Generative art

Over the past decade I explored many generative algorithms to create beautiful artworks with great details.

Check out my generative art blogposts

What is generative art?

Generative art is a very young facet of the technology and art region. It essentially involves creating visuals using equations and algorithms instead of brush or pencil strokes. The artist lays out the rules of the game; the ‘if’s and ‘then’s, and lets pixels follow them to create stunning pieces of art.

To create generative art I coded small programs that creates (moving) lines and other shapes. Those are captured and drawn upon a virtual canvas.

How to create generative art?

I started creating art with code when I wanted to learn Actionscript 3, all my generative works are created using Adobe Flash (which doesn’t exist anymore). This was an exciting platform at the time for creating interactive applications, games and animations. I used it to create graphics using code, the possibilities are almost endless. Later I started using JavaScript for it, most principles still apply, it just runs on a different platform.

I learned a lot about code by coding pieces of art. And I made art to break out of making normal websites or games.

It starts with small experiments, like semi-random lines drawn on screen. Most of the time I use some sort of graphics API to draw lines. When adding colors, often I pick colors from a photo to have nice natural colors. In some experiments automatic moving curves are used while generating, but sometimes the mouse or other controls are used to define the motion. Gradients can be applied. Sometimes lots of lines express some kind of motion in itself. But there are cases where perlin noise as motion input gain good results too. On a virtual canvas (bitmap) millions of lines can be drawn, which can give awesome and surprising results. Many times I try to blow out the maximum resolution, so I can deliver artworks suitable for prints on big prints.

Creativity and Technology

When I’m tinkering with code, randomness and colors, the game is to make a balance between chaos and control in the composition. There is a lot of curation involved; what works and what doesn’t. Sometimes it is hard to recreate a same artwork, since random factors can be involved.
It will probably take a lifetime to explore the way to find the perfect balance between randomness and control.

As you can see there are several aspects that could have attention in creating generative arts. It can be by creating types of movement, different shapes or algorithms on colors. To apply more fun and variety, it could be a reactive on other input or data. With different assets, different ways of coding it can tell some kind of story. It’s possible to use music as a source, unwrap mathematical formulas or other creative solutions can be applied in this very unknown process.

There are several small snippets and info on my blog about the process. You wont find much code; the journey is the reward. That said, most code is 100% a mess, hacked like nobody is watching 🙂

Prices & Prints

Recently a lot of my art is available as NFT on Tezos blockchain. This allows to digitally collect artworks. Find links to them at www.stroep.nl
I have been ranked in the top 20 artists on hicetnunc and fxhash.

Some of my artworks are available for print, check out my generative art webshop on curioos. Yes, you probably want one. The artworks are created with high-resolution (between 80-100 megapixel) with lots of details.