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-: Hello, I'm Amina, and I'm a visual artist.
I teach Islamic art,
I teach Islamic geometric patterns and arabesque art.
In today's lesson, I'm gonna teach
an Islamic geometric pattern.
So, this pattern that we are going to learn
is a four-fold pattern.
All geometric patterns start off with a circle
that's divided into equal parts.
Depending on the number of equal parts
that it's divided into,
will determine the type of geometric pattern.
So, a pattern that is a four-fold pattern,
it will start off with a circle that's divided
into four equal parts.
And from there, you can get shapes such as
squares, eight-pointed stars,
and 16-pointed stars.
These are all multiples of four.
When you start off with a circle
and then divide into five equal parts,
you will get a five-fold pattern,
and from there you'll get shapes such as pentagons,
five-pointed stars, and 10-pointed stars.
And next would be a six-fold pattern.
You have a circle divided into six equal parts,
and from there you get shapes such as a hexagon,
six-pointed star, and 12-pointed stars.
This is the pattern that we are going to draw.
It is a four-fold pattern.
To draw this pattern, all we need is a compass, and ruler.
This is the compass that I will be using.
I will refer to this part of the compass as the middle tip,
and this part of the compass, where the pencil is,
as the lead tip.
The second thing we will need is a ruler.
And lastly, a pencil.
So, you will start off with a clean sheet of paper,
and we're gonna find the center of the paper.
One way that you could do that is you can measure
the sides of the paper,
find the middle point over here, and here,
place your ruler,
and then find the center
of the page.
Now, once you've found the center,
you could draw a horizontal line, all the way across.
Mark your center.
And then you're gonna use the metal tip of your compass,
and you're gonna put it on the center,
and draw a circle.
When using a compass,
you want to use the top part of the compass,
so that you're not shifting
the radius of the circle.
You're gonna draw the circle
just like that.
Now, we're drawing a four-fold pattern,
so we want to divide our circle into four equal parts.
Right now, our circle is divided into two equal parts.
So the next step will be
where the circle intersects with the horizontal line.
I'm gonna mark these two points.
And I'm gonna take my compass, and put the metal point
where this horizontal line intersects with the circle.
And I'm gonna increase the radius on the compass
so that it goes past the middle point,
so it's somewhere in the middle of these two points.
And I'm gonna make two marks, over here and here.
Now, without changing the radius of the compass,
I'm gonna put my metal tip on this point,
where the line intersects with the circle,
and I'm gonna do the same thing.
I'm gonna mark here, and here.
Now what that does is,
this will help us draw a line that goes
through the circle vertically.
And the way that we do that is,
we're gonna go through the X here,
and the X here, like this.
And draw a line.
You'll notice the line goes through
the center of the circle,
and now we have a circle that's divided
into four equal parts.
Now, the next part,
the next thing I want to do is, I want to draw a square.
I want to draw a square that goes around the circle.
So the way that I'm gonna do that
is I'm gonna take my compass,
and I'm gonna put it back on this point here,
where the line intersects with the circle,
and I'm gonna bring down the radius
back to the original size,
like this.
And I'm going to draw
about three-quarters of a circle like this.
And I'm gonna do that on this point here as well.
I'm gonna put my metal tip here,
my lead tip is gonna be in the center of the circle,
and I'm gonna draw about three-quarters of a circle.
I'm gonna do that again on these two points,
where the vertical line intersects with the circle.
Put my metal tip here,
and I'm gonna draw three-quarters of a circle,
and I'm gonna do that again here.
I have my metal tip here, my lead tip in the middle.
Now, it creates these sort of petal shapes here,
and we have four of them.
If we connect
the corners,
we will get a square.
I'm gonna use a red pen
to connect the corners.
You want to take your time and be very precise,
so that you get a nice, precise drawing in the end.
Now, Islamic art is all about taking your time,
and focusing,
and drawing,
and it's a really meditative process.
So over here, we have a square.
Inside, we have a circle,
divided into four equal parts.
Now, you notice that the pattern had
an eight-pointed star.
So, we want to divide
our circle into eight equal parts.
So the way that we're gonna do that is we're gonna connect
these two corners of the square,
and we're gonna draw a diagonal line.
Remember to be as precise as you can,
and take your time.
Now, our circle is divided into eight equal parts.
To draw the eight-pointed star,
we're gonna have to draw another square
inside the circle,
using these four points.
I'm gonna use a blue pen
to draw this square.
Actually, I'm gonna use a pencil
to draw the square.
And we'll use the blue pen to draw the final pattern.
You want to draw nice, clean lines.
I'm gonna draw another square
that overlaps this first square,
and that's gonna give us our eight-pointed star,
and we're gonna use these four points here.
This is called a dynamic square.
A dynamic square is a square that's on a 90-degree angle,
and a static square is the first square that we drew.
So, these two overlapping squares
create an eight-pointed star.
I'm gonna use my blue pen,
and I'm gonna outline just the star.
I'm not gonna draw the full square.
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So over here, I have the same drawing,
but it's on a much smaller scale.
And the reason I have it on a much smaller scale
is so that we can trace this pattern.
We're gonna use some tracing paper.
Now, if you don't have tracing paper,
you can also use parchment paper.
It works just the same.
So you're gonna place your tracing paper on top.
You're gonna take the piece of tape,
you're gonna tape it down,
and you're gonna use a soft pencil.
A soft pencil is any pencil that has a B on it.
So, it could be a 2B pencil, a 4B pencil.
If you don't have a soft pencil, that's fine.
You just want to draw darker lines.
And we're gonna outline just the star.
Take your time, and outline it with the ruler,
rather than doing it freehand.
That will give you really clean and precise lines.
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So once I've outlined the star,
I'm also going to outline the square.
Although the square isn't part of our final pattern,
it will help us tessellate the pattern.
I'll show you how in just a moment.
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So, once I have outlined the square and the star,
I'm gonna remove my tracing paper,
and I'm gonna line it again.
I'm gonna match the corners of the square,
and I'm gonna trace it again.
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So you see we have eight stars,
and in between, you have these beautiful cross shapes.
Now, what we're gonna do with this tracing paper
is we're gonna take a clean sheet of paper,
and we're gonna tape it down nice and firmly,
and we're gonna trace over it one more time.
You want to make sure that the side that you drew on
is facing the paper,
so that when we draw on it again,
the pressure from your pencil, or pen,
is gonna transfer the lead
on the tracing paper, to the paper.
You want to use a ruler.
And applying some force, not too much,
you don't wanna rip the tracing paper,
you're gonna trace all of it again.
And then once you are done,
you wanna just remove the tape from one side,
so that you can peak under
to see if you have the whole pattern.
If you see that you're missing some spots,
you can tape it back down without moving it, and finish.
Once you're done,
you can remove it.
And, since this hasn't filled up the entire paper,
you can move it down,
match the corners, that's why you wanna draw in the square,
and trace again
until you have the desired amount
of space covered.
You'll notice that when tracing,
you can trace multiple lines at the same time.
Because when you align your ruler on one line,
it aligns with many of the other lines.
Now, you've transferred your pattern
onto a clean sheet of paper,
without all those extra construction lines, and the ink.
So now, you have a fresh start here,
where you can paint your pattern any way that you like,
or color it in using colored pencils or markers.
My name is Amina, and thank you for following this video.
I hope you get a chance to draw this pattern,
and I hope you get to enjoy the process,
and really take a moment to relax,
and take your time drawing,
and reflect, and just think about the way
that these lines intersect,
and create these beautiful geometric shapes.
And I hope you get a chance to paint it, and color it in,
and make it your own work of art.
Thank you.
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