The following artists have had their work featured this week! I encourage everyone to take a look at their galleries….you will definitely find some amazing works of art in them!

*******************************************
UNDER 10


*******************************************
UNDER 20


*******************************************
UNDER 30

*******************************************
UNDER 40

*******************************************
50 AND UNDER

*******************************************
This weeks Spotlighted artist is Zooreka
If you haven’t been to his gallery you are in for a treat. He is one of our very versatile artists who has a unique eye and fascinating works.

Where do you find your inspiration?
In a word: Life.

I think living in South America has really helped my output develop in recent years. Influences like the Amazon, The Bolivian Highlands and even the sacred vine Ayahuasca have had an enormous bearing on the development of my workflow. I paint though from what is within and not that which is is without.

How long does it take you to create a fractal, or photomanipulation...etc.?
Anywhere between 10 minutes and two weeks if it's digital. Traditional can often take several months, particularly in the case of Oils.

What programs do you find useful in making your creations?
I use mostly Photoshop or Illustrator as I teach both and have been working with them for several years - in the case of Photoshop around 10 years. Without doubt my favorite digital tool is Painter. I recently got into fractals as of March 2007. I started with APO but quickly tired of it and the long render times as well as the huge strain of my computer's resources. I then got into Quadrium on Mac but had huge stability problems and bit by bit discovered Scott Ferguson's applications. MBF. FE and Ultra Fractal which I ran in Parallels on Mac. I recently bought a PC for my new bride and run APO and UF on it.. I use them when she lets me! I still have little time for APO

What other genres are you involved with, or would like to learn?
I am a varied Artist. My mainstream work is Painting, montage or manipulation. I use vectors quite a lot although to the untrained eye it may not always be that apparent. I have a fondness of Psychedelic and Surreal art but really create from feeling rather than having a particular image in mind. I also have trained in Maya, 3dStudio Max and C4d but just haven't the time or patience these days to lend to the rather involved Project Environment that these apps demand. I also use Corel Draw on occasion but am really not a fan of Corel Apps with the obvious exception of Painter. I bought ArtRage about a year ago too but have yet to do anything with it! As I get back into Painter I expect I will get to grips with ArtRage too before too long.

What advice do you have for new deviants?
Take it step by step - Applications can be overwhelming and my best advice is to learn to walk before you run. I hated Quadrium for a number of reasons but always saw its' potential. I did one or two reasonable pieces with it when I started out but it was really all trial and error... Now nearly a year later, and having used so many other applications, learning what Julias and Mandlebrots are, coloring algorithms etc., I reinstalled Quadrium about a week ago and actually felt much more at home with it. Remember it's very easy to get frustrated and think you'll' never be that good'. I hear that every day...but remember that art is undefined: You don't measure art by what others are doing but by what you have inside and how you draw that out and share it with others. I will add that for me the two most important factors to account for in any artwork are texture and light, next to that composition and then color.

I am not a fan of Dark Art but sometimes if an image is very well lit and textures I get totally sucked in by it. I believe it is these two factors that “sell” art to me. I have learned pretty much all I know by trial and error - regardless of the genre I work in or application I use. Photoshop tutorials are only a relatively new thing. In the olden days we had to read web pages for tips or share text documents. pdf helped a bit too when it came along but in recent years I feel that IT has rally taken off with technology developments and particularly forums. These I find are a big help so if you have a question or need a technique look for it here... if it's not here ask someone (it don't cost nuttin ter ask!) and if still puzzled look for a forum on the web for your given discipline or application.

Who are your influences?
I have always been a huge fan of Vermeer and will likely take that admiration with me to the grave. Aside from that I love The Art Deco Genre The post-impressionists and cubists through to Bauhaus and Surrealism. With few exceptions I am not really a fan of the Classic Styles.Of my contemporaries Ryan Church is God, I admire greatly the work of Dylan Cole, Aaron Sims and Chris Stoski also. I like Giger but feel he his work is a bit clichéd and overrated but technically very good. I am also Wowed by the Artwork of Pablo Amaringo and Alex Grey and of my fellow deviants I love the work of my friend Santos *santosam81 in particular. I think we draw inspiration from one another even though our individual abstract and psychedelic styles are somewhat different. There are too many Fractal Artists here that I have much admiration for but Chris Martin :idevvelvet--glove: put me on the road with Ultra Fractal by asking me to test her marvellous Marble tutorial and I have always drawn inspiration from the work of another good friend ~Rykk . As for Apo I am influenced by a number of people but Eva :devxantipia1:'s work has always knocked me out. I have absolutely no idea how she can turn out several works a day, of amazing workmanship and consistently high standard in both Apo and more recently UF. Of late though I have changed my scope and am looking to varied artists like myself for inspiration.... I am finding that galleries of all fractals done with the same single application has started to lose their appeal

How long have you been making fractals?
Since March of 2007. I tinkered with Quadrium on Mac but have huge stability problems, then I played with APO for a while but had nit the patience for it and Ultimately used a host of applications before Ultra fractal which I have been working with since September.

Surreal: Shoetopia

Photography: Cricket

Painting: Portrait of a Lady

Manipulation/painting: Recurring Dream

Vector: Tiptoe

Psychedelic: Dance of the Psilocybes

Montage: A Brief History of Flight

Ultra Fractal: Hallelujah

Other Fractal: Inside Deal (Quadriunm) White Witch

Marble: Last Ride to Camelot (Photoshop) Cornucopia Pitch (UF)

Chance (Fraxplorer and Photoshop)


FEATURES STAMPIES
If you are one of the artists who were featured in any of my journals or news articles, please feel free to use one of the following stampies in your journals so you can get maximum EXPOSURE for your hard work!! Thank you! ss
or