I turn to my computer...

...and see how my line drawing algorithm manages to reproduce an image of Kate Bush.

Here's a video of the whole process...

and a few images...

Who is it?

So there is this facebook competition to reproduce a Bjork album cover with the prize of tickets to see her at Roskilde.

I thought I would give my line drawing algorithm a go at this but I think it will be invalid because the rules forbid the use of 'digital tools'. This is a shame as:

• I created the digital tool.
• It's quite biophilia inspired (quasi-evolutionary process and the image sometimes seems to grow crystalline-like).
• I was looking forward to seeing her at Primavera but she had to cancel.
• I can't draw.

Oh well - here is the result anyway...

And here is a video of the image being grown...

Worth doing anyway. I'll catch her on the next tour.

Angels of Monte Carlo

I love the work of this chap who layers packing tape onto glass to create images like this.

I thought I would have a go at writing a program to do the same. Initially tried to have a genetic algorithm placing virtual pieces of tape to try and match a target image. Results weren't great. Think I would need a massive population and an awful lot of computation to get anything half decent. I'll probably try again some time though.

So I tried a Monte Carlo approach. My code starts with a blank image and draws a random line (either black or white, random start and end, random thickness). If the line makes the image more like a given target image, it is retained other wise it is discarded and another random line is drawn (and so on).

I gave it a target image of the Angel of the North because I thought the clearly defined shape should be quite easy to find. Here's what it looked like after running for half an hour or so...

and then after around two hours...


More detail in the second image but perhaps not as pleasingly 'arty'. Quite pleased with how they're looking though. Am going to try a few different target images and see what I get.