this figure is an amazing geometrical pattern called a philotaxis. if i recall correctly, it was introduced to me by tait, and i have enjoyed it a great deal since learning about it, finding it in natural patterns like the seeds of a sunflower and using it in many of my drawings (some examples of which can be seen to the right of this blog).i couldn't find any instructions for creating this figure on the internet, so here they are. draw any number of concentric circles, then divide them with any number of equally spaced straight lines, as seen on the left page. this divides your circles into a number of small, curved rectangles (sort of). start at the middle, connecting the lower left corner of each unit to the upper right corner, with a curved line. repeat this process twice for each unit, going from lower right to upper left the second time. as you can see, all the lines should come together in the center of the circle. if you draw the circles and straight lines in pencil, you can draw your philotaxis in pen, and erase the guidelines when you're done as i have done on the right half of the finished diagram.
once you get started there are an infinite number of interesting variations to try.
Thanks for posting this, it really is a beautiful design. Alberto was the one who first showed me, and I figured you would find much more use for it (though it would be curious to try to adapt it's structure to either literature or music...).
ReplyDeleteThank you. This was just what I needed to make a thank-you card for a woman who taught me a mandala drawing class during the summer.
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