Blue Brown Minimalism

A little more complexity, but still big, simple curves and color transitions.

The current series is called "Workshop". It contains studies of dots, lines, curves. There is experimentation with color, no color, and minimal color. Deconstructing and reconstructing.

This is different from my more complex and chaotic art. Both in method and result. I usually do not know when to stop, I get into a mode of infinite tweaks. Not quite sure what the goal is and finding that the many small adjustments are not getting there.

With the simple pieces the relation between action and result is easier to see. I hope these workshop pieces will help me be more effective with the complex art. That the deconstruction and fine tuning of the simple components will inform the fine tuning of complex pieces.

Blue Brown Minimalism

Is this minimalism art? If you look for minimalism at the gallery or museum you find paintings of a single color on the canvas, or perhaps simple geometric shapes, squares and circles, of a solid color. A pompous art critic might disqualify this piece. The gentle curves are not straight lines or circles. There is shading and gentle transitions in the colors.

But then, I created this piece, so I get to name it, to define it. Even if it is inaccurate.

Blue Brown Minimalism

A variation of yesterday's post. Same color scheme, and minimal complexity.

Blue Brown Minimalism

Sometimes simple is better. I am always tempted to add more. More shapes, more colors, more details. Each quadrant has large, slowly transitioning color. It just begs to put something more there. I found it is useful to just stop, set the image aside for a day. Usually after a day the temptation to keep tweaking is gone, and it is easier to decide that the image is done.

This is the first of a few with relatively low complexity, and similar color palette.

I set a goal on New Year's Day to publish 150 posts this year. I am already falling behind, working on other things, all the usual excuses. Almost one month into the year and I have nothing new. There are still have about a dozen images from December for the Workshop series. Here is the next one.

I got stuck on this one. It does not fit with any of the others. It is related to the previous images. It has more and brighter colors. It is almost liquid. Anyway, here it is, one-off without many words. I am hoping it helps me to regain momentum.

I am not sure what to say artistically about this one. I want to dismiss it, but it holds my attention. It is a mess, but feature that seems "just plain wrong" flip to "compositionally perfect", and back again.

I like art that challenges me. If you do not, that is ok, thank you for taking a look. Please check the other images, I hope you find something you like that better.

Nerd talk time. Earlier I mentioned "low iteration non-fractals". I created this to demonstrate why I have been keeping the iteration count low. If the underlying formula is not clean (holomorphic function) the intricate winding spirals that you expect are not there. Instead you get large smoothly colored areas, where the higher iterations add nothing, areas where the fragmentation from the discontinuities dominate, and areas of "dust" with a mix of colors and no defined shape.

Now getting swallowed up as the universe is tearing apart.

Another from the same family. Here I wanted to emphasize the discontinuities.

Similar to yesterday's (Workshop 202012 #6) but with more subdued colors.

Low Iteration, Non-Fractal. I started posting these as Workshop because I did not think they fit into a collection. But after posting a few, it is clear that there is a theme here. Someday, I will re-categorize. Too much work today.

As with Workshop 202012 #4 this is bumpy, but continuous, except for tearing along a diagonal in the upper right. It is not a simple rip, there are many fragments. I like the conflict.

Yesterday, (Workshop 202012 #4) I got into some nerd talk about exponents of complex numbers. Don't worry, I am not going there today. Anyway, here is yesterday's image without the complex exponent. I had decided not to publish this one. It is colorful, but too repetitive, it feels like patterned wallpaper. I pulled it out of the trash bin to compare with yesterday's picture.

Another low-iteration non-fractal.

Warning, nerd talk follows. You may notice a discontinuity running up and right from the center. The underlying formula is this sequence of operations:

$ z = sin(z.re)+i*sin(z.im)+c\\z = a*z + b\\z = z^{0.9+i*0.1}$

z and c have the usual meaning, a and b are parameters. In this case

$ a = -1.0 + i*1.1\\b=0.0+i*0.1$

The first two lines are quite simple. If only the first two lines are used the resulting images are mildly interesting, but also forgettable. If we made the exponent in the third line 1.0, then it is just the identity function z = z, and basically we have just the top two lines.

The exponent in this case is, 0.9+i*0.1, is close to 1.0. It adds a little bit a spice, a little twist to the two-line set.

Complex exponentiation is not, in general, a continuous function. It is a multi-value function. That is an oxymoron since normally a function is defined as something that returns a single value. We define a proper function by picking one of the possible values. There is no way to pick values so that the resulting function is continuous.

So, adding the third line makes the picture more interesting, is also introduces the discontinuity.

Many twisting multicolor lines.

I used my fractal program to generate this. It is used in a rather non-fractal way, so do not call this a fractal. (I will skip the tutorial on fractals, please use google if the rest does not make sense.)

The underlying formula is very simple, generally affine transformations with a light sprinkling of the sine function. The number of iterations is kept low, usually single digits or teens. The coloring is not related to Julia set membership or escape-time. The Julia set for this formula is uninteresting, and there are not enough iterations to determine Julia set membership. (Just using fancy mathematical words to say "not a fractal'.)

The low iteration count provides a nice distortion of the basic line or sine wave. Color is based on the current z-value, not the iteration count. Each iteration is colored and overlays the previous.

More blended color bands.

I was working on tools or techniques. I draw a single fuzzy wavy line, not as the finished product, but as a prototype to study. How can I vary it? Size, color, waviness. How can this be used alone or with other tools to produce a finished piece?

Inevitably the prototype and experimentation lead to something that I want to finish and publish. Often those get lost because I am in 'tool' mode, and do not want to get distracted. They get set aside with the intention to revisit later, and later never comes.

Lately I have made it a policy when I get an interesting prototype to set aside tool development and try to develop a finished piece. Sometimes I can create something that is unique and interesting enough to be worthy of publication. Sometimes it is just a dead end.

To be clear, these are finished pieces, not mere experiments. I may not have started the day with the intention to end up here. Often you cannot plan creativity or inspiration.

Starting a new series, "Workshop". This is catch-all series. Nothing is really planned, there is no particular order. It is best summarized as "what I have been working on lately"

Here I overlay bands of color. The bands are mostly distorted sine waves. They are fuzzy on the edges to blend in with surrounding features.

Someday, I may reclassify these as part of a series. Or maybe not, and this is it, just a bucket of one-off items.

What? You decide.

Here the focus is provided by the illusion of a singularity or event horizon in the upper right.

Similar to Monochrome #13. Less density and the spiral is off-center.

No more words from me. If you have been following along you can add your own. I feel that I am either repeating myself or just stating the obvious at this point.

A spiral in the center.

I tried to move the spiral center off the canvas center, but that did not seem to add interest. So this time I stayed with my initial dead-center instinct.

Continuing with the variations. This time many of the dots are stretched along elongated sine waves, and everything is tilted about 30 degrees.

Normally I do not like the wall paper type of repetition. I think it is palatable here. It provides a pattern that is easily grasped.