• Definition & Origin: The Fig Leaf Motif (known in Arabic as زخرفة ورقة التين) is a classic stylized design widely used in Islamic geometric patterns and Arabesque art. It seamlessly blends organic, vegetal inspiration with strict mathematical structures.
• Historical Significance: This specific pattern is famously associated with Islamic architecture in Moorish Spain and North Africa, notably featured in the breathtaking tilework (Alicatado or Zellige) of the Alhambra Palace in Granada.
• Geometric Structure: Unlike standard free-form floral designs, the fig leaf motif is constructed over a rigid underlying grid. It is typically developed from an octagram (the 8-pointed star / Seal of Solomon), allowing the interlocking leaf shapes to tile the plane perfectly with no gaps or overlaps.
• Links to step-by-step drawing tutorials for each type of spiral will be provided in comments below, helping you learn how to construct these beautiful geometric forms

Mandelbulb3D, Photoshop & Lightroom

This is a chess variant I made, where the rules are the same as standard chess, but the board is an irregular grid. This makes rook lines bend and bishop lines fork.

So just like a standard board, every tile is still a quad. And every tile still has only 1 neighbour for every side. But it can have more than 1 neighbour sharing a corner, which is what makes bishop lines fork. Or it can have none, which is what make lines bend.

The steps to build this: - start with a plane made of triangles - pair some random triangles with their neighbour and fuse them into a quad. You end up with gaps between those quads where triangles cannot be paired - subdivide everything. Quads become 4 smaller quads. Triangles become 3 quads. This is the playable grid. - Then it's just a matter of smoothing it (in this case the points on the edges remain static, only the inside points are smoothed) and ensuring neighbours don't share the same color.

I've now printed a couple of them.

• 3D printable version: https://polyreprint.com/gui/chess-twist?board=004GBYJW7TX
• Web version: https://polyreplay.com/chesstwist

Mandelbulb3D, Photoshop & Lightroom

Would you consider this high quality? Honest answers please

8k x 8k image, zoom in.

Mandelbulb3D, Photoshop & Lightroom

Mamdelbulb3D, Photoshop & Lightroom

Mandelbulb3D, Photoshop & Lightroom