Hidden Fractalist Vol. XVIII.

Hi! My name is Petri Kinnunen. I live in Jyväskylä, Finland. Deviants know me as PJKfractals (formerly as pete13k). I have been on Deviantart for about ten years now. I started submitting photographs in early days. There has been a long pause since my first pieces (family etc etc...). About a year ago I started to make art again. This time I have contributed only with fractals. I am 35 years old with wife and a son. There are also two stepdaughters in the family. We bought a house in June so there was few months break. We did quite big renovations in the house, so I haven't had time to do art during this summer. Now things look good.

I discovered DeviantArt about 12 years ago. Back then I soon discovered fractals and started doing them myself. I think it was the space like fractals what got me love the world of fractals. I have started three times to practice fractalmaking. First two times my enthusiasm didn't get far, but last year I decided to learn this thing. I know it will take some time to master even moderate degree this thing. I have learned so much lately that I think finally this is more fun than frustrating. I searched my early works for this interview. I'm not sure which was the first, but Firebalrog was definitely one of the first ones.

I use Apophysis and Chaotica. I know that there are other softwares too, but I decided to stick to those two. I use Apophysis to compose the structure of the fractal, then I export it to Chaotica to tweak and twist it. Coloring is done mainly in Chaotica with Chaoshelper.

For me art is a hobby. It is great balance for day job. I also play guitar. That's my other way to make art. Guitar playing is for myself, but I have took some commissions for fractals so that is more than myself. I do some co-work with a 3D interior designer here in Finland. She uses my works in her interior designs.

I think it was works of ChaosFissure, which caught my eyes last year that got me once again to start to create fractals. His works has been such a big inspiration for me because he makes great abstracts. After that I have discovered many other great artists. You (LukasFractalizator) make very nice painterly fractals. triptychaos has similar approach to mine. tatasz and fellow finnish artist BoxTail have very nice works as it comes to more structured fractals. tatasz has also helped me with multi-loop fractals. It took me sometime to master that whole Xaos madness. It still is.

Of course. I'm still quite a novice. I do a lot of tutorials and that way try to understand the complexity of the fractals. You learn a lot from tutorials and then try to adapt things to your own works. A lot of learning comes from trial and error. I mastered just a few variations/transforms properly. There are infinite possibilities with all those plugins. Lately I have been practicing with blurring.

Could you share the process of making any of your fractal pieces?

Like I said earlier, I use Apophysis to compose the structure of the fractal. I find it easier than using Chaotica for that purpose. I might use a lot of time to get an interesting picture. I also test a piece in Chaotica during the composition and then go back to Apophysis to tweak it a little more. In Chaotica I start experimenting with colors (I use Chaoshelper to find the right gradient). Big part of that is also brightness/gamma testing. That's my usual workflow.

Although I am just a hobbyist, I hope some day I will have wide audience watching my works. I don't mind if someday I get part of my living through fractal art. I think fractal art is quite underrated. I hope that I can make it a little bit more visible among a wider audience.

Chaos would describe, if you think about it, what happens "behind the scenes" with all those transforms and plugins. Other than that I think second best answer is Amazing.