In this week’s free Deke’s Techniques episode, Deke does his third set of experiments in digitally created Op Art. Inspired by a work in the Dreamstime image library, he set out in Adobe Illustrator to create this undulating pattern.

Of course, any good eye-stimulating, brain-stirring, possibly headache-inducing piece of Op Art begins with planning, especially if you’re the math loving Deke. So in order to insure this experiment results in a seamlessly repeating pattern, he plots out his intentions first.

The actual piece begins with these two simple lines…

...which are then subject to the power of Illustrator’s Transform commands, and ultimately exploded into that thing that’s still waving at the corner of your eye two paragraphs above.

For those of you who are members of Lynda.com/LinkedIn Learning, Deke’s got an exclusive movie this week in which he manipulates the initial pattern into an "optimistic" (Deke’s word, no idea what he’s talking about) monochrome version, aka Op Art experiment 3b: Rolling Windows.

If your eyes can stand it, and you want to see the previous experiments, check out Deke’s Techniques Episode 189: Op Art Experiment 1a: Inflated Checkers...

... and Episode 201: Op Art Experiment 2a: Undulating Pattern.

Deke’s Techniques, experimenting in eye bending art.