mind"

Although I didn't win anything, I'm still really happy about this one. All three images are from the same fractal and I put them together in Photoshop. At the time I was obsessed with triptychs and diptychs, so of course it was impossible for me to submit anything else for that contest =D

Any Colour You Like

This is my most recent fractal, "Any Colour You Like", made on December 25th. I'm not entirely happy with it, but I do like that it's not my usual style. I also like the colours and textures. I've had so much fun with the Cellular Automata colouring algorithms in mjw.ucl, they are really awesome as textures.
My boyfriend also helped me out a lot with this one, telling me his opinions about the colours and flowers etc. All in all it's a decent fractal and I kind of like it :)

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My New Year's Resolutions

It has been a while since last time I posted, but I just haven't felt like blogging lately. However, now I'm going to try to change my habit of being inactive and lazy, and try to post at least once a week, even if I haven't been able to make any good fractals. I'll just have to show you the crappy ones, which really won't be a problem because most of the fractals I make look terrible. For every good fractal I post online, there are at least 20 failed, disfigured monster-fractals lurking in my Render-folder, ruining my confidence and making me cringe everytime I look at them. They're evil I tell you! >=(

Also, in addition to becoming a better blogger, I want to learn how to use Blender (a free 3D-program). I've always wanted to learn how to make 3D-art, and I have finally decided to do something about it. Well, actually I have decided to do so a few times before, without much success. I downloaded Blender more than 6 months ago, but I just read a few tutorials, opened the program a couple of times, failed miserably at understanding it and kind of gave up. I kept telling myself: "I'm too tired and my brain is just not functioning properly today, I'll give it a try tomorrow instead", which of course lead to me never doing anything. Well, now it's all going to change and I'm gonna learn Blender. I've spent the last few days reading the Blender Wiki and admiring the gallery on the homepage, and I think I'll soon be ready to start creating 3D stuff myself. Oh joy!

And I'm finally going to buy a new drawing tablet for my computer. I used to have one years ago and I had a lot of fun making digital paintings and drawing with Photoshop, but it broke after a while and I didn't feel like buying a new one. However, now I feel like painting again and if everything goes as planned, I'll buy a tablet tomorrow. I also want to buy a kneaded eraser so I can start doing pencil drawings again, because I haven't drawn for a very long time and I miss it. I've always enjoyed drawing, but the last few years I just haven't found time or inspiration to do anything. But since my boyfriend is away for two weeks now and the next semester doesn't start until February, I think I'll have plenty of time to draw and be artsy. My boyfriend actually asks me quite often why I have stopped drawing, and I'm never really able to come up with any other excuses other than me being too lazy and uninspired to lift up the pencil =D

So, my New Year's resolutions for 2011 are:
1. Blog more often, at least once a week
2. Learn to use Blender and make (awesome) 3D art
3. Buy a tablet and start painting with Photoshop again
4. Do more pencil drawings

This and that

I have a few unpublished and rather unsuccessful pieces I've created during the last few days. I'm kind of happy with them, and at the same time they're just not good enough =p

Something green

Been playing around with this one all day, and at last I've got a result I'm reasonably pleased with. I like that it's green and swirly, and I got to use the lake effect! Yay! I love that effect, it looks nice in most fractals, but I try to not use it too often. Couldn't help myself this time though, I had to cover up the lower part of the first layer, because it looked too messy. 

I'm still not sure if I will post this one on DeviantArt or RedBubble yet, but we'll see. I used BarnsleyTechno formula and Sech Trap and Wavy Circle Trap colouring algorithms.