ROTATION FORM GENERATION

Rotation Form is a new generation mode. It is very simple. Draw a form. And then rotate it one or more times. With this repetitive overlay of form, you get an armature to use to generate previously unimaginable forms.

How a form is rotated seems to have occupied the careers of many mathematicians. There are an unbelievable number of mathematically defined rotations, which include those for the euclidean plane, hyperbolic, 3D, and higher dimensions. Our interest will lie solely with 3D rotations. To keep this simple, I will limit the scope of this page to two of these rotation types: cylindrical, and spiral. These rotations are translations, which means that we preserve the composition and proportions of a form as we rotate it. That is to say, the form is not skewed or distorted.

CYLINDRICAL ROTATION
For the cylindrical rotation, which is technically a hexagonal crystal (diagram in the lower left corner of the drawing above), I used a dinosaur vertebrae from the Source Image below. I used a hexagonal rotation of approximately 60 degrees and so I drew the form 6 times. This establishes a basic armature. From this, you can do anything you want. I elected to draw one line and one tone, also six times, over each form. Three of the tones were red, three of them were ochre.

SCREW, OR HELICAL, AXIS ROTATION
For the Screw Axis rotation, drawing below, I used for my image source a fish head and skeleton, also below. I drew the form, again, 6 times. And I rotated it along a screw type axis. That is to say, the form moves along an axis as it is rotated, from right to left. While my rotation is not even, the form does rotate thru 180 degrees. As with the Cylindrical, I drew line + tone x 6, each iteration shown with a different color.

I will not take the time here to define some of the applicable terms that apply to rotation. The brief outline below will start to localize our new form generation mode. In the future, this outline will be expanded as we explore other facets of rotation symmetry as an armature for form generation.
Space Group
Translational Symmetry
Cylindrical
Screw Axis (Helical Axis)

In summary, Rotation Form is an easy, intuitive and fun mode which you can use to instantly start thinking in terms of form. This is a new addition to our Form Generation Modes, some of which include Automatic Form, Form Combine, Dot To Dot, etc. In our new mode, you absolutely will not be arranging shapes on your paper. You will instantly be taken into a holistic drawing mindset. This might open a door onto a new pathway in which you stop worrying about what your drawing looks like; instead, your only concern is how forms resolve. You might find that you enjoy a holistic form generative process, rather than continuing to try to express some sort of personal inner feeling or emotion with mere shapes. With this, as with any other Transparent Drawing Form Generation Mode, you might in fact stop arranging opaque shapes on your paper and shift into the wide open realm of form synthesis and generation.

The media for both of these rotational studies is:
– armature: Pigma Micron .08 felt tip
– line: water soluble pencil (soaked in water first)
– tone: acrylic ink