Four Seasons Calendar

_{Apophysis | GIMP}

See large sample month: [link]

See a preview of all months at the deviantART shop: [link]

This project is for the *HLGEM's calendar contest. I choose to work with the theme of "Four Seasons" since it is a concept I really enjoy and wanted to explore further.

I decided to approach this calendar as more of a journey through the seasons rather than simply lumping the months into four categories of three. Each piece is meant to be a symbolic representation of its respective month (of course, this only applies to more northern areas in the Northern Hemisphere, but, oh well).

I approached this project with two requirements in mind. First, each piece would be a fractal I personally enjoyed and second, would be an "organic" flame. I felt that this would lead to a final product that best reflected my personal style. No Grand Julians. No Rings2. No Lazysusans. No Fractal Explorer. And I believe that is what I achieved with the final version. I had many difficult decisions over which pieces to include, and some of the end selections surprised me. For instance, my notoriously unpopular favourite render, Still Life, was originally slated for February, yet somehow ended up on the cover (oh noes!). Its replacement, Glass, was not supposed to be in the calendar at all. Even the layouts changed drastically. (Which is exactly why I never spend time planning projects, because I always do something different in the end.)


Hopefully, this won't come off as too horribly dorky. Normally I wouldn't provide an explanation, but since I wanted the calendar to reflect my style and thoughts, figured it would be appropriate. This is one of those rare exceptions when I actually put a lot of thought into the meaning behind my work.

The Months:

Front Cover: Still Life
_{Chosen as the overall representation of the four seasons concept. Nearly all of the included fractals have a similar flame structure. The neutral gradient also works well for the cover image.}

January: Shell [Winter]
_{With winter underway, the land is cold and barren.}

February: Glass [Winter]
_{The winter sun melts the snow, and an icy glass covers a hibernating world.}

March: Landscape [Spring]
_{As ice and snow submit to warmer temperatures, the and flows with water.}

April: Watercolour Leaves [Spring]
_{The abundant rain combines with budding foliage to produce nature's own works of art.}

May: Spring Tree [Spring]
_{With Spring nearing its end, the trees have become full of vibrant leaves.}

June: Psyche [Summer]
_{We reach the beginning of summer and bid farewell to spring. (Truth be told, Psyche was getting in this calendar one way or another, so June was fitting as it happens to be my birth month.)}

July: Blood Flow - [Summer]
_{The heat from rising temperatures is unrelenting.}

August: Summer's End [Summer]
_{Before we can anticipate summer's last breath, we find ourselves at the end of the season.}

September: Death [Autumn]
_{The cycle of life begins to draw to a close.}

October: Autumnal [Autumn]
_{The world is bathed in a warm glow of golds and oranges.}

November: Death of the Autumnal Tree [Autumn]
_{After many years, the steadfast tree faces its final season.}

December: Peace [Winter]
_{As the end of the year draws near, the world joins together in celebration.}