[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.