Comments on: Help select contest entry

By: dhill

dhill — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:03:28 +0000

Hey Mimi, thanks for helping me pick! Really this has been a chance for me to submit them all to my own contest and not have to silently cull them, without any appreciation.

Thanks to all the people who emailed me, too. I’ll probably make my choices tonight and submit them Friday morning, but anyone who still has comments, please feel free to add them to the thread at any time.

Soon I’ll get back to writing new posts, looking at new patterns and showing the work of other artists I admire, so please come back and look from time to time.

By: Mimi

Mimi — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:24:16 +0000

Hi, Doug -
Thanks for inviting me to this forum of yours - it’s a fun “break” from work, looking at the wonderful visual images you’ve created.
I vote for numbers 3, 6 and 12 - I always find delight in symmetry, and I feel these three show an eye-catching range of color, shape and texture. Keep after this art you’re doing - you’re creating very special pieces, it’s fabulous that you’re getting them “out there” for more people to enjoy.
Regards-
Mimi

By: dhill

dhill — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 03:00:09 +0000

Avie, my wealth is increasing two cents at a time! Thank you for helping me in these conditions. My first daughter’s 23rd birthday is today, and what is a lifetime to her doesn’t seem so long to me. (Some of the nights seemed pretty long, I vaguely recall.)

Today has been educational for me. I have always liked number 9 very much. I didn’t include it originally because I was not sure it really qualified as “Geometric Shapes”. I haven’t had consistent feelings for 10 and 11. Number 12 I’m growing very fond of again.

I’m so glad people are willing to share their reactions to these patterns. It feels like a housewarming party.

By: Avie

Avie — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:47:23 +0000

Hi Doug,
I am so happy to see that you are branching out on the business side of things. Your work is so wonderful.
I feel slightly insecure leaving my two cents as all the other commenters were much more eloquent and art-minded than I am bound to be. I have to agree with your cousin, though. I absolutely love 9, 10 and 11 the most. Then I would rank 12, 13 and 14. Next, 5,6 and 2.
Again, I’m sure I have no idea about anything. Well, I do know what I like. I will peruse your new website in more detail in the near future as I would like to look at it again when my baby isn’t screaming in the background. Daylight savings has really made bedtime more stressful than usual.
Take care and thanks for keeping me posted,
~Avie

By: Ann Horn

Ann Horn — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:57:56 +0000

Well, Doug, it does have spikes, if you see spikes.

By: dhill

dhill — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:40:58 +0000

Thanks, Ann. I’ve been amazed at how well patterns have worked from that picture of stones on the shore. It has such good gradients in it. I wouldn’t have thought there was enough to work with in the picture, but what is has happens to be lined up right.

I will study your lovely way of describing patterns: so clear and convincing. I am tempted to say of number six, “It’s got spikes!”

By: Ann Horn

Ann Horn — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:21:51 +0000

My choices. Here is my two cents worth:

6. The simple color scheme is eye-catching; the dark background showcases the light geometric shapes with a special effectiveness. The use of a variety of well-defined angles in the central motif makes for a bold and out-of-the-ordinary statement. It is somehow less ‘busy.’

3. This image seems to draw the eye to the edges of the frame, and only secondarily to the center, which is a departure from the usual, which works very well in my opinion, as does the balanced contrast between linear and curvilinear forms.

4. The subtle deviations from the predictable symmetry of the more the conventional designs causes one to stop, notice, and examine them, as well as to appreciate your contrasting color choices.

All potential winners!

By: dhill

dhill — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:19:49 +0000

Betty, thanks so much for your comments. I need to come up with a plan for creating photos with rich and varied color which also satisfy the other requirements of this technique. It’s not enough to chance upon them. In 2003, the first year I had a digital camera, we were lucky to have a spectacular fall, and there was a riot of color to explore. Since then it has been much more muted. Thank goodness for nasty, invasive barberry! I squatted down in the middle of the big patch of it in our Walmart parking lot with my teensy tripod to get most of those.

By: Betty Mackey

Betty Mackey — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 21:03:36 +0000

Your work is so complex. No one could tire of it because it shifts around in the eye and one time you see this color or detail but notice something else the next time you look. After quite a bit of time looking, here’s my opinion (of the moment). I prefer numbers 3 and 6 of your choices, and numbers 9 and 11 of your cousin’s choices. I really like all the images you made of the New Mexico blue sky, balloon, and grass, such as the one you have on Imagekind called rrskygrassb. Imagekind moosemntn12643d_1 is cool, too. Also the colors in all the images you made of the barberry leaf photo are truly great. There’s a card GC05059 with this, for instance.I hope to see some of your images on canvas because it is hard to see everything in all its richness on the computer screen. Keep up the great work!!

By: dhill

dhill — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:56:02 +0000

Very interesting. Thank you Kristen. I rarely think to treat photos with that kind of transformation, it was just something I experimented with for a few weeks, and I never have it in mind when I’m taking photos. I’ll try exploring more in that direction. It’s a transformation that works well with masses of color, whereas most of my patterns work best if they have at least some lines in them.

It’s also interesting because it’s the only transformation that has the entire source photo in it, once on the left and reversed on the right.