Recitation 5: Processing Basics

Motif:

Artist: Josef Albers

Title: Impossibles

source: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/143 Bauhaus School of Arts

This image is abstract and made up of a lot of lines. Although it has only three colors, it is easy to get the idea of the perspective relations of the shapes within the picture. It looks simple but actually, it’s hard to draw.

I use functions such as arc(), ellipse(), line() to make a rough draft of the shape. But then I realize that I should use rect() to cover some of the shapes to produce exactly what I want. Also, I need to adjust the sequence of the shapes so that the shapes at the bottom are at the front of the code to be programmed first. Besides, I use fill(), notFill(), stokeWeight(), noStroke() to set the colors of the picture.

Picture:

My final creation is highly similar to the motif. Ours are all composed of lines and basic shapes. However, mine is not perfect enough as the motif because I don’t know exactly how long the line should be. It is easy to cover the lines at the top with an arc to make the margin smooth, but it is extremely difficult and complex in the bottom one. So, it is a great pity that I didn’t make it perfect.

Code:

size(600,800);
background(50);


fill(100);
strokeWeight(2);
noStroke();
rect(120,100,160,80);
rect(120,340,160,360);
stroke(255);
line(120,100,120,700);
line(280,100,280,700);
arc(200, 180, 160, 160, 0, PI, OPEN);
arc(200, 340, 160, 160, PI, TWO_PI, OPEN);

ellipse(160,340,80,80);

arc(200, 700, 160, 160, 0, PI, OPEN);
ellipse(240,700,80,80);

line(200,340,200,700);
strokeWeight(7);
line(210,360,210,725.5);
strokeWeight(3);
line(225,365,225,735);
strokeWeight(3);
line(240,380,240,740);
strokeWeight(7);
line(270,360,270,727);

strokeWeight(1);
arc(240,340,80,80,0,PI,OPEN);

line(145,340,145,755);
strokeWeight(7);
line(135,360,135,740);
strokeWeight(3);
line(190,365,190,776);
strokeWeight(7);
line(180,360,180,775);

strokeWeight(1);
ellipse(160,340,80,80);


strokeWeight(13);
line(140,150,140,230.5);
strokeWeight(3);
line(165,165,165,253);
strokeWeight(15);
line(250,150,250,234);
strokeWeight(3);
line(265,145,265,232);

strokeWeight(1);
ellipse(200,100,160,160);

I believe drawing in Processing is a good means of realizing my design because the lines and shapes in it can be regular and perfect, which can’t be produced by human hands. However, it is kind of too complicated to draw it with Processing since it’s function is limited and not intuitive enough.