Generative Art Prints

Trying something new this week: I’m taking some of the generative art prints I’ve made over the years and getting them ready to put in my shop. I’ve written a bit about my generative art process, which is not purely “generative,” in that it’s not created directly from code. Instead I use a sort of brute force method, where I employ algorithmic based art apps to generate many iterations of an image. I then choose the best ones out of hundreds of choices. On my to do list is to learn how to use processing, so I can code my own art.

How to make generative art prints

I like creating these images as an exercise, or a sort of a warm up sketch. It’s fun and relaxing and uses the design part of my brain. But to use them for for art prints I have to step it up a bit and make sure the resolution is good for making a print. I have several methods for doing this. The first method is to take what I have and vectorize it. That way it can scale to any size, and be output at any resolution. Unfortunately, my vectorize app, vector Q, is sometimes a little glitchy.  It generates these soft curvy lines, when I would like something more sharp. It’s all part of the game, though. Glitch in, glitch out. Here are some generative art prints made with this method:

The second method is to run simple images through the decim8 app and patch them together like a collage. That is how I started working in this wide format:

These will soon be for sale as art prints, but for now I am still perfecting my workflow. When I do get around to it, I think the wide format ones might look good printed on metal. The square ones could be printed on a nice, heavy archival paper. And of course, I could just sell them as digital files.

Another option to own one of these generative art prints is to buy an NFT! A few months back I created an opensea account so I could learn all about NFTs, cryptocurrency, and Ethereum. The result is that I now have two NFT collections on Opensea, and a very small amount of ETH, that has fluctuated wildly in value since March. I haven’t made any traction yet as far as sales, or even views/likes for that matter. All of this will sounds like some good material for my next blog post, coming soon!