Motifs and Patterns on the Computer
Senior 3 · Fine Arts
Motifs and Patterns on the Computer
Lesson 1 of 4
20 min
The panel in the photograph below is not paint on a flat board. Every black line is a raised ridge, moulded by hand from cow dung mixed with ash, left to harden and then coloured. This is imigongo, an art form from the east of Rwanda. Its double spiral is simple enough to draw in one line, yet it holds the eye. Designers all over the world look for exactly this kind of shape. In this unit you will turn cultural symbols like these into your own digital motifs and patterns, using a computer. The first step happens away from the screen: finding and understanding your source.
Definition
Motif: a single shape or design that is repeated to make a pattern. Example: one spiral from an imigongo panel.
Pattern: a design made by repeating a motif in a planned way.
Symbol: a shape that stands for an idea, a group or a story. Example: the Adinkra symbol Sankofa from Ghana stands for learning from the past.
Stylisation: simplifying a real form or a detailed design into clear, flat shapes while keeping its character.
Cultural heritage: the traditions, crafts and symbols a community has handed down, which belong to that community.
Every culture has a store of shapes that have been repeated, refined and passed down for generations. They are good design sources because they have already been tested: they are balanced, they repeat well and they carry meaning. The table compares four African sources you may meet.
| Source | Where from | Typical motifs | What to notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imigongo | Eastern Rwanda (the former Kibungo area) | spirals, zigzags, lozenges (diamonds), nested squares | raised ridges; traditionally black, white and red, with grey and beige |
| Agaseke baskets | all over Rwanda | triangles, zigzag bands, stars and rings on the lid | the coiled weaving makes stepped edges; motifs repeat round a circle |
| Adinkra cloth | Akan people, Ghana | named symbols stamped in a grid, such as Sankofa and Gye Nyame | each symbol carries a proverb; printed in black on cloth |
| Kuba raffia cloth | Kuba kingdom, Democratic Republic of the Congo | interlaced lines, broken and shifting geometric patterns | the pattern deliberately changes as it goes, rather than repeating exactly |
Imigongo is traditionally made by women. A mixture of cow dung and ash is moulded on a wall or board into ridges, left to harden and coloured with natural pigments. Old imigongo decorated the inside walls of houses in the east of Rwanda; according to tradition, the art was begun by Prince Kakira of the Gisaka kingdom. The skills almost disappeared after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, and a women's cooperative near Kirehe, in the Eastern Province, revived them. Today imigongo is made on boards, tiles and pottery for homes, hotels and offices.
Agaseke is the Rwandan coiled basket with a pointed lid, woven from grasses and sisal. Its patterns are built from small stitches, so curves become steps and triangles. That makes agaseke motifs especially easy to rebuild on a computer grid.
Figure 1 shows the three stages. Observe: draw the source as it is, including its irregular hand-made lines. Simplify: keep the character (the turning spiral, the sharp zigzag, the nested diamond) but straighten lines, make spacing even and reduce the number of colours. Make a unit: fit one repeat into a square tile. This unit is what you will build on the computer in Lesson 3 and repeat in Lesson 4.
Record each source on a source sheet: a sketch, the name of the source, where it comes from, what it means if you know, the colours used, and your simplified versions. A good source sheet has at least three sources and six simplified motifs.
Worked example: analysing a source
Teta photographs the lid of an agaseke at home. It has a ring of eight dark triangles pointing outwards around a small central circle.
Step 1. Shapes. Triangle and circle.
Step 2. Repeat. Eight triangles round a centre, so each takes . This is a rotational repeat.
Step 3. Colour. Two: dark brown on natural straw.
Step 4. Motif unit. One triangle. Teta can draw it once on the computer and rotate copies by to rebuild the lid, or repeat it in rows to make a border.
Step 5. Credit. "Inspired by an agaseke lid, Rwanda."
<em>Imigongo: The evolution of Rwanda's traditional designs</em>, from The New Times Rwanda. Watch how the ridges are built up and coloured, and note which shapes appear again and again.
Warning
Don't take the colours on trust. A photo on a screen may be brighter or darker than the real object. Where you can, record the colours from the object itself.
Don't mix up imigongo and painting. Imigongo is raised relief. When you draw it flat on the computer, say so: "inspired by imigongo", not "imigongo".
Tip
Observe, simplify, unit. Draw what is there, keep its character in clean shapes, then put one repeat in a square.
Practice
What is the difference between a motif and a pattern?
Name three motifs found in imigongo and say what they are traditionally made of.
Why are agaseke motifs especially easy to rebuild on a computer grid?
An agaseke lid has 12 triangles evenly spaced round its centre. By how many degrees must each copy be rotated?
A classmate wants to print an Adinkra symbol on the soles of sandals. What would you advise, and why?
Source sheet. Make a source sheet with three cultural sources (at least one Rwandan). For each, give a sketch, the name and origin, the colours and two simplified motifs.
1. A motif is a single shape or design; a pattern is made by repeating a motif in a planned way.
2. Any three of: spirals, zigzags, lozenges (diamonds), nested squares. Made of cow dung mixed with ash, moulded into ridges and coloured with natural pigments.
3. They are built from small woven stitches, so curves become steps and triangles, which fit a grid.
4. .
5. Find out what the symbol means first. Adinkra symbols carry proverbs and some have religious meaning (Gye Nyame refers to God), so putting one where it is walked on could cause offence; choose a different place or a different motif.
6. Check: three sources with origins named, colours recorded, six simplified motifs, and a credit line for each.
Which source on your sheet means most to you or your family, and how could you keep that meaning when you turn it into a modern design?
Sources and credits
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
