Meet Connor aka Terra Lens as an artist. His interests include having good conversations, listening to music and dancing, and making art and sharing it for people to see in their own perspectives. We asked Connor about his art and workflow.
Terra Lens
— How and when did you start your way in photography and graphic design? Is it your work or your hobby?
I got started in photography when I was very young. Picking up a camera at 3 or 4 is the earliest memory I have, and from there, I ended up going to an art magnet high school program for photography. Eventually, as a young and insecure creator faced with the multitudes of expectations adulthood brought with it, I dropped out and had to focus on graduating high school. Eventually, after many years of work, play, and everything outside and in between those, I rediscovered that youthful passion to create art again, and found it in photo manipulation through apps like Photoshop or One Lab for the Android OS, and began replicating techniques that inspired me the most while in film photography in high school.
— When and how did you find Filter Forge?
Eventually, I hit a wall, where I felt that I could only do so much with my limited, self taught knowledge. I ended up asking Matt Mills on Instagram (one of my favorite artists and after this, people!) for a pointer or advice for a new abstract artist to use around April-June 2020. That's when he introduced me to Filter Forge, and the door opened. Everything was at my fingertips with Filter Forge in ways that really allowed me more creative flexibility, and it has been an integral part of my toolkit since I started making art more seriously AND as I learned more techniques for Photoshop.
See What Others Cannot. Filters used: StevieJ's DistortionPainter by StevieJ, Bloom by Sim9
—How do you use Filter Forge in your workflow? What other programs do you use?
Filter Forge is a major aspect of my workflow. Whether I am applying filters to images or generating textures to be further edited and used, it matters little. All is fair game with Filter Forge, and part of my process with it specifically is utilizing blend modes on duplicated layers of the same edit in multiple variations. I experiment a lot with different filters and how they can affect an image, then put that same image over itself again and again with different blending modes for each layer, and then repeat the process with other areas or filters. Eventually the output is what you see with my art.
Metarobotic. Filters used: 3D Metallic Techno-Grid #1 by DJI, Alien Engineering by ssamm, Blacklight by TBH-1138, and Bloom / Glow by AwesomeSauce
— Have you tried to process videos or create procedural animation in Filter Forge?
I have tried, though to be honest I haven't given it much effort or thought since making a simple gif. It feels somewhat frustrating to use though I'm still on the first edition to have animation, and much of my focus has been on making still images. I have certainly considered using it to make simple edits to images for posting to socials!
— What filters do you like most? Can I have a list of your favorite filters?
Basically any filter made by Martin Naumann! I discovered him on instagram recently and realized he made a majority of my most used and favorite filters.
Steppes2. Filters used: Wireframe by Boogie Jack, HDRize by Skybase, Fiber Optic Neon by Dynamicsage, Colored Bloom Glow by mitaywalle
— Have you ever tried to make your own filters? If yes, which ones?
I have tried, I'm still a bit unfamiliar with the node approach, but driven to learn more after these last few years using the program. After some experimenting I was finding a groove to it.
— What filters and features are you missing in Filter Forge?
I have the local library backup from when I bought Filter Forge 10, using Filter Forge 11 Pro edition, so I'm presumably missing the latest edition (12 I believe) and newest filters and features.
Connor, thank you for the answers! Visit Connor's @terra_lens Instagram account to see more of his artworks.
