Interlocking Spiral Drawings Inspired by M. C. Escher's Print Whirlpools

Whirlpools, by the Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher, is a woodcut print in which fish interlock as a double spiral tessellation. Inspired by this print, in this article we extend the idea and present a general method to create Escher-like interlocking spiral drawings of N whirlpools. To this end, we first introduce an algorithm for constructing regular spiral tiling T. Then, we design a suitable spiral tiling T and use N copies of T to compose an interlocking spiral tiling K of N whirlpools. To create Escher-like drawings similar to the print, we next specify realization details of using wallpaper templates to decorate K. To enhance the aesthetic appeal, we propose several measures to minimize motif overlaps of the spiral drawings. Technologically, we develop algorithms for generating Escher-like drawings that can be implemented using shaders. The method established is thus able to generate a great variety of exotic Escher-like interlocking spiral drawings. © 2022 Association for Computing Machinery.