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This is an animation I finished long ago, but held off publishing over two nitpicks, one of which I think is fixed, and the other which only very observant observers will observe.
Here is a digital art work I created with 3DSmax, Corel Painter and Photoshop.
With #3DSMax and #SoulburnScripts, I randomly scattered and rotated very many brush-stroke textured tiles (I used 3DSMax as a particle painter). I then worked up the resulting render further in #CorelPainter and #Photoshop. ~ A hoity-toity robot talks about this at http://s.earthbound.io/artgib
Here are two variant works with color hue-shifted in Lab color mode (it produces more human-perceptual-friendly color changes than the brute math of RGB).
Click the images to open larger ones, free for personal use. This was formerly entitled Abstraction 00021.
EDIT: there used to be a cover of a super disturbed fiction eBook I wrote here; there isn't anymore. But of it, I wrote:
*I'm not even really sure why I'd put this on my blog. In keeping with "I'm paying attention to you, whatever you give me, Image Brain?" Did you know if you do that with any part of your brain–just sketch or sing into a voice recorder or write or whatever anything your brain gives you–did you know that if you do this, then your unconscious realizes you are paying attention, and it gives you more music or images or whatever to create? This is my experience. Caveat: this does not mean you should publish anything and everything your brain gives you ;) but if you do this, you may find yourself creating things you wish to publish.
This is my final cover for a short story I wrote, which has been finished for quite some while and I haven't yet published an ebook of it. When I do, I'll post a link here. [EDIT 09/03/2014: that's published now; here is the announcement post.] This art is free for personal use. The thumbnail links to a desktop-resolution image.
UPDATE 12/09/2014 08:38:45 PM: The final work featured in this post, "Pharaoh's Army," was accepted into a prestigious competition! It is on display November 19, 2014 – January 18, 2015. Here is the list of accepted entries in the show. I encourage you to go, as there are many works in the show to love. Also, my very favorite piece in the show is a vivid pastel impressionist portrait entitled "Eternally Bound," by Julie Ann Rogers.
Click the images to open much larger images, free for personal use.
Regarding this last work here, "Pharaoh's Army:" I hope you find this an affecting portrait of the subject. ~ As noted in the UPDATE at the start of this post, this work was accepted into the 29th Annual Spiritual & Religious Art of Utah exhibit of the Springville Art Museum, in 2014. I was tickled to see patrons peering and looking around the painting for any evidence of said Army. I was also glad to have a patron express his appreciation that this conveys a dark element of religion, or that God is not without wrath. Let's just let the wrath remain God's though, ok? Okay. ~ This is a proof of style or concept for a future work to be entitled WHOSE WAVES ROARED. A digital underpainting or chaotic sea bed of square panels was done for this in 3D Studio Max. I also created this via Corel Painter X and Photoshop.
Follows a concept preview for the mentioned future painting. I would really love to have it fill a wall (or hang on the side of a building) a hundred feet wide and 50 feet tall, and I'm going to develop it to that intent. It will be a composite super ridiculously large work to print on–I don't know, crass advertising canvas?– when it's done.
These works were previously titled, respectively, Abstraction(s) 00016, 00017, 00018, 00019, and 00020 Pharaoh's Army.
[Formerly titled "Abstraction 00014." Post resurrected 11/26/2016]
Void words for your void wall. Examine it very closely. For the unobservant it doubles as a merely nice painting!
Thumbnail links to larger image, free for personal use. Print available here.
This was accomplished by modeling and rendering translucent spindles colored by randomized wireframe color (using SoulBurn Scripts) in 3ds Max, randomly rotating them (also with SoulBurn scripts), then severely bumping up the light and using it as a paint guide.
Thumbnail links to large desktop image free for personal use. Print from higher resolution original (designed for 24" x 14") available here.
[11/28/2016: post resurrected. This work was previously entitled Abstraction 00015.]
[Post resurrected 11/26/2016]
SOL began as an experiment creating brush stroke-style particle effects in 3D Studio Max. I may eventually describe that and how it's done, but suffice it to say that the creation of this painting was very involved with 3D and 2D art tools (3ds Max, Painter, Photoshop). Digital oil, watercolor, and pencil. The brush stroke-style particles I developed for this may go a long way towards generating all kinds of awesome crazy abstract art.
Thumbnail links to large desktop resolution image, free for personal use. Full resolution print (designed for ~8' x 6' @ 150 dpi!) available at this link.
A crop of this makes for a sort of impressionist-abstract work in itself:
This is a gestural workup based on a fractal flame which I bred myself. Look up fractal flames and the Electric Sheep screen saver–they are extremely cool. Specifically, it's from an alternation-style combination of electric sheep 202.11969 and 202.41223, which I thought happened to look something like a dragon eye, ergo the title. From a large render of a fractal flame blown up and auto-painted in Corel Painter, with further digital oil painting in layers by yours truly.
Thumbnail links to a large image, free for personal use. Full resolution print (designed for ~6' x 4' @150 dpi!) available at this link.
PROVO TEMPLE 2049. REMEMBER HOW YOU FELT. IF ONLY WE HADN'T WARPED BACK IN TIME. NOW WE GET TO SUFFER ALL OUR SINS ALL OVER AGAIN. IN ALL CAPS.
Thanks to Chris Bigelow's satire piece at The Sugar Beet for the funny concept.
Image links to 72dpi HD image for your desktop/whatever enjoyment. Print available (from higher resolution original) yonder.
[11/25/2016 05:26:56 PM: This work was formerly titled abstraction 00011.]
This second work was accidentally produced by testing an overpainting/cloning/painter brush in Corel Painter X with a portion of another work entitled ATONEMENT. Image likewise links similarly to prior painting. Prints from larger resolution source also available yonder.
Thank you, Brothers and Sisters, for your testimonies. Also, thank you to those of you who bore your testimonies silently.
Brother Hall has produced a painting which we thought it would be appropriate to hang in the foyer. What? What's funny about it? Why are some of you laughing? I think it's a nice painting.
Image links to 72dpi full image which is more than enough for computer desktop use.
Software used: Google Sketchup, Painter, Photoshop.
A painting underway: the Provo Temple (of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) as a rocket ship, on an escape vector. [Edit: that's done, and titled "Zion is Fled," and it is in this post (link).]
Addendum, 2016-11-11: I can't stand the suspense of waiting for people to wonder whether this is a farce, among those who would even wonder or "get it." Maybe you have to be me. But anyway, this painting is deliberately odd. Flower pots floating on an abstract sort of impressionist backdrop? Now I write that, it's sort of a surreal work, I think.
Addendum, 2021-05-28: added the word "farce" to the display title. I can afford to have work out there that people don't like or "get," but.
[2016-11-10: this work was formerly titled "Abstraction ten." Image resurrected and restored to blog! Revived as back post!]
Click the image for a UHD version, free for personal use. Prints on demand from higher resolution sources are available at FineArtAmerica and ImageKind.
Commence navel-gazing. You're free to move along…
Originally published in 2011, refreshed for Earth Day 2021.
I'm in love with what Corel Painter can do.
This work is the first I published on my journey into digital art starting in 2011, falling in love with possibilities of simulated media. The reference photograph was taken with an iPhone of all things. A lot of virtual watercolor, layering, hand painting and filters (including Filter Forge) went into this. 2592×1936, many details in image metadata.
2021-04-22 update: Ten years later, I thought it could use subtle added detail, color bump and less wash out of the layers. I refreshed this with updated watercolor effect and use of the original image subtly layered in. You may not notice the subtle-ish improvements unless you see the original image, which I've deleted because syndication kept using the old image.
Updated print available at http://www.imagekind.com/Mountain-landscape-over-downtown-Provo-UT-impress_art?IMID=8080956e-4b8f-43e5-be79-eb8971190aaa
I horde all text. This is why. I found this buried in email I imported from ancient folders. In it, I troll my first internet service provider, Sisna.
I don't remember the context of this email. It was apparently a thing where you email a text and it posts on some web site somewhere. Sadly, the following was rejected. Back-posted here to the original date of send.
—
Article rejected, un-authorized poster of alexhall@sisna.com
Received: from myrmidon.mailrover.net [216.126.204.156] by mail.ikano.com with ESMTP
(SMTPD32-8.03) id AC4D412008E; Tue, 07 Oct 2003 23:10:37 -0600
Received: from mail.sisna.com (mailx.sisna.com [216.126.204.104])
by myrmidon.mailrover.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h984bLV17350
for
Received: from sisna.com [216.190.11.92] by mail.sisna.com with ESMTP
(SMTPD32-8.02) id ABBF1EDE0138; Tue, 07 Oct 2003 23:08:15 -0600
Message-ID: <3F83A78A.C174D5F4@sisna.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Oct 2003 22:58:34 -0700
From: Alex and/or Tia Hall
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: customerservice@sisna.com, customerservice@ikano.com
Subject: other fun things
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Dear Windows Internet,
When I went to the Sisna website in Utah, you thought I was all dumb,
because you said, "You will be directed to the SISNA location nearest
you." Or, I mean, your page did. And your page represents you. Are
you thinking I'm all dumb? But, I hadn't clicked anything yet, and if I
had, I hadn't typed anything yet, so if I had clicked anything yet, I
hadn't typed anything yet, and I hadn't gone anywhere. Therefore I
would not have gone anywhere yet, and didn't. But, if I was wanting to
go to a Sisna website. Isn't the internet all one? Like, there isn't
any one page that is all on all over all networks. I mean, I think your
page is at one computer. So, really, if you are saying, the Sisna
website nearest me, don't you mean the one that is farthest from me at a
specific location, at the certain time that it is at your machine and I
am seeing it? So, it's all really on one page. There isn't any page
that is nearest me. So don't make me think I'm dumb. You're the one
that's dumb. Man, listen to the way you talk.
Also other fun things are happenning at your site -- like all the news,
and stuff, but I don't really care about The Government or News About
Terrorism. I'm pretty safe, here, at my computer. Unless the porn
wants to get to me. But I'm a good Religous Person, so "it doesn't",
and when it does, well, it's all on accident. Like those lousy popups
at playboy.com. I mean, really, who wants to go there? I didn't. So
anyway, about the news on Terrorism. I don't really care about it, but
I wonder if Al Qaeda is trying to get to my machine. Because I keep
getting all these popups, on, Zone Alarm, saying: "The firewall has
blocked Internet access to your computer (UDP Port 1026) from
61.143.182.138 (UDP Port 30110). Time: 10/2/03 2:11:02 AM" And when I
do a reverse DNS lookup on that IP address, it says "unable to resolve
61.143.182.138" -- but don't you think that if the war in Afghanistan
was resolved, that we would be able to resolve that IP address? I mean,
who are these terrorists, anyway? And what do they want with my
machine? And why can't our government trace their IP addresses? Are
you not cooperating with the government? I mean, the reverse DNS lookup
site is going through your internet site, or machine, isn't it?
So anyway, there are alot more of these IP addresses that I can't trace
to bad guys, but alot of them I can. For example, the IP Address
62.94.66.99 resolves to: ip098-2-8.dialup.edisontel.com, a user on a
domain who scanned a port on my machine to see if it was open and they
could start transferring bad stuff, but I can't yet figure out what the
name of this Al Qaeda User means. Here is a whole big list of the bad
guys trying to get to my machine, from Zone Alarms' port access blockage
log:
ZoneAlarm Logging Client v2.6.362
Windows 98-4.10.2222- A -SP
type,date,time,source,destination,transport
FWIN,2003/09/30,17:02:52 -7:00 GMT,66.68.196.82:0,216.190.13.244:0,ICMP
(type:8/subtype:0)
FWIN,2003/09/30,17:03:35 -7:00
GMT,216.190.10.229:0,216.190.13.244:0,ICMP (type:8/subtype:0)
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:35:42 -7:00
GMT,131.210.94.136:1307,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:37:07 -7:00
GMT,156.34.95.10:1029,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:37:39 -7:00
GMT,68.51.132.102:1331,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:37:58 -7:00
GMT,134.161.78.113:1039,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:38:00 -7:00
GMT,200.171.95.132:63515,216.190.10.69:137,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:38:14 -7:00
GMT,62.163.200.239:1050,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:38:31 -7:00
GMT,140.146.233.32:1057,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:38:37 -7:00
GMT,163.120.196.208:1064,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:39:43 -7:00
GMT,217.17.228.123:1032,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:40:02 -7:00
GMT,138.232.8.139:1042,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:40:04 -7:00
GMT,140.146.226.147:1058,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:41:20 -7:00
GMT,137.36.240.115:3122,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:41:56 -7:00
GMT,66.254.224.198:3054,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:42:21 -7:00
GMT,147.26.236.151:1070,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:42:55 -7:00
GMT,206.128.215.5:1031,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:42:58 -7:00
GMT,66.189.18.125:3593,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:44:16 -7:00
GMT,198.142.204.163:1036,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:44:48 -7:00
GMT,67.20.200.36:1034,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:44:55 -7:00
GMT,137.28.241.121:1132,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:45:41 -7:00
GMT,67.11.179.191:1056,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:45:42 -7:00
GMT,164.107.242.108:1027,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:46:24 -7:00
GMT,68.0.96.29:1038,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:46:57 -7:00
GMT,81.224.113.8:1045,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:47:35 -7:00
GMT,131.210.94.136:1307,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:47:36 -7:00
GMT,64.110.213.20:4379,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:49:53 -7:00
GMT,24.54.176.85:2808,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:50:05 -7:00
GMT,137.36.240.115:3122,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:50:55 -7:00
GMT,137.36.249.80:1040,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:51:54 -7:00
GMT,24.184.79.151:1042,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:51:58 -7:00
GMT,140.146.226.147:1058,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:52:40 -7:00
GMT,134.161.78.113:1039,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:53:22 -7:00
GMT,68.3.90.130:1042,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,01:53:25 -7:00
GMT,193.251.93.8:1035,216.190.10.69:41170,UDP
PE,2003/10/02,02:03:09 -7:00 GMT,Internet Explorer,127.0.0.1:1025,N/A
FWIN,2003/10/02,02:06:18 -7:00
GMT,218.88.142.74:1025,216.190.10.121:137,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,02:07:00 -7:00
GMT,216.190.10.125:0,216.190.10.121:0,ICMP (type:8/subtype:0)
FWIN,2003/10/02,02:11:02 -7:00
GMT,61.143.182.138:30110,216.190.10.121:1026,UDP
FWIN,2003/10/02,02:22:15 -7:00
GMT,62.94.66.99:10336,216.190.10.121:137,UDP
These all happened while I was typing. Lots of baddies are attacking
me, and there were thirty other port scans besides those above before I
started logging them to a text file. It's silly, but at least I've got
a firewall. But on one level, it stinks, and I'd rather they didn't
attack me, so it's time to download those security patches I've been not
downloading, and scan for the viruses I haven't been scanning for. Did
you know that antivirus products, and even some windows maintenance
products, slow down your machine alot? I saw it with my own programs.
When I said that Al Qaeda was trying to get to my computer, I didn't
necessarily mean so. Just if they're bad.
Well, thanks for letting me speak, and if you need any more amusements,
don't look beyond your own page! Ha, Ha!
----alexhall@sisna.com
