Second, I've been busy making a post for @lilyraabe's contest which involves, among other things, showing different elements of the artpiece. This made me realise that I always save my work as I go (important when working with fractals) which means that for many of my pieces, I'll be able to go back and screenshot some things to show the WIP (Work in Progress).
I hope you all enjoy! I'm not sure what the best would be in terms of ordering... For now, I've put the complete art at the top, poem/quote below it, and the WIP (Work-in-progress) below that. Let me know what you think, please =)
Sundala
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Gallery: Designs
Max. Print Size: 35" x 35"
“I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and I was a street kid. … There was one aspect of that environment that, for some reason, struck me as different, and that was the stars. … I could tell they were lights in the sky, but that wasn’t an explanation. I mean, what were they? Little electric bulbs on long black wires, so you couldn’t see what they were held up by? What were they? … My mother said to me, "Look, we’ve just got you a library card … get out a book and find the answer.” … It was in there. It was stunning. The answer was that the Sun was a star, and the stars were suns except very far away. … The dazzling idea of a universe vast beyond imagining swept over me. … I sensed awe."
-- Carl Sagan
The creation process:
Something important about my creative process is that I often do not start with an idea in mind and instead let the process show me the path... In this case, for example, I didn't have a Sun-type Mandala in mind when I started. All I knew is I wanted to do another mandala, so I first loaded up the very first parameters I started with to create "Raízul":
Next, I randomized a colour pallette and applied it. The greyscale is nice to clearly see physical shapes but colour can reveal patterns in the math within the shapes:
Then, I needed point symmetry to get a mandala. One formula is perfect for this, called "_PolyFold-sym" ... It allows you to choose how many symmetrical parts you want. I went with 5 to get started, and tweaked the colours:
The blue made me think of under the sea, and an idea for sea urchins or starfish came to mind... But decided against that because "Raízul" was already blue. Reverted back to previous colours:
And this was when the idea for a Sun-type mandala came to me. I thought of a bright blazing yellow/orange mandala... But I need more symmetrical points and they need to be pointed... Tweaked the parameters of all the formulae until this:
The shapes were perfect, now just the colouring... I liked how the light seemed to be shining from behind the shapes and thought of, instead of having a Sun, a sun-symbol, with intense light burning from behind it, would be better. I messed with the colours of the fractal and the position of a light source...:
Almost perfect! ... But I knew I wanted a black background, imitating the blackness of space. A bit more tweaking and I finally got something almost perfect:
A few more tweaks to make it more "intense", and a quick trip into Photoshop for some final touches and it was done!
I hope you enjoyed this little journey into my creative process. I'll be doing this more from now on =)
Thank you for your upvote 💖
I appreciate it more than can be expressed in one line at the end of a post.
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A few recent posts of mine:
I Write, Therefore I Am - Mentorship Entry #1 | "Darklight" - Gallery: Designs | "The Woman Who Moved" - Collaborative Story
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If you'd like to support me further, or follow me elsewhere, I'm on these social media:
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