Matthew James Taylor Matthew James Taylor

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Create Fractals With This Amazing Recursive Drawing Tool

14 May 2012 — Updated 13 Mar 2023

A fractal tree made by recursive drawing

I love recursive processes in science and I've been creating art from fractals for a long time.

Recently, I experimented with a recursive drawing process of building up pixels at different scales to create a tree.

Well that was nothing...

I've just discovered the best recursive drawing tool ever!

RecursiveDrawing.com

It's a web-based drawing app that works in your browser.

Watch the video first, it gives you an excellent introduction to how it all works. This is an amazingly simple tool where anyone can create beautifully complex pieces of art in no time at all.

I'm totally hooked!

Here are some of my creations:

coriander fractal
A coriander plant
70s triangle wallpaper fractal
Some funky 70s triangle wallpaper
huddle of people fractal
A huddle of people
Tall tree fractal
A tall tree
Paisley pattern fractal
A paisley pattern
Kidney shaped tree fractal
A kidney shaped tree
Art deco grass fractal
Art deco style grass
Curly hair fractal
Curly hair
Ink splots fractal
Splots of ink - quite organic.
Boab tree fractal
A boab tree.
Pixel dust fractal
Pixel dust.
Pixel bubbles fractal
Pixel bubbles.

It's really such a versatile tool and it's so fun to use.

It does have some drawbacks, however.

Here are some tricks I figured out:

The Recursive Drawing tool was built by Toby Schachman for his thesis project. It's also an excellent example of what can be done in the browser with HTML5, JavaScript, and the Canvas element.

I totally love it!

Next up:
Explore my fractal art
View my life drawings

Matthew James Taylor

I've been creating art all my life and running this website since 1997! During this time I've found many amazing tools and services that I cannot live without.”
— Matthew James Taylor

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