Flower's Pearl

When I make a flame like this, I start thinking I don't know nearly enough about the possible tricks and techniques of this art form to say I have anything resembling a 'style' yet. There are so many wildly divergent possibilities, and I've only scratched the surface. Maybe that's a good thing; if this stopped being a learning process, it wouldn't be as much fun.

When I re-rendered this piece in the 16:10 ratio, something surprising popped up: A line spiraling outwards from the center of the pearl. It's repeated elsewhere in the piece, although the distortions make it difficult to pick out. I have no idea where it came from, or why it doesn't show up in the only-slightly-smaller 5:4 render. It doesn't mar the piece any, but I'd very much like to know why it's there.

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Descending Hues

I like the range of colors in this flame. It has that nice deep purple that I love so much, and it has some pretty good green shades. There are enough shades mixed together to prevent making any one of them the focal point (although the purple tries to steal some attention, I think it's just dark enough to work).

This piece is one I did last Monday, and it's really meant for a widescreen format. Since I now have a widescreen monitor, I've been doing 16:9 aspect ratio flames instead of 5:4. I don't particularly care for the 5:4 version of this flame (such as seen at left), although I can't say exactly why. I know it's something to do with the change in composition. If anybody really wants me to I'd be willing to fiddle around with it to make the 5:4 version work. I suppose I'll need to figure it out eventually anyway if I ever want to get it printed.

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Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Green Tide

The color and texture of this flame are my favorite things about it. The green shades go all the way from almost-blue to almost-yellow (although there are really only three gradations present), counterbalanced by the slight purplish tint of the brighter areas. The elongated lines that make up the flame remind me of a photograph with an over-long exposure time; blurred and static, but still conveying motion.

I had a really hard time positioning this piece on the canvas. The dark green section on the right-hand side continues a lot farther than I'd have liked it too, and it started looking fuzzy and grainy, just as the smaller repeats of it do. I generally don't like to cut off just a small piece of a flame the way I've done here, but it turned out to be the best solution without altering the shape of the flame.

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Fern Mat

I really like the way the composition on this piece turned out. Most of the mass of the image is spread out, but the focus ends up being that blue and green section around the negative spiral parts. The colors also seem to introduce a little of that false-illumination effect that's shown up in a few other flames. I also think that the beige sort of color goes really nicely with the green and blue shades. Although maybe my saying that is redundant; obviously I liked it or I wouldn't have used it (Well, except for the times I've used colors I don't like and complained about. So scratch the redundancy comment.)

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Brushfire

This piece uses a larger range of colors than I usually like to work with, but I like the effect. I don't think the title would work if it were just the orange and red shades. With the greens and whites and grays in there, I can see this flame as a picture of fire running through foliage.

'Brushfire' was a really tricky piece to frame. There were a lot of undesirable elements, and the shape of the main repeats and the curvature of the piece made it difficult to cut them off without leaving straggling chunks of them on the canvas. Obviously I never entirely succeeded at that.

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Burrowfabric

I'm not entirely satisfied with this flame's title, but it was one of those days where I said "Okay, I've worked on this for long enough. I'm going to slap the first title that comes to mind on it and call that good." It's not really a bad title; I do like the mental image of fabric arranged into a series of strange tunnels and passageways like an M.C. Escher inspired tent. But I probably could have come up with something better if I'd taken the time.

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Turbo Snail

While at first glance the turbo snail appears to be your typical paradoxical creature, he has a secret. He doesn't travel any faster than your average snail, he just fails his eyes a lot so it looks like he's moving faster. Please don't tell anyone. He's terribly embarassed about it.

I really like the orange, green, and blue sections of the color palette in this piece, particularly the gradations you can see at the upper left. They're nice, middle of the range colors, but they're still attractive. I need to use colors like that more often.

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Brain Mold

Is this mold that grows on a brain, or mold that's shaped like a brain? You decide! If it's mold that grows on a brain, I hope it's not growing on yours. That would be gross. Although maybe it would work like mycorrhiza do for trees, allowing your brain to...leach extra thinking from your surroundings? It's obviously not a perfect analogy.

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The Confectionary's Art

Another recent piece, and one I consider to be among my best. It looked to me like chocolate with swirls of mint in it, carefully painted on some sort of candy. The color scheme is not remotely similar to anything I've tried before, but I really think it works well for this flame.

This is really the second version of this flame, but if I'd tried this alteration of the piece before I rendered it the first time the first version wouldn't exist. It's only one triangle different, but that difference adds a great deal of interest and texture. The original didn't have any of that nifty reducing spiral element to it at all. And that's just no fun.

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Anemone 2

It might be just a tad spiky for your average anemone, but I couldn't think of anything else that came in that color with that many tentacles. Are they tentacles because it's an anemone, or is it an anemone because they're tentacles? If it were a flower, I'd say they were petals. If it were a bacterium, I'd say they were cilia. So I guess it's the first one.

It's a little tough to pick out in the preview image, but the shape of this flame actually comes from a repeat with the 'waves' variation. It's just squished down so tightly that the oscillations overlap each other and appear solid. It causes some interesting striations and blurring.

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Executive Desktop Gadget (recolor)

By 'Executive Desktop Gadget' I mean the sort of thing that comes up when you search Amazon for "Newton's Cradle": Pointless, nifty little toys for people who don't have anything better to do than sit behind a desk and look important. I have a few of these on the desk in my room, and while they're fun, they tend to be dust catchers that don't get touched in months. I'm not certain what manner of gadget the flame at right represents, but I'd want one if I knew.

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Fish-mouse

This flame sort of reminded me of a fish, and at the same time put me in mind of a mouse or other small rodent. Hence, Fish-mouse. The fact that it's approximately chartreuse didn't enter into consideration. It's not a particularly eye-searing shade, for chartreuse. I actually quite like it, especially in combination with the more blue-ish green and the light pink or lavender 'fins.'

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Alchemical Mix

I'm about 98% certain that this is the same color palette I used for 'Pyrosquid.' It's kind of an interesting mix of hues...I think it says 'noxious chemicals' pretty well for this flame, though. That's kind of what I was going for. Looking at this flame today, it strikes me that this could be a hand that's been dipped in the aforementioned noxious chemicals. I wouldn't put it past some of those kooky old-time alchemists. They did all sorts of unsafe things with their work.

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Nets 2

The original 'Nets' was virtually the same as this piece, except it had one additional repeat thrown in. I didn't care for the way that looked, so I pulled it out and rendered the flame again. This is the result. Getting rid of the added repeat enhanced the 'speed lines' effect and made the texture a lot clearer. I do wonder if I shouldn't have tried to adjust the colors while I was at it, though. That little patch of purple is a little distracting.

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Swooshing Mists

While this flame is mostly just a 'look pretty' piece, I do think it looks something like what happens when you open a door into a room filled with smoke or fog from a machine. It's probably being lit by colored spotlights. Although it would be a neat trick if the vapor was actually that color.

This flame is an example of another distinct style produced by a specific variation ('Horseshoe' in this case). It likes to produce those swirly nodes like the one you see in the center there, with less tightly wrapped pieces as you get away from the center. 'Storm at the Terminator' is another good example of this variation. Where that piece uses the horseshoe variation almost exclusively, 'Swooshing Mists' has some distorted repeats that extend the initial shape into more complex forms.

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Alien Leaves

When I look at this piece, it looks like there's a line of plants in the background, which are reflected in a body of water, and then there's another little clump of plants in the foreground. Of course, that whole shape is fractally repeated in that spur up at the top, and it spirals down all the way into "invisibly small" territory. I don't know how you could interpret that in real world terms.

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Striking Mass

I'm pretty certain this is some kind of smiting. Maybe not the old-fashioned lightning-bolt style of smiting, but someone's definitely getting smote. I suppose if you rotated this piece about a hundred and twenty degrees clockwise it could also be a castle on a cloud. But the cloud part isn't balanced right for that to work very well.

I was very pleased with the two distinct sections of this flame. That dichotomy really adds interest. The colors worked out nicely to emphasize the separation as well.

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Algae Sediments

This flame is one of the few pieces that's mostly green that I've been satisfied with. I seem to have poor luck working with greens. But this piece turned out nicely. I especially like the lines that give it the lovely oily look. If I could have, I would have tried to even out the brightness of the piece a little, so that the edges weren't so faded. But, alas, there are some things that I have not yet figured out how to do. That's one fo them.

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Luminous Eyespot

With all the spine-like protrusions and swishy bits, this flame looked to me like a deep sea fish. Bioluminescent, only half seen, swirling away from your tiny and cramped submersible...

I freely admit to using strange colors for this flame, but I really like that phosphorescent blue-green in contrast to the muddy olive shade and the purple. On its own it would be obnoxious and glaring, but when it's set against duller colors it works quite well.

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Abstract 3-2-08

Abstract 8-10-07

The mix of textures in this piece just made my brain go 'What? No, does not compute. Sorry.' Even though I'm used to the way it looks now, it's still a little baffling. Of course, I think that's the best way for a flame to be. If you can't figure it out, you'll want to keep looking at it. Seems like a good thing to me.

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Abstract 3-2-08:

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Abstract 8-10-07:

Silicon Autotroph

If I didn't like using fancy science-type words so much this flame would probably be titled something like 'Glass Fern' or 'Stone Bush.' But I do, so it's titled 'Silicon Autotroph.' A slightly more generic term, to be sure, but also a less limiting one. Make of it what you will.

This piece is fairly straightforward, technically. It's got quite a few repeats involved, but most of them are the standard 'linear' type. They don't have any distortion except stretching and skewing. That's probably why this flame calls to mind a plant of some sort. It's closer to a 'pure' fractal, and plants are very fractal things.

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It should be fairly apparent which title goes with which piece here. This pair of flames was created as a pair, and in fact they only differ by one repeat and a slight adjustment in canvas placement. It's often startling to me how very slight alterations can cause such fundamental changes to a flame. That's part of why I enjoy this medium so much.

Alien Shrubbery

No, there's no Monty Python joke intended here, which I'm sure some of you will take as a great loss. Tough beans. I rather like the idea of decorative gardens on an alien planet, though. It's one that's used a lot in most soft sci-fi set in space, but that's because it's a cool idea. The sheer variety of plant species and breeds on Earth is staggering. Once you start multiplying that by two or ten or a hundred, and start adding in things like carnivorous carnations and ambulatory azaleas...Like I said, I like the concept.

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Dragon Egg

It takes a touch of imagination to imagine an egg shape in this flame, but I think the texture and color fit the title quite nicely. Besides, who says dragons have to have round eggs? I think misshapen, leathery, scale-covered sacks would be just the thing for a pyromaniac infant.

What's really interesting about this flame to me (besides the pretty-to-look-at part) is that it doesn'tuse any distorted repeats. It's all just flat, and all of the shapes you see are produced by rotated repeats, and maybe a little bit of stretching here and there. It makes for some interesting textures, and quite a bit of blurriness where the detail goes too fine for the computer to render it.

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Sails on the Dawn

The idea behind this flame's name was that these were the sails of ships just barely crossing the terminator from day to night, so that the sun only hit the sails. It veers a little more towards the 'artistic nonsense' side of things than I generally prefer to go, but I think the shape, composition, and color palette hold it together well enough for a nonsensical title to be insignificant.

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Pyrosquid, Pyrosquid (inset, rotated)

This is not a restful flame, any way you look at it. Unless of course you like stygian horrors in fun fruit colors. Or alien horrors, in fun fruit colors. Or possibly scientifically mutated horrors (in fun fruit colors!). Restful or not, it's one of my favorite pieces which I place in the 'whimsical' category. The inset version might fall outside of the whimsical category into the 'kind of creepy' category, but that bulging cephalopod cerebrum was ready for its close-up. And the textures there are just plain cool.

On the technical side of things, this was a moderately complicated flame. At the same time, though, it's readily divided into sections, which made it easy to work with. I can look at this flame and account for each piece that went into it, which is a very rare thing to be able to do (This is after looking at the parameters, by the way. I'm not doing this from memory).

Haunted Ocean

Between the slightly creepy color scheme and the thin protrusions that could be mistaken for masts or spars, I feel pretty good about the name for this piece. Haunted oceans have to have ghost ships, right? The stormy, heavy seas sort of look helps, I think.

I couldn't tell you how this flame is put together precisely right now, as I'm in the middle of a batch render. I'd rather not joggle its elbow by digging around for flame parameters. But just from looking at this I can tell you what a couple elements of this flame are. See where there are those very defined curved lines coming out of the orange part? The way those scale and twist indicates a plain repeat with down-scaling and some rotation on it. You can see this along the top edge of the flame as well, same thing (probably the same repeat, actually). There's also a foreshortened repeat of those lines coming off at a ninety degree angle to the first, but it's a little hard to see. The rest of the piece is probably foundation material, but it's hard to make distinctions as to which bit counts as what with these. Every piece influences every other piece, so it's mostly a matter of what came first when I was building the flame. It doesn't really matter overall.

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Tentatively Tenebrous Tendrils

Tenebrous: An adjective meaning dark and gloomy. So...I guess the tendrils are only a little bit sinister. They're not really sure if they should be looming, threatening, and being generally creepy. Give them a little time. I'm sure they'll be properly gloomy in a few days.

I really like the basic structure of this piece. It only has two real 'shaping' elements in it; they form that blueish section with the pink tinge that runs along the long axis of the flame. Everything else is just fractal repetion of those, and some color changing. I will admit to overusing my vocabulary in the title. But a chance to use alliteration, at least one type of rhyming (I don't have the formal education to tell you which one. Assonance or consonance, maybe both.), and an obscure word at the same time, and have it fit the piece? Too good an opportunity to pass up.

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Rainbow Sherbet

I may or may not have been craving ice cream when I made this fractal. I confess to being slightly baffled by this flame; I didn't think rainbow sherbet came in a soft-serve variety.

Something has been bothering me as I've been writing all these entries. There's no specific verb for making a fractal flame. If it was a pencil sketch, I could say that I drew it. If it was a blob of clay, I could say I sculpted it. But to my knowledge there's no word for the action of creating a fractal flame. I suppose I could coin one, but it would probably turn out to be ridiculous. What word would you use?

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Star Compactor

I'll admit that the title for this flame isn't very good without more explanation than should be necessary. But I really like to think of this flame as depicting stellar debris being swirled around and sucked into a black hole (or other gravity well, if you're feeling picky).

Looking back at the paramaters of this flame, I'm a little surprised that there are only three elements to it. Usually dense textures like those in this flame require more repeats to achieve. It does explain the fairly uniform color scheme, though. It's easier to make large portions of a flame the same color or make stripes and gradients when there are less repeats.

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Erinyes

Whoo, gratuitous mythology references! I can't say that this flame looks particuraly like an avenging spirit bent on punishing oathbreakers, but I'm not sure what does. I do like the impression of hands or claws speeding down on something, and I suppose that's what inspired the title.

The ray effect in this piece (the long thin lines going off to the top left and top of the canvas) isn't one I use very often. Typically if I'm looking to create an illusion of motion I'll use a fractal repeat that diminishes in size with each iteration, producing a trail that tapers as it moves away from the main body of the flame. I've done the opposite here, with the repeats getting larger as they move away from the main piece.

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Crystalline Beast

This isn't your ordinary looks-like-an-animal-only shiny crystalline beast. This is the kind that blends perfectly with rock faces and shambles out at you unexpectedly, screeching and vibrating hideously.

Okay, so the previous paragraph may be evidence of an overactive imagination. But something about this flame begs to be...de-abstracted. How you go about it and what you de-abstract (Sorry, english language! You know I don't really mean it.) it are up to you. I merely offer a suggestion.

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Multi-Socket Interface Port

I was going to post this one yesterday, because I hadn't done anything greenish or reddish in a while. But then I realized that it would look absolutely terrible with the picture on the right and the text on the left. So instead of doing the reasonable thing and using the image-on-the-left entry template a day early, I decided to wait a day. I like routines, I guess.

I like the appearance of depth and dimensionality in this flame. The negative space in the center really enhances the feeling that it's an object, not a texture. The clean lines and lack of stray elements keep the eye focused on trying to interpret the shape, which is really hard to do with all the fractal repeats trying to bounce your gaze all over the place. The notches around the negative space also try to steal attention. The color around them is a hair more vibrant than it is elsewhere in the piece.

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Feather Fan

I think this piece comes closer to the texture and shape of something real than anything else I've ever done. The fact that it looks good is really just an added bonus. The colors may need a little tweaking if I ever get it printed; that green is just a little hard to see.

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Thumbprint

Perhaps it's a little feathery looking for a thumbprint, but 'featherprint' just sounded wrong. The colors here are rather muted, but I think bright colors with blurry looking flames like this one (not all blurry flames, just this particular style) are a little jarring. The fact that these are some of my favorite shades has nothing whatsoever to do with my choice, of course. What would make you think that?

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Hot Spring Scum

If you've ever been to Yellowstone you'll know what I'm referencing here. I've never been there myself, I simply watch too much documentary television. Do a google image search of 'Yellowstone hot spring' and you'll see what I mean. It's cool stuff.

This flame has some very interesting fractal patterning going on. It happens to have been highlighted by the green color, which makes it one of the more noticeable features. But there is also a very pretty repeating pattern that starts in the middle of that blue are. It has smaller repeats going out to the edges of the piece, although most of them aren't as variably colored as the initial shape.

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Spiral Inversions

Far too many of my titles end up being half-hearted attempts to describe the flame. By the time I finish with a piece I'm usually ready to move on, so unless I've thought of a name while I'm working, I don't want to spend much time on naming it. I suppose that's one of the failure points in my 'process,' and I should change that. Old habits die hard, though.

Today's piece didn't really get the consideration it deserved come naming time, but I rather like the piece itself. It's a little difficult to make sense of at first, which makes me want to keep looking at it. That's usually a good sign for a flame.

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Leaf Tones

I actually got pretty green colors in this flame. Not very many, but some. Greens are incredibly difficult to make look good on computer monitors, for some reason. Something to do with the way the RGB color scheme works, I guess. Anyway, I was really pleased with the color palette for this flame. It's got a rather interesting texture, as well, but the color is mostly what I wanted to show off with this one.

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Primordial Pasta

Primordial soup had noodles in it, right? All those archaic bacteria had to be eating something. Unlike yesterday's flame, 'Primordial Pasta' does beat you over the head with its fractal elements. The whole thing is made up of those little bowtie-noodle shapes. It's really a nifty effect. I especially like the way they tendril out over on the right. Even though tendril isn't a verb.

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Flowering Crystals

Ten points to anybody who gets the literary reference. This piece has some fairly obvious fractal elements, but it doesn't beat you over the head with them. The sort of...'bubble' of faint bits that traces around the edges of the flame is rather interesting, and I like the way it smoothes out the the borders. Looking at it now I'm thinking that lime green and tan with aqua and purple might be a little bit of an unorthodox color choice. But fah! I defy orthodox color choices!

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Fog

One of my very earliest works, 'Fog' was done in early 2005. This is one of my few early flames that really suceeds at color, mostly because it doesn't have very much of it. The pale lavender and green shades counter each other nicely, and fit well with the texture and shape. I was quite lucky to get that particular premade gradient for this flame. Speaking of the texture and shape, I suppose they reminded me more of the wisps fo smoke you get when you blow out a candle and it smolders for a while than fog. But hey, I'd only done thirty flames at the time. Naming conventions hadn't yet become settled.

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Tangled Streams

So, this is a pretty cool looking flame. Nifty textures, interesting colors, and GREAT GATSBY THERE'S FACES IN THERE! (No, I don't know why I picked that particular exclamation. Why do you ask?) Really though, look at it. That largest black space in the middle? Mouth. Next black space up? Eye. Also another mouth. Fractal faces, cool huh? There are even nostrils in there. Really creepy looking ones, I must say. I had not intended for this to be creepy faces. But it is, so...Happy Halloween! And no, the title is not meant to be a Ghostbusters reference. Never even seen the movie.

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Stepping stones through grass

The title may be longwinded, but I still like it. This flame has several things going on at once: There's that negative-space circle that gets repeated, seven or so rotations of it (look at the petal things the lower left and count), and a spiral variation, probably on its own triangle. The spiral variation is the piece you see intruding onto the negative-circle. The colors on this piece add nicely to the complexity, shading from a sort of olive green to an orange. They're a bit understated, but I think that works for this one.

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Stellar Reef

This is a recolor that I spent maybe two minutes on. I still like it better than the original color scheme, which was pretty much the same one I used in 'Chinese Cloud' with a little bit of purple thrown in. It wasn't very attractive. I love the textures in this flame, and the new colors enhance them a lot. This is just about the only flame where I've achieved that billowy, fabric-like effect that you see over on the right. I should really see if I can duplicate that in an interesting way. All too often a technique that's interesting in one flame is ugly in another, or just doesn't work without so many elements identical to the original flame that it might as well be the same one.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Sand Garden

I figure that the monk who tends this particular sand garden has mastered some of the more unusual meditative principles, like how to control the very fabric of space and time. You know he'd use his newfound talent to make his sand garden the coolest one in the monastery. C'mon, wouldn't you? The widescreen version of this flame is matted. The edges that get chopped off were kind of ugly, so you don't get to look at them.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Dragon's Spine

Another recent work, and one that I'm quite pleased with. The patterning on this flame almost seems like zebra stripes or something similar. I'm always delighted when I get an effect that makes use of the 'negative' space in a piece. At the same time, though, this makes it a bit awkward to try and transfer the piece to a different color of background in the future.

Note that the widescreen version of this is matted; I wanted to keep the same aspect ratio on the actual flame this time.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Swooping Down

The first word that comes to mind when I look at this flame is 'frothy.' I think that's mostly the color scheme, although the feathery edges at the bottom aid the effect. I think the texture in the upper right portion of the flame is my favorite thing about it. The thin, bi-colored lines overlaid on the solid surface appeal to me. This flame is part two a three flame set. You can find #3 a little ways down the page. #1 wasn't quite as good as its younger siblings, so it doesn't come out in public much.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Motion Blur

With this flame, the first word that comes to mind is more of an onomatopoeia. "Whap" or possibly "Swish!" The exclamation point is crucial, though. It is interesting to note that both this flame and 'Swooping Down' use a signifcant amount of black or near black coloring. Since they're on a black background, those portions of the image effectively disappear. I usually don't use black when I'm coloring a flame, but in this case I think it turned out well.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Helix

I love the way this flame goes in so many different directions at once. It ends up with a sort of balance, where it's not moving noticeably in any one direction, but it still has a sense of motion to it. The colors are a little muddy, but the overall palette is good. I can't really say that it reminds me of any sort of real life object...maybe a really messed up backbone. But this is mostly a pure abstract piece.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Feathery Crest

This is not the original color for this flame, but I much prefer it to the magenta shade it was to begin with. The shape and texture on this make it one of my favorites, but the color scheme was just wrong. The green is a big improvement. This piece is interesting in that you can see both the fractal nature of the medium and some of the distortions that make it interesting.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Fairymoth

The concentric circles visible in this flame are not entirely intentional, but they do make for an interesting effect. In combination with the brigh central patch it give the piece a kind of firefly-glow.The title is optional on this one; I think it's a good title, but I suspect you could come up with something as interesting just looking at the flame for a little while.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Amber

This piece is slightly more abstract than usual, in some ways. It makes use of the hyperbolic variation, which kind of looks like a diamond with the points stretched out and the sides left in the same place. (Or a set of four hyperbolic arcs arranged around a central point, which is what it really is) Because it has a tendency to stretch the flame off screen, I typically only use it for full canvas pieces like this one.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Orthogonal Cloudscape

This flame is a recent one, from the end of last month. I was really happy with it; I think it ended up staying as my desktop background for at least a week. The tesselated square pattern is very fun, even if it's not a true tesselation. What I really liked, though, ws the patterning inside the square pieces. Add in the colors and the impression of 'lighting' that the shape of this flame creates, and it's pretty high up on my list of favorite pieces.

Note: The widescreen version of this piece is matted. It just didn't fit in the wider aspect ratio correctly.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Snail

You can't see his shell, so I suppose it's possible he's a slug instead. There are several different ways to look at it. This is not at all a 'serious' piece. But I thought the shape was quite amusing, so here you go.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Nuclear Rainclouds or Atomic Ocean

So interesting that I had to give it two names. Well, not really. The way it's oriented right now, it's 'Nuclear Rainclouds.' If it was rotated 180 degrees it would be 'Atomic Ocean.' Anyway, this flame is another of those with lots of densely packed repeats. I'm fairly certain I've used this color set in some other flames as well, but I can't think which ones at the moment.

Also: Sorry this is a bit late; I completely forgot I needed to do one of these this morning.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Otherworldly Vortex

While fairly monotone, I think the little hints of color are all this flame really needs. The emphasis here is on the shape, not the shade. Notice that the secondary spirals are going the opposite direction from the main spiral. That, and the stretching, wobbly distortions on the secondary spirals are what really make this an interesting piece.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Pathways and Vortices

Another flame made up of lots and lots of close together pieces. I liked doing that sort of thing quite a lot for a while, but I can never seem to make it work right anymore. Maybe I've become pickier, I don't know. This flame doesn't have anything I consider particularly noteworthy; it's just kind of cool. You can definitely see the fractality in it.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Waves on the Wind

I love the shape and flow of this piece. I feel like I really succeeded in creating a feeling of movement. The increasing transparency towards the right side of the image is a big factor in that. The ambiguity of the name is also something I like about this one. The flame has 'waves' in it already, but at the same time it looks sort of like spray being blown off the top of a wave at sea, or maybe some really intense whitecaps on a river.

From a technical standpoint, it's really easy to see fractal repeats in this piece. All of the stuff you can see in the righthand 3/4ths of the image is a single basic shape going through a series of distortions.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Holes in the universe

I'd probably been reading a lot of sciencey stuff when I named this one. Or science-fiction, possibly. For whatever reason, this flame made me say 'three dimensional representation of a four dimensional phenomena; what kind?' And since there were hole-type thingies in there...Anyway, the mix of colors in this one is fun. They're all fairly muted, but they cover a pretty good slice of the rainbow.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Orchid 2

Funnily enough, there isn't actually an 'Orchid 1.' I didn't have access to a list of titles I'd used when I was naming this one, and I was certain that I'd used 'Orchid' before. I had, but only as a part of another title. This piece is an interesting one technically in that it only uses two pieces in Apophysis. This makes it difficult to make subtle changes to the shape, but it makes it a great deal easier to precisely control colors.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Particle Trace

Here's one for the physics buffs out there. This flame reminded me of the images produced by particle accelerators (like this one). Shinier colors, of course. Shiny colors improve most things. I'm pretty sure I've used this color set on a few other fractals...I can't think which ones at the moment, though. I'll try and point them out if I post any of them on here.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Waveshell

I love the combination of shape, texture, color, and title in this flame. I don't have a whole lot else to say about it; this is one of the few flames that I'm genuinely happy with when I look back at it years later. I hope you like it too.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Squawk!

I should really apologize for this title. I just looked at this and thought "Huh. This looks kind of like a parrot hitting a window at high speed. What kind of noise would it make?" In my defense, my brother was looking over my shoulder at the time, and we're a bad influence on each other. (In a good way, though. Mostly.)

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Chaotic Flare

I both really like this fractal and am subtly dissatisfied with it at the same time. I can't quite say why, either. Maybe it's the orange. Anyway, 'Chaotic Flare' is interesting mainly for the textures. The impression of the surface of something roiling and bubbling and reaching out wispy tendrils is pretty cool too, I suppose.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Line of Asymmetry

Another flame in the style of 'Molten Wave.' Again, you can see striations in parts of the image which are an artifact of the technique used to produce the smooth, blurred effect found in both flames. In an interesting coincidence, both images use the same color palette, although 'Line of Asymmetry' uses a larger section of it.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Jello Mould

I'm pretty sure 'Jello Mould' is not a mould for making jello, but rather a mould that looks like jello. And no, I'm not British. I don't know why I used the UK spelling. It just seemed to fit better. If I had to describe the texture of this flame to someone in one word, I'd say 'gooey.'

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Spectrum Flow

This flame reminds me quite a bit of some of the video of lava flows I've seen on TV, with that kind of dip where the surface slides almost out of sight in a fold and then flows up again (Essentially I'm thinking of the stereotypical stock footage that the National Geographic channel always uses whenever they have a shred of an excuse). Just...more colorful. The shiny-bumpy texture and the slide through most of the rainbow are a fun combination. I tried this flame with a blander color palette, but it really needs the range of colors to shine.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Something 2

The 'Something' series of fractals is one I really enjoy. It started off with three flames, all fairly simple. Instead of going for complexity, I went for overall shape and color. There are about ten more of these, some of which you'll see, and some which you won't. Maybe I'll post the complete series someday. Some of the flames with the 'Something' title don't quite fit, as it was a bit of a catchall when I couldn't think of a name. But it would be an interesting study.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Molten Wave

One of the interesting things about fractal flames is that more complexity is not always better. Some of the coolest pieces I've ever done have used just a couple fractal repeats. 'Molten Wave,' however, is definitely not simple. The smooth look of this flame comes from lots and lots of fractal repeats, just subtly different enough from each other to blend together. If you look at the larger versions of the image you can see faint lines inside the circle on the left and in the densest section next to it.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Giant Clockworks

'Giant Clockworks' is actually one of the flames I had on the short-list when I was selecting which ones to print. It's just so shiny! Something about it just didn't click right, though. I still can't quite pin it down. But still, shiiiiiny...

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Galactic Abalone

This flame reminded me very strongly of the patterns you see on the inside of shellfish. Real mother of pearl is more of a pinkish color, but the texture seemed about right. The technique I used to make 'Galactic Abalone' is one I learned fairly recently.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Inscriptions

At first glance, 'Inscriptions' appears to be symmetric both vertically and horizontally. It's not. Can you spot the difference? And no, it's not just that the upper and lower sections are colored differently. While you're trying to find the asymmetry, try thinking of the bottom half of the image as a sheet of perfectly flat water, reflecting a ceiling or wall. It'll be fun, trust me.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Dragon Wing

'Dragon Wing' is today's flame. I really like the varying textures that give the fractal its shape. The 'wing bones' sticking out the left side were a lot of fun to fiddle with, too, and are what really inspired the name.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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Yellowed Breakers

Each day on this blog I will be posting a new piece of fractal flame artwork. Some of these works will be recent; some of them may be years old. All of them will be available for download. Today's offering is titled 'Yellowed Breakers.' The spiraling patterns made me think of the movement of ocean waves as they hit a rocky shore.

Download links: Right click and hit 'Save Link As' to download. If you just want to look at a larger version of the image, simply follow the link.

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