New Fractalists of the Month Features
25 January 2008
Vol. 1, Issue 1

Welcome to the first issue of New Fractalists of the Month!

An Introduction

Imagine a whirlwind of prints swirling and spiraling about in a furious storm of gradients and shapes. Then imagine these pictures are of famous and not-so-famous fractals. The popular pieces being easily recognized and filtered from this massive collection, but what of the unpopular and new artwork? Even a brand new deviation from a popular artist is identifiable by its style in most cases. How can an up-and-coming fractal artist possibly be viewed in such a soup of variations and experience? This is the question everyone has asked in their time on deviantART. It's a question we at =NFotM hope to answer by giving a warm welcome and formal introduction to a couple of our newest fractalists each month. This will also be an opportunity for the new fractal artists to discover resources and tips which will help them navigate through the maze of confusion and shock that can sometimes haunt us upon beginning a new endeavor.

How We Operate

In order to choose the New Fractalists of the Month, we will browse the fractal gallery for the most recent additions to the category, then pick a male and a female fractal artist who have a minimum of five to ten fractals in their gallery; also, they must have submitted a new fractal within the past month to be eligible. The fractalists initial fractal must have been submitted during the previous six months. We will reveal the two New Fractalists of the Month in a newsletter and journal entry on or near the 25th of each month.

Questions, Suggestions, Or Concerns?

If anyone has any questions or concerns involving this community or its mission, please feel free to note us at =NFotM. Do you know a new fractal artist who could use a helping hand? If so, you may note us of your suggestion at =NFotM as well. Please limit one artist suggestion per note. Thank you in advance for your feedback. All notes will be read.

Staff Positions Available

The following volunteer staff positions are available with =NFotM. You may send any inquiries or applications via note to Chief of Staff, =Sengirvampire.

Membership Manager: The deviant will create, organize, and maintain the community watchlist and membership list.

Gallery Manager: Deviant is in charge of submitting deviations from new fractalist community members into the =NFotM gallery and maintaining the organization and integrity of said gallery.

Resources Manager: The manager is assigned the task of scouting for and reporting of all fractal resources information and tools available to the community.



Without any further delay, we introduce the first pair of new fractalists:

*deadened-glow

The one we’ve chosen to be the female NFotM for January 2008 is *deadened-glow. Her real name is Kathleen and she resides in North Dakota, USA. She’s been a deviant since the 18th of December 2007. Below is one of her fractals:


Spire Dioptase

Founder and Head Administrator of =NFotM, =Rhienel, has this to say about the deviation:

"I liked this piece as it was her first using the Spider Form Hearts script by *djeaton3162 within Apophysis 3D Hack. The result was unique and the gradient used was nice. She has some very interesting and intriguing pieces in her gallery, so I would suggest that you all pop in and show her some dA love as well. If you have any pointers for her, I’m sure she’d appreciate any little tips, hints, and tricks to improving her art form. Be kind… enough said. Happy viewing!"

=Rhienel and =Sengirvampire held an interview/chat with her on Saturday, January 12th and here is an excerpt from that chat:

<Sengirvampire>deadened-glow: I took a look at your fractals. I love the structure of them. Could you elaborate on your technique for me?
<deadened-glow>Sengirvampire: I really don't have a technique, it's just me playing around with scripts and blank flames. Then adding triangles and variations.
<Rhienel>deadened-glow: What first drew your attention to the fractal art form?
<deadened-glow>Rhienel: Somebody I was watching started using a program that drew my interest. I finally asked him what he used to make that piece. He said Apophysis. So, I started using that.
<Rhienel>deadened-glow: Do you think you tend to follow a particular style? Colors?
<deadened-glow>Rhienel: No, not really. Although, a number of pieces seem to be stars; each of them are different from another. Colors… I tend to choose what I think goes with the piece.

=Duilen

Our male NFotM for January 2008 is =Duilen a.k.a. Dane. He is a web developer who lives in Colorado, USA. He joined deviantART on December 9, 2007. Here is an example of his work:


Blizzard

Founder and Head Administrator of =NFotM, =Rhienel, has this to say about 'Blizzard':

"I liked this piece because it has some soft lines and some sharp ones. Also, the hues of blues and slight tinges of green are very subtle… excellent for a newbie! So, if you all wouldn’t mind, go take a look at his gallery and give him some pointers if you have some good ones. Be gentle now, no blasting allowed alright everyone, we want him to feel the dA love!"

An excerpt from the January 12th interview:

<Rhienel>Duilen: Do you think you tend to follow a particular style? Colors?
<Duilen>Rhienel: I find it interesting because I want to get into Macro photography and I believe that would go well with a few fractals meshed in.
<Rhienel>Duilen: Awesome idea.
<Duilen>Rhienel: Well, I'm a professional web developer, so I've tried very hard over the last year to effectively use quite a few colors/combos. Still, I rarely stray too far from cooler colors (blues/greens).



We Could Use Your Help, Experienced Fractalists!

We call out to all of those fractalists who’ve been at this for a time, those who develop those awesome scripts, variations, gradients and other resources to please note =NFotM or =Rhienel if you are interested in becoming one of our Experienced Fractalist Extraordinaires on hand for our mixer at or near the end of March. If you want more info before you decide to throw your hat in the ring, please send us a note and we’ll try to fill you in on all of the details.

This concludes our first issue of New Fractalists of the Month. We hope that all of you enjoy reading a little bit about a couple of our newest fractalists here on deviantART. Welcome =Duilen and *deadened-glow! Thank you for stopping by.

Isabelle de Locke, Administrator of Public Relations

=Rhienel, Head Administrator

=Sengirvampire, Chief of Staff