New Style - BANG

[MattSchultz]

A bit of a new style for me...less spiral, more texture. What do you think? Should I keep this style or try to get back to my old ways?

Bang

Larger versions can be found at my Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abstractapproach/2494383124/

//Matt

[cKleinhuis]

there is always development, but this image is nice because of it painters style
i think the best fractal art is when you think it is NOT fractal art at all ...
i think it is cool, but it looks somehow flat, perhaps some shadows would give it more depth 
and the jpg compression destroys the finer parts of the texture 

[MattSchultz]

I totally agree about the jpg compression, it really does blow. I highly suggest checking out the (much) higher resolution image at its Flickr page, where it is available at its original rendered size, 1600x1200 (makes a good desktop background), and with very light compression. On a side note - does your gallery allow PNG images? PNG is a much better compression technique, especially for fractal art. I will use it if I can get away with it.

I personally agree with your comment that Fractals are best as art when they are not obviously fractals. Most of my work leans in this direction. I do know that this is a really deep topic, however, and I know many people have very different opinions on it. This is the ancient 'Photoshoppers v. Mathematicians' debate, that hundreds have fought and died for, but nobody will ever solve.

Shadows are an interesting idea...hrm. This particular style tends to be very flat, almost like it was made as a collage sort of style, but shadows would help me fix that I bet...good suggestion, I'll try playing with that in my next few images.

[cKleinhuis]

hi there, yes the gallery supports png and nearly every image type useable with the gdlibrary, the file size is limited to 2 mb, and the image size is limited to 1280x1280 this is due to the server does not allow to work with such big images, it gets an internal server error, so i had to reduce the image size, but i have plenty of webspace ( ~ 4gb ) and plenty of traffic (~500gb) available   

[_db_]

Very nice work Matt!

this image is nice because of it painters style
i think the best fractal art is when you think it is NOT fractal art at all ...

Not sure I can agree with that. I think the best fractal art is an image which is good art regardless of whether the fractal source is obvious or not. I've seen some exceptional art which is obviously fractal.

[MattSchultz]

Actually that's also an excellent point, and perhaps even more true. I don't directly try to hide the fractal aspect of my work, though admittedly, I find the default Mandelbrot shape a tad unappealing (hey, I'll be honest), and I tend to lean towards stuff which is really heavy in texture. Perhaps my favorite artist of all time, Janet Parke, tends to make images which, while obviously fractals to the trained eye, resemble canvas paintings and are nothing like what most people think of as fractals. That being said, I also love the work of Kerry Mitchel, Scott Draves, and Jos Leys, all of whom produce work which is quite obviously fractal most of the time, and yet it is still absolutely amazing (and usually better than anything I produce).

So I guess thinking of it as trying to hide the fractal side of the image is incorrect, and I am better off treating it as simply an image which looks cool, regardless of what it is made of. This is closer to how I really think anyways. I couldn't care less what I'm doing which makes the art I make, nor do I truly care how it's classified. I started making fractal art simply because I thought it really looked neat (I started writing music for exactly the same reason), and my reasons have not changed.

[_db_]

I share your approach to just creating cool images regardless of its fractal-like appearance or not.

I too greatly admire Janet Parke's work. I'm currently taking a UF course with Janet, and am looking forward to her Fractal Artistry course next semester.

Some of my other favorite fractal artists are Mark Townsend and Etienne Saint-Amant.  Much of Janet's work and Mark's older work is obviously fractal while some of Etienne's doesn't look at all like it is. I think their work is good art, irrespective of it's fractal nature.

[MattSchultz]

I want to try taking Janet's course, but it says it's closed

[_db_]

I checked and except for the UF Artistry class, they're not offering UF classes during the summer. I guess Janet needs  bit of a break.  That's too bad, but they'll be available in September.

[MattSchultz]

I checked and except for the UF Artistry class, they're not offering UF classes during the summer. I guess Janet needs  bit of a break.  That's too bad, but they'll be available in September.

Most unfortunate. Oh well, can't wait till September then!