Hi all,

As promised in my last journal entry, I've finally gotten round to uploading a few of the images which have been sitting on my HDD for some time.
After nearly a month I got my PC back from 'surgery', what a difference a major upgrade makes!
Think I may even be able to run the wonderful Mandelbulber again!
I'm going to spend some quality time with M3D first though, as I now have more time to devote to exploring the fractal realm. This being due to the short-term contract I was working on having
finally concluded.

Will get some new stuff on very soon, so watch this space!!

There's good news, and some not so good news. The good news is that I'm about to start a new job shortly!
The not so good news, is that due to the hours and travel times involved, I'm not going to have much time for producing artwork.
Regrettably, this also means that I won't really be around dA as much as I'd like to be, but will make an effort to keep up with things, and comment when I can.

I'll probably do a wee bit of a bulk-ish upload of some of my recent stuff I've had on my HD for a while now - when time permits, and when I get my comp back from the hospital! Poor thing hasn't been at all well lately.

So, I hope you'll all wish me luck as I boldly set out upon my new career path, and remember:
Keep on Fractalling!!

Well, I promised that as soon as I received 10,000 pageviews I'd
get around to updating my last - very old! - journal entry. So, aside
from an inadvertently 'blank' entry (which btw received a remarkable
number of comments!), here it is:

My grateful thanks go out to all you lovely people who took time
to visit my profile page, bringing my pageview total up to that magical
10,000 mark, hope you'll keep visiting!!
It's been a busy year for me here on dA, and I've learned a great deal
by studying some of the wonderful pieces of art on display here. I've
made contact with some like-minded new friends, and discovered some of
the endless wonders of the  medium of fractal art, which I intend to
continue exploring.

On another note, I was taken aback to discover that one of my entries,
'CupreousComplex II': [link]
for the international Benoit Mandelbrot Fractal Art Contest had been
selected as one of the winning 25 images, and also that my 2 other entries
received 'honourable mentions'! My thanks to the judges for this generous
accolade!
I was also happy to see so many familiar names from here at dA, as well as
many from FractalForums.com. [link]

See the winning entries here: [link]
And all the entries here: [link]

Till next time, keep on fractalling, or whatever shakes your tree!!

I couldn't help but notice recently the sudden influx of
new 3D fractal art. This - relatively new - creative medium
seems to be capturing the popular imagination round here in
a pretty big way!
What strikes me most - apart from the widely varying approaches
to composition, colour etc - are the amount of questions and
appeals from potential and new users of 3D fractal programs for
tutorials, and general info on the subject.

Some excellent tuts for one of the 2 main 3D fractal rendering apps - 'Mandelbulb 3D'[link] written by Hal Tenny [link] are available from: [link] , [link] and [link] .
Hal admits straight away that he has no interest in the math
or theoretical side of 3D fractals, and that these tuts are basically
creative 'user guides'. New users should definitely check them out,
as they will save a lot of fruitless random button pushing and
general 'slider whanging'!

The other main 3D fractal renderer is the very wonderful
'Mandelbulber'[link] which can - with care and patience! - produce
some beautiful images, but does really need a pretty fast machine
to run at a realistic speed. This program does have a good .pdf support document [link] available for download.

However, if like me you really want to get into the 'nitty-gritty'
of the 3D fractal world, you should head on over to FractalForums.com [link] and join up! The artwork in the gallery section is the cutting edge of fractal exploration - from
purely experimental, math based work to VERY creative use of most
fractal programs.
You'll also spot some very familiar names there too! Have a look -
for a bunch of coders and math profs, they're all really nice,
helpful folks who will gladly help out with virtually any queries you may have!

Additional: Found a really interesting interview with Benoit Mandelbrot - the 'father of fractals' - on this site: [link]

Additional: If you are interested in the basic math of the
'Mandelbrot set', there's an excellent 15 minute vid available
here: [link]

Here endeth the advert!

Till next time....keep on creating!

Hey folks!

Thursday I decided to go 'computer free' for the day,
Friday - logged onto Da to find I had over 1300 messages
in my inbox! Thought I was being spammed?! Turns out my
piece 'Bronze Battlements 1' [link] was awarded a DD!
Many thanks to lindelokse [link] for
proposing it, and to Dragonwinter [link] for featuring it!

Also, of course thanks to all of you who commented, and those
who ed it!
Not sure if I'll be able to reply to all your wonderful comments - there's a lot!!

Now, must get on and produce some more images....

Hi everyone!

You may - or may not - have noticed a bit of an absence on my
part recently. This was due to unavoidable professional and domestic
commitments - my apologies for the lack of response to your
comments etc - this will be addressed in due course!!

As in my last entry, I've noticed that I've now just passed 2,000 pv's,
my thanks to all of you who have viewed and/or ed my work.
I haven't really had much time for 'fractalating' recently, but have
managed to squeeze in a little more exploration of the 'Thedus Station'
location - endlessly fascinating place! Will post some new images ASAP.
Thinking of revisiting the 'Iteration City' area too....

Finally, my apologies to KrzysztofMarczak [link], but I'm afraid
his very excellent Mandelbulber 0.90 [link] is now taking far too long to
refresh hybrids on my aged, antique old machine!
Consequently, I'll be sticking with Mandelbulb 3D [link] for the foreseeable future.

Keep on fractalating and 3D-ing everybody!

Well, I said to myself 'when I get to 1,000 pageviews, I'll write something in the journal'.
The 1,000 views just sort of came and went yesterday without my noticing!

A wee bit about myself then; been an artist of one kind or another since around the early '80's, when I produced illustrations for the then burgeoning computer games market. Haven't really stopped learning and - hopefully - developing my skills in various fields since.
It was only thanks to 'Stumble Upon' that I came across deviantART back in april 2010, and I was immediately blown away by the quality and variety of the work on here!
As a bit of an 'old fart'- I'm no spring chicken! - I hadn't realised just how much things digital had moved on in the art world! So I just had to fire up my old, rather dusty copy of Bryce, and get to work - haven't looked back since. Have to thank DeviantVicky [link] for her excellent 3D tutorials, and general air of encouragement!
Also got pulled into the wonderful world of fractal art, both on dA and FractalForums.com, and started exploring that area too - discovered a great program, Mandelbulber [link] by the very talented Krzysztof Marczak [link]. Have now become totally hooked on exploring the realistic glimpses into the fractal 'hinterland' it offers!
So, all in all I'm very happy to be here, and enjoying 'meeting' such like minded, talented people as your good selves!