Pentagonal tiling #tessellations, Part 3

Apprenticeship

Most of us learn the easy/best way. Look at the masters, follow their path and learn all that we can from them. Replicate their artwork. It is a long process, especially without any direction or assistance from a teacher. This is where I’m at right now — copying / learning from the pentagon symmetry system seekers: Reinhardt, Kershner, James, Rice, Stein, Mann, McLoud, and Von Derau. As I did for a while, copying M.C. Escher’s tessellations, decades ago, although I no longer need MCE inspiration to create a tessellation. Continue reading

Pentagonal tiling #tessellations, Part 2

My Pentagon Challenge is keeping  me busy. I am plowing my way through all of the pentagonal tiling types. Quite a few of them are built within either a perfect hexagon, or one that has been distorted beyond recognition. I am finding some interesting rules of symmetry I had not yet encountered. Wrapping my noggin around new concepts. Many of these symmetry types are skew-able, not only scale-able. Also, many of the anchor point for division lines inside hexagons are variable in their location, as long as the variable is kept constant for each pentagonal unit. Continue reading

Pentagonal tiling #tessellations, Part 1

Another challenge showing up on my desk, compliments of Woodpecker Carving. Hussein posted a beautiful Islamic geometric design, displaying the use of pentagons. But wait I thought, aren’t pentagons impossible to tile using the original seventeen symmetry groups? Or so I thought. I had seen intriguing examples of pentagonal tiles over the years, but I was still obsessed with M.C. Escher type nested shapes – and will always be. Continue reading

Wanna Play Frisbee?, a tessellation by F.Champagne ©2017

Frisbee Dog #Tessellation

This tessellation was done using the Pg symmetry system. Two parallel glide reflections with a few lines snaking from one to the other. In the sketch below, the thicker lines delineate the two characters, the guy and the dog. Not that many lines. The thinner lines add details to the shape. If you want to know an easy way to create this type of nested shape, have a look under the Techniques menu, and choose the symmetry group you would like to use.  Continue reading

Cellphone Zombie 5, Just prior to impact, a tessellation by F.Champagne ©2017

Cellphone Zombie Tessellation #5 – Prior to Impact

This will be my last#cellphonezombie tessellation, I hope. Getting it out of my system. This tessellation is done using the P4g symmetry group – a four point rotation within a mirrored box. Don’t like mirrors in symmetry, it creates a very rigid personage. But in this case, it might suit the occasion, the last fraction of a second, before impact, as the cellphone user realizes that there is something going on in the world around him. Could be a sign post on the sidewalk, a bench, the curb, another zombie, a missing manhole cover (I did watch a lot of Bugs Bunny), a vehicle… you decide! Continue reading

Cellphone Zombies tessellation, Francine Champagne ©2017, tessellations.ca

Cellphone Zombie Tessellations #1 & #2

Seems #cellphonezombies  are in the news quite a bit these days. Either in remote areas, small villages or in the dense jungle of big cities (Honolulu), a new phenomenon, a dangerous practice, far worse than distracted driving, you have no seatbelt! Walking around while looking at their cellphone’s latest bleeps, people seem unable to just ignore their techno addiction and focus on the world around them. Continue reading

Mountain Biker Tessellation ©2017 F.Champagne www.tessellations.ca

Mountain Biker Tessellation

One Tessellation a Day, for 30 Days! Ya, right.

I thought maybe it would be a cool idea to challenge myself to do a tessellation a day for 30 days. Maybe in a few decades when my teacup is not overflowing.

I must point out the difference between a tessellation and a pattern, as in cloth, tiles or wallpaper. They both use the same symmetry rules for filling space. But in the case of tessellations, your aim is to reduce negative space, empty areas, to zero. Where every single square inch is used up by a recognizable figure. Continue reading