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Elegant Animal Illustrations Created Using a Moir Pattern


Milan-based designer Andrea Minini's abstract portraits of animals feels not-so-abstract thanks to his well-executed use of lines. This beautiful series illustrates an owl, gorilla, cobra, and more, all drawn in a minimalist style. The impressive works started out with only a few lines using Adobe Illustrator, and grew to the complex images that we see here.

Minini achieved this elegant look using a moir pattern, which is a visual interference caused by overlapping lines in different thicknesses. The result of the intersecting marks creates depth in the work and contours the animal's body. Spacing is also important, and the moir distance between each line creates a larger visual plane and less detail.

The use of the mori pattern feels appropriate for illustrations of animals. Given how active these creatures are in real life, the vibrating lines convey their feathers, fur, and most of all, movement. You can almost see the cobra start to slither away in Minini's eye-catching design.




Andrea Minini Behance page
via [Colossal]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled "Embroidered Life" that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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