This is the staggered stacks group. At its minimum, I equate it to the lozenges in a Bavarian flag. Always looks like a cinema audience or a crowd in a telephoto lens. Two parallel mirrors, with a glide line in between.

If a line is drawn, from one mirror to the other, its glide reflection, and further repetition will create the tessellation. Depending on the number of lines you add, you will get more or less separate individual figures. The drawing below has two lines, the red original one and an added green line, two lines for two figures. Mirrors are full lines, glides are dashed lines in between.

The “Bobblehead Grannies Everywhere” are drawn with a single line connecting the two parallel mirrors. Mirrors are the full lines, and the dashed lines are the glides.

“Have you seen the size of his crabs?”, possible pun intended, is built with two lines connecting the mirrors. The two lines together outline the Fisherman and the Crab. Two lines, two figures.

And the latest one I’ve done with this symmetry group, “The Fortune Seekers”, built with 3 lines connecting various areas of the mirrors and other lines. Three lines for 3 figures. More or less an accurate description of possibilities for the symmetry group. And it still looks like a crowd scene to me.

An iPad app is available, which is what I have used here to create these images: KaleidoPaint by Jeff Weeks. Check it out.

There is also a java-based program “Escher Web Sketch”  at the Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne. Make sure Java is enabled and not blocked by your security software.

Or this screen-based software by Anselm Levskaya Escher Sketch v2.

Or a pair of scissors and a piece of cardboard works quite well. That’s how I learned.

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If you’re a “Learn by Seeing” “Learn by Doing” kind of person, I’ve started creating videos on “how-to” create tessellations. I’ll be covering each of the 17 symmetry groups, one class at a time. And like all artists, we need to make a living. So. I’ve uploaded these to the Skillshare platform. I’ll get paid by minutes watched.

You can take the classes for free. Skillshare offers anywhere from 2 weeks to a month for free if you sign up, even temporarily.

You can register for just a month and cancel anytime. It’s less than the cost of a Netflix subscription!
There are over 40,000 classes on topics for creative persons just like you. Join my mailing list, either here on my blog (in the sidebar), or a at this link for a specific list I use to announce new classes.

I’d love for you to join me on this wonderful learning adventure.

If you prefer, you can follow my progress on social media, I always announce my new class:
Facebook: Franc Champagne, and Vancouver Island Tessellation Artist
Instagram: champagne.francine
Twitter: FChampagne1
Linkedin: Graphic Design, PowerPoint and tessellations
Youtube: Video animations and class intros

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