That Is The Question

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Gallery: Fine Art
Max. Print Size: 21" x 28"

“This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”

-- William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Song of the Day - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, J.S. Bach

The Creation Process:

Compared with most of my previous work, this one was relatively simple to create... I used only two formulae: JosKn-Klein for the shape, and HeightMapIFS for the background.

The heightmap formula works by loading in an image which is then transformed into a height map based on the shading of the colours. This is useful for all sorts of things, but it's really perfect for creating backgrounds to work off of. As you can see below, I had many possibilities to work with:

The JosKn-Klein formulae is a relatively new addition to Mandelbulb 3D, and I've never used it til now. Here is what it looks like when you first load it up in Mandelbulb 3D:

Those who know fractals know that the cool repeated, bridge shapes you see above are very typical fractal shapes encountered everywhere... Which brings me to the secret I started talking about above.

Thing is, it is actually very easy to generate some cool looking images with fractals and call it art. Once you learn just the basics of almost any fractal program, it just takes a few clicks to make something pretty-looking.

I recognised this from the start, when I began making art with fractals in 2011. The idea of using maths/science to create art was intriguing to me, but I saw tons of fractal images online with people calling them "fractal art" and I didn't want to be that kind of "artist"...

So from the start, I've always tried to create art with fractals that is not easily recognisable as "fractal art". I've always striven to create uniqueness, so I've avoided using formulae that produce easily recognisable patterns.

Which brings me to JosKn-Klein. It was made in 2016, and even though the patterns it makes are sooo cool-looking, I lamented that I couldn't really use it because of the typically fractal patterns is creates.

So what is The Question? ... It is "To start using these formulae in my work, or not to...?"

And I've finally decided to, yes, use them. "That Is The Question" purposefully displays the JosKn-Klein's recognisable shapes in their full glory, in the sort-of-shape of a question mark, to express my uncertainty and my decision.

As an artist, I'll now consider it an extra challenge to create unique art using typical fractal shapes.

Thank you for your upvote 💖
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A few recent posts of mine:
"Wine Lily" - Gallery: Motifs | The @Mandelsage Challenge! - Improving Engagement on Steemit | "Dark Lily" - Gallery: Motifs
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If you'd like to support me further, or follow me elsewhere, I'm on these social media:
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My Bitcoin wallet address:

1DPGX72eQj5TNVpSG1grRMxVAaDuqGG2RL

All images, copyright @mandelsage - All rights reserved.

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Before using bidbots, consider that they are 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 the terrible bidbot situation is by Luke Stokes - click here to go to his post.