"Andromedala" | Gallery: Motifs
And few people will understand why she chose "m31" as her username. Google "m31" and you'll discover why very quickly. Andromeda! The galaxy closest to our own, at a mere 2.5 million light years away. It's short for 'Messier 31', one of the 110 Messier objects (Charles Messier was a French astronomer who made a list of objects in the sky that appeared to be comets but weren't. (He was a comet hunter and made the list in order to know which objects in the sky to ignore!) ).
As I said last week, when you're using fractals as tools for art-making, you're basically "looking for order in oceans of chaos. So most of the time, I dive into a set of formulae and see where the currents take me."
But for the last few weeks, I have been trying to do the opposite (what "normal" artists do, mostly): Start with a pre-conceived idea and then try to reach it through the artistic process. For this one, I wanted to find a general shape that was galaxy-esque, and within that shape, have smaller, shiny, starry objects...
I believe I was successful in that purpose =)
Andromedala
~~
Gallery: Motifs
Max. Print Size: 28" x 28"
“your hand
touching mine.
this is how
galaxies
collide.”
― Sanober Khan
“Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
― Douglas Adams
“In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch-Hiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover.”
― Douglas Adams
Besides this being a gift for my favourite person on Steemit, there is another reason why this mandala is special to me. I love space. I really, really love space. I don't understand people who don't spend a significant part of their lives thinking about it. As the Flaming Lips song goes:
Do you realise we're floating in space?
Please do go listen to that song now (The Flaming Lips - Do you Realise). In fact, I'll make that the Song of the Day.
Really... The thought of the unfathomable vastness of ... everything... It brings me peace. And as far as we know, no meaning in any of it besides what we make of it! Such freedom! No matter the physical constraints of being bound to a body, bound to a situation... My mind, I've discovered, is free... It's free to grasp at whatever it can imagine.
Well, that can be argued. My own mind just admonished me (itself), because I've recently thought and expressed feeling frustrated with only ever being able to experience existence with this one mind... Me... But... Ah well... You can't have everything...
Creative process:
Righty-o... First things first, here is Mandelbulb 3D, the free fractal program I use, with the parameters set for take off:
Of course, I absolutely had to use an image of the Andromeda galaxy as a diffuse map - but it was not giving very shiny, starry type effects, which was the main effect I was going for, so I used my trusty 'stars' fractal image made ages ago for the base layers:
And here are those base layers:
Using the andromeda galaxy, I got these... Not very vibrant, but I fixed that later as you will see:
And so the work started... I chose a center, and then chose a different image for the frilly bits on the outer edge of the center:
I didn't like so much pink in between all the shapes here so I used a different layer to get rid of it, giving it more contrast by doing so:
Going outward, it was a bit too shiny gold... I wanted some spacey darkness more involved, so I used the very first, dark base layer and brought it out along the edge here:
I continued adding little colour details from the galaxy layers... I didn't want it to be too colourful and so used them sparingly...:
Until finally, it was done! ... I left it for a day, because usually, the next day, I find something I'm not happy with... And indeed, when I looked at it this morning, I found it lacked a certain lustre... So I upped it's vibrance/saturation a notch. Expect that made the yellow too bright, so I used Selective colour to remove some yellow from the yellows ;P .. Here's a before/after:
And now, all that left is to show you some close-up details =) ... As usual, at full resolution, it can be printed up to 28 x 28 inches (about 70cm x 70cm) :
My hope is that you really like it, Jolanta, and perhaps have it printed ^^ I will send you the high res. file in a DM ... Looking back, I feel like this is one of the best mandalas I've done so far. Very happy with it! =) Thank you for the inspiration.
And everyone, if you want to buy any other design of mine, you can check out my site, Mandelsage.com, for details =) ... And I am open to doing commissions too! How about a mandala based on your personality? ;)
Thank you for your upvote 💖
~~
A few recent posts of mine:
Chibera Writing Contest - My Character Selene | The Golden Apple Award - 2nd Winner! | No Man's Sky - Beginnings of a Base
~~
If you'd like to support me further, or follow me elsewhere, I'm on these social media:
Patreon | Instagram | Facebook
My Bitcoin wallet address:
![](https://steemitimages.com/640x0/https://i.imgur.com/9bYETxH.jpg)
1DPGX72eQj5TNVpSG1grRMxVAaDuqGG2RL
All Images, Copyright @Mandelsage - All rights reserved (unless otherwise specified).
Before using bidbots, consider that they are generally bad for the long-term health of the Steemit ecosystem, and that many manual curators will not consider posts using bidbots for curation. Instead, try joining communities, engaging authentically, and earning more and more organic votes over time =) ... The best post I've found explaining this controversial topic is by Luke Stokes - click here to go to his post.
This is incredible! I am speechless and honored to have served as inspiration for your art! I mean I don’t even know the math and the magic necessary to spot the order in oceans of chaos, but I certainly appreciate your absolutely wonderful works and all the creative process and details that go into every single one of them!
You know I really, really love space too and actually I’ve had that realization of Earth being our spaceship too. The best spaceship that provides us with everything we need to live and strive while floating in space! (oh, oh! And the song of the day was lovely and my cheeks are hurting again!)
I don’t like it.. I love it! ^^ Thank you for being awesome! Awww!
And now mine are hurting. ;)
I'm over the moon that you love this so much, truly. I'm floating here on a very pleasant mix of dopamine/ serotonin/ oxytocin, hehe.
Actually, though I know quite well how 2-dimensional fractal maths works, the maths in this 3D program goes way over my head, unfortunately. I just tweak parameters until something appears that I can work with. Of course, after a long time using it, I intuitively know what effect certain formulae combinations may have, but there's a ton of potential in there that I think I may never realise because my wide focus on many different subjects means I'm not able to dedicate myself to learning the this one thing fully.
Indeed, the best spaceship! ^^ ... And I'm very happy to have met a person like you to share the journey through space with, even if we are on opposite decks of the ship! ;P
You got a 39.20% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @mandelsage!