Digital art – Christopher Madden

The generation of something from nothing

The generation of something from (almost) nothing.

Rows of dots interacting to generate circles. Digital This version: June 2025

This image is composed of multiple identical rows of dots with the rows arranged at regular angles to each other and with regular spacing. An animation showing the positioning of the rows of dots can be seen here.

The circles in the image are formed as the result of the interaction between the separate rows of dots. There are no circles in the underlying components of the image. An idea of the underlying rows of dots in the image can be found by looking at the corners of the image where the number of rows is fewer.

I’ve produced several images of this type over the years since about 2017.

The work is linked to my interest in the scientific principles concerning the generation of complexity in the universe from simpler forms. Ultimately this involves trying to comprehend the generation of the most basic entities in the universe from something that’s just one step removed from nothing. It’s about the generation of something from nothing.
Circles from straight lines

Circles generated from overlapping straight lines of dots

Digital animation June 2025

This is an animation of a work that I created in 2017.

It starts with a of a row of dots which are repeated and rotated to form a star shape. This shape is then repeated and repositioned in specific locations relative to the original star shape. The resulting patterns are then repeated and repositioned in the same way.

The pattern generated by the positions of all of the repeated dots that were in the original straight line contains multiple overlapping and interacting circles.
Complex forms from simple forms.

Relative rotating grids creating complex forms from simple forms.

Digital animation June 2025

A work from my Complexity series studying the generation of complex forms from simple forms.

Identical simple grids of dots are superimposed and rotated relative to each other. The grid for this piece is shown below.

Simple algorithms dictate how the superimposed grids interact with each other. For instance where the same colours on each grid are superimposed on each other they cancel out to generate white and where complementary colours are superimposed they generate black.

The genesis of this series was my attempt to find a visual metaphor for the creation of the complexity of the universe from an almost absurdly simple starting point.

The basic grid that generates the pattern in this work
Sketch of a bizarre figure with no head

Sketch of a bizarre headless figure with flying head

Digital sketch on iPad. February 2025

A digital sketch from the imagination, drawn on an iPad.

This sketch was drawn spontaneously, with no preconceived idea of what I was going to draw.

It’s quite bizarre and fantastical, maybe a bit unsettling and grotesque.

The process involved drawing the slightly random black form of the body first and then adding additional elements that were suggested by the shape of the body. The giant hands were the first additions. These suggested that the figure should remain headless.

The hands seemed to be grasping for something, which suggested a floating object just out of reach of the hands. This in turn suggested that a floating head could be the object, particularly because the figure had no head.

This in turn gave rise to the idea that the head could actually be flying, and that it could be doing so with the use of extra-large ears (possibly reflecting the extra-large hands of the headless figure).
Bird

Silhouette of a hornbill

Digital (iPad). 22nd February 2025

An iPad sketch in Procreate of a bird drawn from the imagination. I’ve given it a hornbill-like bill, so I suppose it’s a hornbill.

I like the dramatic effect of using strong areas of black with smaller areas of colour.

I’ve deliberately avoided giving the bird an obvious eye.
Drawing from the imagination – ship with legs sketch

Drawing from the imagination – ship with legs

Digital drawing (Procreate on iPad). 8th January 2025

A sketch from the imagination depicting a ship with legs.

The ship looks as though it may be based on a historical wooden sailing ship. The masts resemble crosses for some reason, each having only one horizontal member (or yard). This is probably just for simplification and clarity (and laziness) rather than it being some sort of profound allusion to Christianity. Feel free to find a profound allusion though. The legs are very long and spindly, which is probably linked to the long-legged surreal birds that I’ve drawn on and off over the years, starting about fifty years ago in the 1970s.

The sketch was drawn on an iPad in Procreate. I see from the metadata that it’s got 318 strokes and it took 12 minutes.
Black spheres, red sphere

Black spheres, red sphere

Digital. December 2023

An abstract image created using Procreate on an iPad

The black spheroid forms seem to be holding the smaller red spherical form in suspension between them. The proximity of the black spheres gives the small gap between them the feeling of some form of concentrated energy.
Contemporary abstract art – Red Disc, Yellow Rim

Contemporary abstract geometric art: Red disk, yellow rim

Digital. May 2023

A geometric abstract painting produced using Procreate on an iPad with an Apple Pencil. This is a particularly useful way to create artwork, as the combination of tools lend themselves to particularly intuitive and spontaneous creations.
Bell

Hanging man. For whom the bell tolls

Digital sketch December 2023

A sketch created using Procreate on an iPad.

The sketch shows a bell. Inside the bell, in the place where the clapper should be, is a hanging man.

The image came to me spontaneously while I was looking at a bell. I think that part of the idea may be that the bell marks out time, announcing the hours,and therefore marks out life.

Bells are also tolled to mark out death.
Expansion II

Expansion II

Digital animation. 2023

A digital animation composed of layers of expanding and radiating forms.

This work is from a series that explores the generation of complexity from simplicity by the interaction of simple forms to create complex forms.
Leaping Stagman

Leaping Stagman

Digital print. 30cm x 21cm 2023.

This work was exhibited in Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery over the summer of 2023.
Drawing from the imagination: Strange clothes, strange propulsion

Drawing from the imagination: Strange clothes, strange propulsion

Digital sketch. 16th July 2023

A quick sketch from the imagination drawn using Procreate on an iPad with an Apple Pencil.

I find that drawing quick sketches with no particular end in mind is an excellent way to open up to new possibilities. Obviously the same themes and styles keep cropping up, but often with minor variations that move the sketches off into different and new directions. That’s the nature of evolution of course – small changes over time gradually end up creating something new.

I’ve drawn quite a few sketches of people or strange creatures that seem to have a wheel instead of legs. Haven’t managed to work out why yet.
Circles and rays

Circles and rays

Digital. 2022

A print taken from a digital animation of expanding circles and rays.
The work is related to my interest in both art and science, and is inspired by the concept of the expansion of the universe.
I’ve been interested in both art and science most of my life. In fact in my youth (over fifty years ago) my ambition was to be an astronomer. I even constructed my own astronomical telescope, including grinding the parabolic mirror, when I was a teenager.
Stilt Walker

Stilt Walker

Digital. 2023

A digital sketch of a person on stilts. The stilts have wheels.

Stilt walkers have been an occasionally recurring theme in my work since about 1975.
Surreal sea creature. Drawing from the imagination.

A surreal sea creature drawn from the imagination.

Digital image. 6th May 2023

A bizarre sea creature created digitally in Procreate on an iPad. The shape of the sea creature is based on the number six, as the image was created as part of an exercise in which I sketched several images on my iPad based on the numbers between zero and nine. The concept behind the exercise was that by having to take into account the restraints of including a number in each image I would be forced to work with forms or shapes that I might not think up straight from my imagination.

When creating the sketch I was attempting to produce a bizarre, weird and sinister image. The result looks as though it owes a debt to surrealism, dada and the symbolists.
Dada and humour: Duchamp Fountain with added spider

Contemporary Dada: Duchamp Fountain with Spider

Digital image. April 2023.

A digital image based on Marcel Duchamp’s Dada artwork, Fountain. Fountain is a ready-made in the form of a pissoir. The version of Fountain in the image is in Tate Modern in London (Duchamp created several versions of the work using different pissoirs. The original version no longer exists).

In this work a spider is trapped in the pissoir in the same way that spiders are trapped in baths.

The spider hopefully adds an extra touch of humour to a work that is already humourous. The humour partly resides in the fact that it’s unusual to see a spider where you don’t expect to see one (in an artwork), but at the same time the spider is exactly where you’d expect to see one (trapped in a piece of bathroom sanitary ware).

I’m a frequent visitor to Tate Modern, and whenever I look at Duchamp’s Fountain I’m struck by how esthetically pleasing the form of Fountain is. I’m not sure whether or not Duchamp thought this himself or whether he chose the pissoir with no esthetic considerations involved.
Striding figure

Striding figure

Digital sketch April 2023

A monochrome sketch, created using Procreate on an iPad, depicting a striding figure.

The work is from the imagination and was created spontaneously with no specific concept in mind.
Number Two in a series

Number Two in a Series

Digital print. Drawn in Procreate. March 2023

Titled Number Two in a Series, this is part of a series of prints based on images of numbers drawn in Procreate on an iPad.
Abstract digital art created on iPad

Digital abstract painting

Painted in Procreate. March 2023

This is an example of digital abstract art, created in Procreate on an iPad using an Apple Pencil.

The brushes in software such as Procreate and Adobe Fresco are getting better all the time, allowing for much more spontaneous and expressive work than was ever possible in the past. The expressiveness of the medium is now such that I think that the results can legitimately be classed as paintings rather than just digital art.
Ants as a Superorganism

Superorganism.

Digital print. 2023.

A depiction of the concept of a superorganism.
A superorganism is the name given to such things as colonies of insects in which the members of the colony act together so that the whole colony functions as though it is a single entity, and in which the individual members of the colony are probably not viable to survive alone.
In the image hundreds (or maybe thousands – I lost count) of ants swarm across a rock and form into the shape of a huge single ant.

The subject of the image reflects my interest in both art and science.

Below is a detail of the work to show the appearance of the individual ants close-up.

The image was created in Affinity Designer .