Series Introduction:Strange Zone II #1
Related series: Strange Zone II #4
Strange Zone II #13
Month: December 2023
Strange Zone II #3
This series serves as an introduction to a series of series.
While putting together the recent work I went down the proverbial rabbit hole several times. I had a large collection to serve as the starting point for Strange Zone II. Then most of those spawned addition ideas, and I soon had fifty pieces I wanted to publish.
Fifty would be a very large series. (And the number may grow before I am done.) I grouped them into several smaller sets, which I will roll out over the next couple of months.
Strange Zone II #2
The original Strange Zone set was published in 2021. It arose from work I was doing with fractals. The underlying formulas were very complex. In was not something any sane mathematician would study.
The functions involved complex exponentiation, which is a multi-valued (in fact infinitely valued) function. So there is a “pick one” step that creates effects that do not happen with well-behaved functions.
The present series tries to resurrect the feeling of the original. But with the techniques of my recent work, rather than strange fractal formulas.
Strange Zone II #1
Strange Zone II
Dream or nightmare landscapes. The inter/hyper-dimensional space in a science fiction story.
The “series rules” are much looser here. Just anything that gives me a feeling remotely related to the theme.
Vortex Origins #6
This one is getting close to the right recipe. More colors, especially the addition of black and white distributes the viewer’s focus. The storm centers suggest something interesting, but are too small make out the details. (Thus sidestepping my problem of providing the detail.)
At the time, I was feeling the need for more violence and chaos. See View Near Vortex #2. So I added more broken pieces, with more and darker colors and started on The View Near the Vortex.
Looking at this one now, it could be the starting point for a series. I like the colors, and while there is a lot going on, it is not as crowded and broken as the Vortex series. I might return to it next year.
Vortex Origins #5
Vortex Origins #4
The next two experiment with different scales. I was trying to make the “eye of the storm” more interesting than a simple circle. It turned out to be kind of self-destructive. Viewer focus moves to the storm center, which is not that interesting and kind of disappointing. The interesting features away from the storm center are missed.
Vortex Origins #3
Here is another variation, trying to introduce some circular motion.
Vortex Origins #2
I added another color, and reduced the size of the smallest features. I liked how the thin lines suggested motion.
Vortex Origins #1
Vortex Origins
Here are a few images that I created before the The View Near the Vortex and Strange Architecture series. Normally I just dispose of the preliminary work like this. In this case I thought it would be interesting to show some of the background steps.
This image was the result of undirected experimentation. I was not thrilled by it, but I liked it enough to try some variations.