An Accidental Artist

Three Weeks Worth of Fractals

2009-02-12T14:12:00.000-08:00

Time sure flies when you're having fun!
I finished up my final fractals for class today and want to share them here, as well as the ones from the previous two weeks.
Since there are so many of them, I have them at a smaller size on this page. But you can click on them to get a better look.

This first batch is from Week 4, where we were introduced to the Rose Range Lite coloring formula. As you can see, it produces fine filaments.

In Week 5, we played with another coloring formula, Orbit Traps. All I can say is "Wow!" So many functions! You can spend the rest of your life playing with this formula and never exhaust the possibilities!

And lastly, in Week 6, we played with layering and the various merge modes which blend things together.

Now I have a couple weeks before the next session begins. We will be studying masking, which will bring my fractals to a new level of artistry. Looking forward to that!

Thanks for stopping by!

More Work For The Fractals Class

2009-01-21T11:22:00.001-08:00

Last week, part of the assignment was to decide upon prototypes from the Mandelbrot and Julia sets on which to base our work for the remainder of the class.
I chose these.

This week was pure play, experimenting with the Smooth (Mandelbrot) and Gaussian Integer coloring formulas on our prototypes.
Below are the ones I turned in for class.
The Mandelbrot fractals are like fire and ice and the two from the Julia set have an oriental feel. I think the latter would make great designs for fabric.

After my class work was all finished and posted, I did some deep deep zooming in on my Mandelbrot prototype and discovered this little gem. It looks like a crocheted granny square.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you've enjoyed looking at my art as much as I've enjoyed making it!

More Exploration

2009-01-13T17:07:00.000-08:00

In Week 2 of my Ultra Fractal class, we continued exploring the Mandelbrot coastline, specifically the West Midget and the larger disks.
Each area features its own unique structure. I am entranced by the complexity and beauty of it all!

Each point on the Mandelbrot set has a corresponding point on the Julia set. (For a demonstration, click here)

After homework came play time, and I created this from a Julia set.

Thanks for stopping by!

Exploring the Coastline Looking for Midgets

2009-01-04T18:21:00.000-08:00

Lesson One for "Working with Ultra Fractal" was posted January 1st over at Visual Ats Acadamy. What a great way to start the New Year! This week we are exploring the Mandelbrot Set, zooming in deeply on certain areas, searching for mini Mandelbrots.
Now I have been dabbling in fractals for a year or so, but I have to tell you...I had no idea! We are talking about infinity here!
For our homework, we were to find two "midgets" in each of three areas...the Scepter Valley, the Seahorse Valley and the Elephant Valley. Doesn't that sound like the geography of a newly discovered planet?
Here are my findings.

And after, I had to play. :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Last for 2008

2008-12-30T18:03:00.000-08:00

Here's a sampling of what I've been up to.
Enjoy!
And a happy New Year to you!

"Moonlit Mountains"

"Buggy Abstract"

"Krazy Kwilt"

"Out of Africa"

Excited R Us

2008-11-15T12:39:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to take classes for Ultra Fracta l at Visual Arts Academ y for quite some time and this morning I finally got registered! Class doesn't start until January 2nd, so that leaves me plenty of time to work through the tutorials that came with the program.

Meanwhile, here are four images that had their start in Ultra Fractal and then taken to Painter where they were manipulated beyond recognition.

Thanks for stopping by!

Distorto

2008-10-20T17:19:00.000-07:00

A favorite brush for free play is Painter's Thin Distorto.
I like to splash some colors on a blank canvas or open an existing image, and then push the pixels around with the distortion brush. I don't have any expectations when I do this, but just play until the color and form begin to suggest something. Then my brush strokes become focused as I work to coax the image out.
Here are a few examples of my distorto paintings.

Mostly Autumn

2008-10-13T07:41:00.000-07:00

Fall is here which means I can paint with autumn colors to my heart's content!

In this piece I made a paper from a fractal and applied it to a painted background. The fractal was made with KPT FraxPlorer.

One of the neat things about Painter is that you can make your own custom brushes. You can make a "captured dab" out of just about anything you can think of! By adjusting the brush controls, you can make all your strokes the same in size and direction, or you can make your brush paint randomly.
The brush I used in this painting was captured from a drawing of a maple leaf.

In my last post, I said I wasn't into making photographs look like paintings. But I didn't say I never did it. ..
This was done from one of the photos supplied by Barb H for this week's Open Studio workshop at DAA.
The original was quite dark so I played with the color controls and lightened it up so much that all that was left was the bowl of grapes and its shadow. I did a quick clone and with a large brush, applied the colors. On top of that, I placed a copy of the source image, to which I had applied the Find Edges filter in Photoshop. I set the layer to gel, dropped it and then added 3D brush strokes for texture.

Next time: Distorto Brush paintings

Welcome to the blog of an accidental artist.

2008-10-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

I call myself that because I have had no formal training in art whatsoever.
And I didn't one day decide to create digital art. I just wanted to design a label for a special quilt I was making.
But that led me to replace my ancient Jasc Paint Shop Pro 5, bought to fix and organize my scanned photos, with Corel Paint Shop Pro X.
And with that software came an offer to try Corel Painter Essential 3, to make my photos look like paintings.
That was 2 years ago.

Now I use a Wacom Intuos 3 tablet and Corel Painter X. Sometimes a piece is taken to PSP or Adobe Photoshop for additional work, or various 3rd party filters are applied. (I am such a software junkie! LOL)

Much of my art is accidental, too. It comes about as I play and ask myself "what if...."
I never did get into making my photographs look like paintings, nor do I often try to paint anything even remotely realistic. Instead I experiment with color and texture and shape. I do with digital paint what I would do with fabric if I had the discipline.

But is it really art?
Sometimes I wonder, but I'm having too much fun to care!