Another tessellation class is LIVE!

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This time, we will zero-in on symmetry group P3, the Three Cozy Buddies is how I like to call these character arrangements. Humans, animals, birds and fish, or geometric designs, the topics are endless. If you know the artist M.C. Escher, then you’ve seen his wonderful tessellations.

All you need for this class is a good dose of imagination, an iPad, and a stylus. No need for advanced drawing skills. No math skills. No geometry jargon. No programming.

And the KaleidoPaint iPad app is free!

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Second tessellation class is LIVE!

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Learn to create tessellation patterns with easy step-by-step lessons and plenty of examples. You will be drawing true nested shape tessellations in no time at all. No cardboard, no scissors, we will dive into all the symmetry groups over the next while. Using your iPad tablet, I will show you all the tricks I have learned in the last decade of drawing nested shape tessellations using KaleidoPaint. You will become a tessellation artist!

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Pentagonal tiling #tessellations, Part 3

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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

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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

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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 →

Tessellation Artists around the Globe

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Artists

Updated 2021-12-09:

Since M.C. Escher started popularizing “nested shape” tessellations, many artist have dabbled in the field. Some show a passing interest, yet still create with a very deep understanding of the rules of symmetry. Others can’t get enough and create constantly in this medium. Still other artists push the boundaries and explore off-spurs, into fractals, circle limits, non-repeating planes, animation, metamorphosis, pentagonal rules, morphing shapes, platonic solid tessellations, architecture, art shows, consumer products… Continue reading →

Follow me, this way! A tessellation by F.Champagne, ©2016, www.tessellations.ca

Breaking the Rules of Symmetry

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Constant compromise. Coming up with a tessellation is an excercise in seeing both sides of the coin. A long process of shifting the needs on both sides of the line and allowing the other side to use available space, without loosing sight of your own purpose, your own needs. Finding a crack somewhere, nudging a line, inserting a limb in a space between. Give and take. Just as in life. Elle philosophise. Continue reading →