1. Creating Tessellating Art
Creating Tessellating Artwork
Creating Tessellating Art
Artwork inspired by M.C. Escher

2. Maurits Cornelis Escher
1898, Leeuwarden, Holland.
* His father wanted him to be an architect, but bad grades in school and a love of drawing and design led him to a career in the graphic arts.

3. Escher Self-portrait
Escher Self-portrait

4. Convex Concave Lithograph, March 1955

5. Escher was fascinated by every kind of tessellation
* In 1957 he wrote an essay on tessellations. Mathematicians, had shown that only the
regular polygons,
triangle, square, and hexagon
* could be used for a tessellation . Escher used these basic shapes in his tessellations.

6. Sometimes Escher changed the basic shapes
By “distorting” the basic shapes he changed them into animals,
birds,
and
other figures.
The effect can be
both startling and beautiful.

7. Escher Horses

8. Begin with a simple geometric shape - the square

9. Change the shape of one side

10. Copy this line on the opposite side

11. Rotate the line and repeat it on the remaining edges

12. Erase the original shape

13. Add lines to the inside of the shapes to turn them into pictures.

14. Add color to enhance your picture.

15. By repeating your shape you create a tessellated picture

16. Escher liked what he called “metamorphoses,”.
where shapes changed and interacted with each other.

17. Another example of metamorphosis

18. Lets make a simple tessellating shape
a metamorphasis
Tessellation

19. Begin with a simple geometric shape - the square

20. Change the shape of one side

21. Repeat the line on the opposite side

22. Change the shape of the top

23. Repeat this line on the bottom

24. Erase the square

25. Turn shape looking for two hidden animals, flowers, fish, insects, or birds.

26. Draw a line that separates the two hidden shapes you have found.

27. Add a few lines that bring out your hidden shapes.

28. Separate the two shapes so you can use them one at a time

29. Make four versions of each shape, each version with more detail
The most detailed shape can be changed quite a bit

30. Make four versions of each shape with more detail
The most detailed shape can be changed quite a bit

31. Color all of one type of shape the same basic color scheme

32. Line up the simplest shape with the most complex along the bottom

33. Line up the next most complex with the next simplest

34. Add the next row in the same way

35. Completed Tessellation

36. Completed Tessellation

37. Completed Tessellation