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CMYK Spirals

Six colourful circular shapes, each made of overlaid yellow, magenta, cyan, and black spirals. The colour distribution in each shape differs due to varying offsets of each spiral
Print Date
Print Duration
1 hour, 26 minutes, 56 seconds
Paper Size
210×297 cm (A4)
Distance Drawn
304.04 m

An experiment in using four identical but rotated spirals to produce interesting colour blending effects. Each of the six spirals contain four colours shuffled into a different order, producing subtly different effects. This was originally intended as a way to choose the “best” order to use in other larger-scale plots, but this piece has a charm of its own.

Artwork Details

  • 4 colours — Yellow, Magenta, Cyan, Black
  • Six spiral groups, each made up of four spirals
  • Each spiral has 70 evenly-spaced rotations
  • Spirals within a group are sequentially rotated by 90 degrees
  • Each group has the four colours in a different order, resulting in six unique variations
  • Digitally produced as SVG using a custom JavaScript framework
A screenshot from a computer, showing the original work with the same colour blending effects
Digital vector showing colour variations
A top-down overview of the completed piece, surrounded by the AxiDraw printer and the pens used

Pens used

  • Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner

    — 0.4mm
    Yellow, 88/44

  • Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner

    — 0.4mm
    Black, 88/46

  • Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner

    — 0.4mm
    Pink, 88/56

  • Stabilo Point 88 Fineliner

    — 0.4mm
    Azure, 88/57
An extreme closeup of the center of one of the spirals. The start point of each of the four lines are visible
Extreme closeup detail reveals how the various overlapping colours come together to produce the final result