My Slothicorn Introduction! - My History with Art...

Yep, that's me with my very first artpiece (made with fractals) in hand, with The Tardis Rose in the background.

I often start these sort of intro posts with something like "I've always had a creative streak" but actually, thinking back, I didn't really start doing anything creative until the last few years of high school. I remember the very afternoon that I picked up a pencil and started drawing.

I had a vision in my mind of four semi-archways, with a beam of energy shooting up through the space where they were almost touching in the center. The drawing ended up being so much less impressive on paper than what it looked like in my mind...

Actually... Let me see if I can find it... I found it! Safe and sound in my trusty, dusty, old folder. I took a photo of it, and four others. The two fairies at the bottom were copied from a book. (How I wish I could draw like that straight from my mind!).

 
I slowly drew less and less though, and started writing a whole lot more. I kept a journal, and wrote poetry, some of which I have already shared here on Steemit. Yesterday's post was on of them, if you're curious.

And something that has been a theme throughout my life is the love of science. So when I first saw fractal art online in 2011, I was hooked. Creating art with mathematical formulae?? Yes, please! ... So that was when it all began. I got really into it and I even started an online tutorial about fractals and one of the programs I use, Mandelbulb 3D.

At first, I felt really lost... MB3D can be intimidating at first... There are sooo many little sliders and buttons. Dozens of formulae to choose from. And often, combining them results in nothing but a big mess. It takes a lot of trial and error, and a lot of time, with some renders taking 12+ hours. And even when I got the hang of it, the things I made were sub-par... Here are two examples, the first of which even has a cool backstory to it:

_{The year is 3553 ... Earth still spins, orbiting the same old sun. Its atmosphere is no longer breathable, having been irreparably damaged in the 31st century. The last surface trees died out over two centuries ago and exist now only as the highly prized objects of a hobby only the Elite are able to practise. The green you see is a bio-synthetic, methane-to-oxygen converting plant grown by EarthCore, the global government organisation. They are the self-appointed caretakers of what is left of the rock in space human beings call home. The dark blue you see are water ducts, reaching the surface in order to keep the constantly flowing water cool. Energy has never been more abundant since we tapped into the earth's deepest geothermal depths.}

_{The windows exist only because the vast intercity network developed early in the 24th century, covering the earth's entire landmass in just under 2 centuries. From there, we had only one way to go: down. Before, the richest of the rich claimed surface level residences for the amazing "skyviews" caused by an already changing (though still breathable) atmosphere. Huge hivehomes were built in allocated areas below ground for the poor masses.}

_{Now though, those same masses exist only at the surface, when the atmosphere became poison, the air icy cold, the sky a constant, ominous red-black. The rich dug down, and continue to build lavish underground oasis's while the rest squabble over places to live that have as little atmosphere leaking into them as possible.}

And then one day, I made Sound Garden:

The bar had been raised! I was both encouraged and disheartened at the same time. Encouraged because look what I had made! Surely I could make something as awesome again! ... But disheartened because suddenly everything I tried looked terrible! Hehehe... We are all our own worst critics, as they say.

And so it went... Each time I made anything "worthy", I put it on my site. Each time I didn't, I just saved the parameter file for later. I have many, many more unfinished savefiles sitting around than completed art, but they are often a source of new inspiration when I go through them every now and then after having learnt more.

My experience on Steemit so far has been very positive. I've met some awesome people, joined a few communities, and am actually having trouble trying to keep up with it all! I also had one of my posts curated by one of the OCD curators, and another post upvoted by @curie ... That put a smile on my face, for sure =)

I think I'll stop here... There's always more to tell but I don't want to make this post discouragingly long to read ;P ... If you're interested, please do check out my website mandelsage.com, and if you're feeling especially inspired, consider supporting me on Patreon. I still have 0 patrons there (I'm terrible at self-marketing, hehe) so to have just one would feel so good... =)

Thanks for reading! o/