J Wildfire Fractals

After many years of working on my MacBook Pro I decided to upgrade. Don't laugh but my upgrade is to a 2013 iMac! Crazy! But not for me, I wanted a high spec old Mac with a NVIDIA graphics card especially for rendering my fractals. That is the only year they did NVIDIA and then fell out with the company.

To say I am totally addicted to the new version for Mac is an understatement. I have been so busy creating loads of lovely fractals and uploading them (in half the time) that I'm just going to show a few. I really should post as I do them but I just get so engrossed. I think I have recently done almost 100 and these are the ones that make it. I'm quite critical and if it's not a good render it doesn't go on.

I spend hours using this program and although not to everyone's taste I do these just for me and what I like. There is a freedom and escape in fractals that keeps me sane.

Did I mention they are also HUGE. Most are around 83" x 66"! Okay here's a couple of little ones and a cute one that won't make my list but I thought was quite sweet.

Green Fairy ©mforrester

White Moon ©mforrester

Ghostly Balloons :D

Creative Literature Video

The Conductor

I am really chuffed that Devon Mettlin of Art of the Abstract, has created an interpretation video of one of my abstract paintings. I really love it. He turns the painting around and gives a completely new reading from all angles. Love this! I really appreciate the time it takes to produce videos like these and can't thank him enough. It's so interesting to hear how other people read abstract art. I never would have dreamed of anything like this. Such creativity, energy and originality. Please subscribe to his You Tube channel if you like it too, and also his Facebook page Art of the Abstract.

Art of Abstract Video

Art of Abstract Video

Doodle Abstract Paintings

My starting Doodles

I've been developing my abstract style based on some of my doodles. I think I am going to be very busy as I have loads, this first image is a glimpse of where I start and the final 3 abstract paintings are where you can see the designs and how I used them. As you can see I add bits and take bits out as I develop my painting. I am really looking forward to painting some more. The artist that has most influenced my abstract work is Paul Klee.
 😊

Pictures Within
©MPF 

Phantom City
©MPF

The Conductor
©MPF

New Abstract Painting

Girl with Fish

Close up detail

I really love abstract art (that's probably why I like creating fractals) so I decided to take this a bit further with my acrylic paints. During my University days I had to create lots of backgrounds for my art so I tried frottage (which I still love), acrylic paint dragging, watercolours etc etc. but mark making, texture and acrylics has always been my thing. What I really love about abstracts is that I have no idea how they are going to turn out. I love this way of working and often see characters and forms appearing in my work. It's hard to decide what to keep and what should go. This is my first abstract piece as a painting in it's own right. It was totally freestyle and I had no idea where it was going until a landscape started to form so I just went with it and developed it further. Putting titles to my work is a challenge as everyone sees something different in abstract work, but I see a Girl on the right with a blue face and yellow dress carrying a huge mammal like fish on her shoulder, so there it is Girl with Fish. I have another 3 abstracts that are drying at the moment. I'll post pictures of those in another blog, they have lots of doodle elements in them.

Fractal Development in JWildfire for Mac

I've been busy creating lots of fractals and thought I would share the development of 2 final fractals. This isn't a tutorial but a blog to show my fractal development to 2 final works.

Starting a Spiral Fractal

I used a "Spiral" fractal in JWildfire. A typical example of how they look are shown here. I choose one that I like the look of from the thumbnails on the left and start to adjust and change the variations and nonlinear parameters (on the right). Then I start to adjust the triangles by moving them, adjusting the sizes, rotating and scaling until I start to get something I like. They are usually nothing like the starting thumbnail.

The second image is where I start to get something I can work with. I continue to change the settings, drag round the triangles, maybe add a new transformation triangle and generally explore lots of options. This is a very addictive program for me. I love the nature of fractals and how I never know what the outcome will be. I love working like this with no expectations.

The start of my fractals, lots more to do here.

The following screenshots are some of the designs that I progressed through. I save a lot and then rename and delete most of them later. When I'm working on them and get something I like I save it and refine it by changing colour and adjusting position etc. Then I push it further and see what else I can get.

Development Image 1 - starting to get something here.

Development Image 2 - I've changed the colour on this one.

Development Image 3 - I really like this one may work on this later.

Development Image 4 - Image pushed further. I like this also.

Development Image 5 - It's difficult to abandon this one so I continue working on it.

Development Image 6 - Yes!

Before rendering I explored some more colour options. Rendering really takes some time on my old Mac as you can see from this screenshot.

JWildfire Renderer for 1 image - approx 2 hours done and another 1.5 hours to go.

I usually take the final .png files and take them into Photoshop to do a quick adjust on colour if needed. This is how the final images look. Large prints and items are available to buy on Fine Art America and Red Bubble. Both ship to the UK.

Lemon Lime © mforrester

Dreamy Pink © mforrester