One Hundred Days art project- days 16-20

For the #roundrock100 Art Project, I am creating fractal art each day with JWildfire software. 

Day 16- June 17- Tile Column- Each time I open the JWF software, it loads a couple of random flames for inspiration. One of these looks like a ball floating on a grid. I tried to understand how it is made by deconstructing it. I’m still trying to get the hang of it. Today, I made Tile Column, but I still can’t duplicate the floating ball.

  

Day 17- June 18- Shark Flower- I started from a random flame that used synth. Synth has a lot of variables to adjust. This composition appealed to my sense of humor. It looked like a mutant flower with fins sticking out of it, like a cartoon of someone baking cookies for cats using fish pieces.

  

Day 18- June 19- Exploring with post_displacemap. This uses one picture as a texture on top of the first picture. I also tried color map, which uses one image as the coloring for the first one.

Day 19- June 20- I did more experiments with displacemap. I made a random flower, and then used a flower picture as a texture on top. It reminded me of flowered wallpaper. Then I tried taking a flower, and stretching it into a straight line with log.

Day 20- June 21- I started with random flowers again, and modified them. First, I got one to look like a spiral. Then I changed it all the way to a sunflower. 

Don T. posted a fractal as inspiration, for other people to use as a starting point. My mom made a variation of it, and hers looks like recycled circuit boards. Mine looks misty, like light shining through crystal.

One Hundred Days art project- days 11-15

For the #roundrock100 art project, I am creating fractal art each day. These are all created with JWildfire software. I have included modified thumbnails of other artists' pictures from the JWildfire Facebook group because they are part of the story, but the originals may not be used for any reason without their permission. 

Day 11- June 12- Rhodonea Tiles- The Fractal Fun Challenge group on Facebook had a challenge to use new variations in JWildfire 2.5. I used rhodonea, which looks like a wreath of circles (kind of like a spirograph). I tried combining it with several things, including bubbles, diamond, and cylinder, and got some interesting results. They remind me of wallpaper.

Day 12- June 13 Today, I started a 3-day project with some other members of the JWF Facebook group, called a “Pong”. One person makes a design, and then the artists ping-pong it back and forth, making modifications. In one series, Eric K. started with a flame called “Flower Shells”, I responded with “Sunflower”. Then he answered with “Eyeball” and I added “Lizard Print”, and he ended the series with Electrofan.

Day 13- June 14- More “Pong” fun. I did back and forth creations with Eric K., Brad S., Don T., Robert K., Isabelle D., and MM. I created Cherries and Purple Star as part of one series. Quench and Tiger Lily are from two different series.

Day 14- June 15- One last day of “Pong” fun. Today, my Mom joined the event, and encouraged the start of a few new series. I started with Lavender Ivy, she answered with J-LeafStar, and then I finished with Indian Blanket. She started with 4J Ducks in a Squabble, and I followed with Fish.

 

Day 15- June 16- WXYZ Challenge for the Fractal Fun Challenge group. The challenge for today was to use any of the new w,x,y, or z variations. I made a 5-pointed shape with contrasting patterns, XY Starfish. I made Gateway with 3 layers combined to fill in certain areas. After that, I explored with some interesting shapes to create an infinity design. I tried it with a white background, but I like the standard black background better.

One Hundred Days art project- days 6-10

Here are more of my creations for the Round Rock One Hundred Days art project. These are all created with JWildfire fractal software.

Day 6- June 7- FlowerFace- I started with two crossed cylinders, and then added several julias. It was symmetric but reminded me of a face. I tweaked it until it looked even  more like a face with a crown of flowers. I might go back and work on the one without the face some other day because I like the branchy look it started with.

 

Day 7- June 8- Yellow Starfish and Blue Dolphins- I started with sinusoidal which makes a crisp-edged square, then julia’d it into a circle. I finished it with glynnsim3 which makes a smaller copy to fill in the center.

Day 8- June 9- Fiesta Moth and Orange Splotch- Today I tried to fix the fiesta that I started yesterday. It turned into a moth, and then the moth turned into an orange splotch. The orange splotch was too bright, so I added a dark blue background.

Day 9- June 10- Purple Wavewheel- After seeing a random that started with waves, I decided to make something that used waves, too. It took a few tries to get the scale right. I used 2 sets of waves, then julia’d it into a circle. I adjusted the colors so that it looked like shadows. I used Glynnsim3 to fill in the center, and then found that I could make it asymmetric. That might be a good way to create eyes. I used log to make it straight again, and then added that as a second layer.

Day 10- June 11- Dragonpath- I tried combining Julia and Log. After going through at least 20 different versions, I finally got a combination that I like. G. said some of the earlier versions reminded him of a lawnmower blade.  I love how the details look when you zoom in. It reminds me of a fancy knitted sweater.

One Hundred Days art project Day 1-5

This summer, the Round Rock Area Arts Council created The Round Rock 100 Project. Participants are asked to create art or do another project for 100 days, and then submit the results for an exhibition. I have chosen to make 100 fractal paintings.  

My mom has been making fractal art for many years. I would see her beautiful pictures on Facebook but I thought it was too difficult to try. Then I visited my mom. We would stay up past midnight talking while she made fractals on the computer using a program called Jwildfire. I tried it, and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I joined a group on Facebook to share my pictures, and now I'm addicted!

The Round Rock 100 Project was supposed to start on June 8th, but the arts council changed it so that everyone wouldn't have to start on exactly the same day. I started on June 2, and here is my journal and creations from the first 5 days.

June 2- I finished one fractal I started yesterday, and then made another one. I kept adding more layers and changing the angles. The second one looks like hearts and arrows, so I called it HeartWheel (reminds me of cartwheel). They both use several layers and have a lot of pink colors. I posted them to Facebook as a set titled “Something different for today....”.

June 3- Oh no! I have already missed a day of saving pictures. I spent most of the day away from the computer, cleaning out my Mother-in-Law’s apartment. We found her photo printer, and G. says he will try to print out a fractal if it works. I am trying to figure out how to print out all the photos at the end of the one hundred days, so that will count as today’s part of the project. 

June 4- I started from a batch of random fractals and then tweaked them. They are both groups of bubbles, stretched with zcone to make them look 3D. The first one is viewed at 41 degrees and then has a bokeh blur effect. It reminds me of what it looks like when you drop food coloring into water, so I named it DyeDrops. The second one is viewed at 25 degrees, and stretching with zcone made the outer bubbles look pointed. It looks exactly like a sunflower. 

At the end of the day, G. decided he wanted to try out the photo printer. After about 20 paper jams, we finally got a postcard-sized copy of Sunflower to print. He also made his own version in blues and printed that. He stayed up until midnight working on it. Finally, he put them in an envelope to give to two of his teachers on the last day of school. The photo printer added a date and picture number, so we’ll have to find a way to add a signature instead. The photo quality seems good, not grainy at all like the black and white laser printer, so maybe a place that does digital photo printing would be a good choice to print things at the end of the hundred days.

 

 June 5- Echoes- Today, I tried making a few more variations of the sunflower design, but I wasn’t happy with any of them. Then I tried making an elaborate pattern with a crackled effect, but I didn’t like that either. Finally, I mixed some cylinders with a rainbow bubble effect. With the white background, it would probably print well.

June 6- JuliaScene #9- More experiments with rainbow bubbles, julia’d into a circle. I saved a few, but noticed later that the edges were cut off G. took one and adapted it to be a picture frame to add to his selfie to give to Grandma. The printer said it was an unrecognized jpeg, so he couldn’t print it. Late at night, I started a new series, mixing sphere and Julia with interesting patterns and purple colors.