Flow fields are a technique for creating patterns in generative art. For a long time I’ve been impressed by art generated using this technique but I couldn’t wrap my head around the concepts.

Recently I read a couple of great articles that really helped the concepts click for me:

• Tyler Hobbs is a fantastic generative artist. His article about flow fields is where I was first introduced to the concept.
• Stanko wrote a great article with illustrations that helped things finally click for me.

I experimented with these techniques and made a few generative art pieces that I’m reasonably happy with.

I’m excited to keep exploring how flow fields can be used to generate art. In particular I’m interested in:

• Improving the performance! Using lines instead of dots could make this a lot more performant…
• Using more advanced functions like Perlin noise to place the “vectors.”
• Combining flow fields with other generative art techniques.
• Making some physical art pieces with a pen plotter! (Hint, hint Santa!)
• Integrating flow fields into video game logic.