"Leaf" | Gallery: Motifs 🎨 [original art]
This one was a little different, and was the one that got me started with "Mandala Mondays"... It was initially thought of because St. Patrick's day was coming up, but I realised I had some parameters that would be perfect for tweaking a super awesome design for St. Patrick's (which I ended up never creating...).
Instead, I made it for an occasion of a different sort... An occasion that comes 'round once a day, in fact... 20 minutes after four o'clock, to be precise... ;) ... Those who understand, will understand ^-^
A 4:20 tribute wasn't really my intention with this piece though, if I'm honest. 'Twas more of an after-thought. I just wanted a leafy, green mandala =)
)
Components form a basic need
A plant produced, a healthy seed
Light and warmth, spring water flow
Tranquil air helps plants to grow
The sunshine rays that beam with light
With health, green leaves shall stand upright
Natural cycles won’t evolve
A dark surround, left bare and cold
That light of which dear plants rely
Devoid of light, such plants would die
Tall spindly state, o light shall seek
Epitomises growing weak
Watered fields, roots delight
Nutrient soil, anchored upright
Beneath the earth, a process starts
Up through the stem to distinct parts
Sunshine glare, of natural bliss
Make way photosynthesis
Bring forth a bout of showering
The varied kinds are flowering
Embrace the harvest, water surge
Where leaves and flower buds emerge
Insects travel, pollination
Carried forth, fertilisation
Dispose and scatter seeds below
Create anew, for plants to grow
Coloured petals, a summer breeze
Butterflies and bumble bees
Attractive plant, a keen insect
Solid petals will protect
Sweetest nectar – energy
Exist for bees to make honey
-- Geraldine Taylor
Source of poem
The creation process:
As usual, I didn't have anything in mind when starting this except that I wanted another mandala... So again, I first loaded up a previous iteration of parameters from when I was working on "Raízul":
Next, I played around with the parameters of the formulae... I wish I had something more interesting to show you but it really is just sliding little number sliders around in a preview image window (very pixelated fractals for fast rendering) until I see something I like, and then rendering it up in the main window (small, so that it takes less than 5 minutes).
Eventually, I got this:
Awesome leaf shapes, I thought, so I loaded up an image as a colour pallete and played around with the colour sliders a bit (very fun part!) ... To give you an idea, here are only 6 of thousands of possible colour cominations using only one image as a pallette:
It's super fun, yes, but can also get excruciating... I save tons of them and in the end, have to choose only one.
And of course, the last part is a bit of Photoshop magic, to create that awesome border and adjust curves, brightness, contrast, etc.
Thanks for reading! o/
Adapted from my post on Steemit
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