Bloomin-lumin-ator

This is an image for one of my SpaceCraft Lanterns I'm making for my mom.

The fractal flame image from which this is based came from ~saisao in their Apophysis Flame Pack 2 [link]

I have been lately having a hard time getting enough color variation in my images, even when using ApoMap to create a repetition of a gradient using the "Frequency" setting. Recently I started desaturating flames altogether and using a "Gradient Map" to get the colors looking nicer (as I did in my Sulfuric Radiance image).

I did that this time but the edges of the little nodules were all rough and bright red. So then what I did was used the gradient mapped layer in "Color" mode on top of the B/W desaturated flame. After playing with the B/W layer's levels to get the brightness of the colors shining through, the edges of the nodules looked a lot better as they tapered off in brightness more. Finally, I did add a layer of the original coloring on top of all that to give some broader color variation.

This is the first time I've used brushes in my designs, more specifically a "Galactic" brush in the background to tone down the contrast and add a little more texture.

For all you GIMP geeks out there that can't quite understand what I mean by all this, you can download the hi-res source .xcf file and take a peek to see whats going on.