May 2019 Newletter

If May had a theme, it was spinning! From tornadoes to news narratives. Our neck of the Pennsylvania woods had three once-rare tornado warnings in the past month. Our house lost a few roof shingles, but nothing compared to the damage in other parts of the country.

My experiments with art created inside tetrahedrons continued with a spinning look, with the addition of a procedural texture called “smear.” It creates the swirling shapes you see in the images below. I tried to create compositions that avoid the typical symmetrical mandala-look.

Remember “spin art” from a fair or carnival? They gave you a squirt bottle of paint that you aimed at a spinning piece of paper on a turntable. That’s what one of my friends said this image below reminded him of.

May 2019 work

These next two pieces were made from the same render from my 3D program. The difference was in the post processing I did in Photoshop. If you compare them, you’ll see some similar shapes. I rarely do monochromatic pieces, but the black and white composition was so striking, I didn’t think it needed color.

May 2019 work

Sometimes my choice of compositions seem too boisterous to me, and I try to calm things down with a more soothing color scheme or pattern. “Jupiter’s Moon” and “Rainbow Drapes” are two such pieces with a more tranquil feel.

May 1029 work

At the end of the month, I added a punch card pattern called “Windows” to my sphere. It creates that additional layer of meaning, that of a city or urban quality. I went for drama, and spin, in these two below.

May 2019 work

I tried doing an “over my shoulder” video, so you could watch me do one of these from start to finish.
But I wasn’t happy with the result. I promise to get it done right for the June Newsletter. Thanks for reading this far and have a calm, spin-free June! – Paul

 

April 2019 Newsletter

Everything grows in April, including the art output from the simple, three-sided tetrahedron I use to create images. It seems like the fewer sides a geometric shape has, the more variety of art I can find inside it.

In “Tetra Moon” below, that round-edged tetrahedron “moon” exerts its pull on the “tide” (which is a view of its insides.)
“Sailor’s Delight” was done on Easter, with a wave-like pattern mapped to its surface. The setting sun in the composition looks like an egg!
“Bipolar” uses the same pattern in an op art art fashion. I burred the periphery to give it a centered focus effect.

April-1

I returned to where I left off last month with the surface normal technique that produces pure rainbow colored gradients. “Sorbet Eruption” bursts with sweet colors! But I departed the dessert theme for “Bullied” which depicts those colors in an emotional confrontation theme. “Rainbolt” is spectrum-colored lightning that forms beautiful gradient intersections.

April-2

It’s difficult for me to do a series on a theme, because of the Rorschach test-like discovery process I use, but I can apply successful textures over again to find similar new compositions. One of my favorites is shown in the next three pieces, below. All three seem like grand vistas of surreal landscapes. I love how the fine texture becomes rectangles as it gets closer to us.

April-3

I experienced a 3D program error, or glitch, that resulted in little dots appearing in my artwork. I decided to go with it. It’s the green speckles in “Bark Vision” below, which became more widespread in “I Got Your Pointilism” and “Before I Wake.” I will want to come back to this glitch again!

April-4

Another favorite from the March newsletter, strata, is a versatile texture that can look like Mother of Pearl, or ocean waves, or even fire, as in the art below:

April-5

Congratulations if you’ve made it this far! I enjoy sharing my art progress with you. If you have questions or suggestions, I’d love to hear them.  -Paul

 

March 2019 Newsletter

Spring is sprung here in the northern hemisphere, and everywhere I look outside, there are signs of growth and creativity.

It’s the same everywhere I look inside, too! Especially inside the tetrahedron below, which I used to create all of this month’s art. I modified it slightly from last month, by rounding off its sharp edges, and applying some different pattens on its surface.
Tetrahedron spin
The “stretchy triangle’ pattern above yielded the two images just below, when I placed virtual cameras in just the right place. The surfaces inside were shiny and reflected the opposing surfaces to create extra texture and detail.

March 2019 art1

Then I switched out the triangle pattern with a two others, and found this one-eyed waif, a smiling devil, and a spiritual yogi looking back at me through my cameras.

March2 019 art2

Because I rounded off the tetrahedrons edges, the patterns I applied seemed to blend and flow better. When I applied the pattern called “Strata,” below, I got these wonderful irregular-edged layered shapes. Sometimes they look like clouds, trees, and water, as in the image below called “My Secret Place.” I think it’s one of my best pieces so far.

March2 019 art3

Many digital artists try to hide the fact that their art is made digitally. I developed a texture that looks natural and scratched in the distance, but breaks apart in closer places to reveal that it is a digital block of pixels creating the pattern. These next three have that texture and look so surreal to me!

March2 019 art4

When I render a scene in my 3D program, I usually do three or four different types, which I layer together in Photoshop. One of those types is called Surface Normal. The program assigns a pure color to the smooth inner surface depending on its angle relative to the camera’s eye. The result is such a vibrant and soft arrangement of rainbow colors. I recently decided to let these images stand on their own, because their color transitions and soft curves are so beautiful.

March2 019 art5

Finally, I want to thank the modern art historian and blogger, Maria Stark for believing in me. I met her on Twitter when she commented on my artwork. She regularly re-tweets my art on her Twitter feed. When I’m feeling disillusioned or insecure about my art, I visit her Twitter page, and there, between giants of modern art like O’Keeffe, Monet, Picasso or Van Gogh, I will find my artwork! It’s like walking into an art museum and seeing your own work hung with the Masters. I can’t say I deserve it, but that does not diminish my delight! I am thankful that she holds my art in such esteem. Please visit her art blog, starkandart.com.  It’s published in both German and English. Below is a sample of her Twitter feed.

Stark tweet

Enjoy the Spring, if you have it! Look for beauty where you can find it. I’ll be back at the end of April with more art!
-Paul

You can follow me on Twitter, here, and on Instagram, here.
If you would like an art print, send me an email!

February 2019 Newsletter

On the last day of the shortest month, that’s a fitting time to write a newsletter about a February that was jam packed with creative productivity! My spherical art technique continues to evolve, and I experimented with some new techniques this month.
In my last newsletter, I showed you a series of “rooms” with images created inside of a tetrahedron, the simplest of polyhedrons. I did quite a few more and exhausted that idea, for now. Here is a composite with a few of the newer “rooms.” I especially like the “pool room.”
Rooms
The last image above on the right shows a room that appears to have reflections of the pattern on its shiny walls. That started me off on a new series of images that have a lot of additional detail, which is created by the patterns reflecting on glossy surfaces. I combined that technique with a new editing process in PhotoShop. I now output my 3D images in 32 bit HDR, or “high-dynamic-range” format. High-dynamic-range imaging is a technique used in photography to reproduce a greater range of luminosity than is possible with standard digital imaging or photographic techniques. The aim is to present a similar range of luminance to that experienced through the human eye.
Each of the following four images were created with HDR, with the two on the left using the additive detail that reflections provide. I’m excited about the unique colors and increased tonal ranges that this HDR technique makes possible!
HDR images
Lastly, I enjoyed Valentines Day by doing the heart-shaped designs below: The last one below, is a photo of my snow-slushy driveway, after the mail lady pulled in with her van, and then backed out. I just happened to be out there with my cellphone, and snapped this shot of her tire tracks. She unknowingly created two linked hearts, a day before Valentines!
All of the images this month were created inside of a four-sided tetrahedron, except the one in the driveway!
Have a great March! Before it’s over, I hope to share a new video and some art with you in my next newsletter.
-Paul

January 2019 Newsletter

Happy New Year!

Have you started a resolution yet? One of mine is to do some weight training, but I haven't started that yet. Another is to explore Spherical Art in a more methodical way, and I started that one on Jan.1st!
And what's coming out of it is a new series of works based on a simple "room" composition. Maybe I gravitated to this after doing a lot of wall covering mock-ups that I told you about in last month's newsletter. Some of these works are now for sale as prints at saatchiart.com/paulpetersen.
I wanted to share some of my processes with you, so I made a video showing how I created the first piece in this new series.
You can watch it by clicking on this link.
It's easy to start a new resolution, but difficult to keep it going. This newsletter is added motivation for me to keep going and have something new to show you next month.
Good luck with your resolutions!
-Paul

December 2018 Newsletter

Petersen Wallcovering

Are you ready for the holidays? Not me. Too many calls to make and greetings to send during these last two weeks!

But I was determined to touch base with you and let you know what I've been doing since I wrote last month.

At The other Art Fair last month, I met reps from a wall covering firm in Montreal, called Area Environments. They have a beautiful website where they sell wall coverings created from artist's images. I was fascinated at the prospect of seeing my work used as wallpaper on a large scale, so I created some wallpaper mock-ups in Photoshop, and sent them along with a letter of inquiry. You can see them at a larger scale by clicking on the image below:

Wallcoverings.jpg

 

I also created some new digital images this past month, and these below are now for sale as prints at Saatchi Art. I split the prints I sell between Saatchi Art and paulpetersenart.com. Click on this image to see larger images with descriptions:

NewWork.jpg

 

I promised to share some background info on my image creating processes. If you remember, at the Art Fair it wasn't that easy for me to describe how I create these. Well, the best way to see it is to look over my shoulder as I do one. I created just such a video a couple of years ago, when I worked on a stylized logo design for the health care company called Allergan. You can see that video which shows my technique of creating images from inside spheres, by clicking on the picture below:

ECIS_Logo.jpg

 

Well that's almost it for 2018! I hope you enjoy the coming year-end festivities with your loved ones!

-Paul