“In the heart of a sunflower’s embrace, its seeds weave a poetic tale—a dance of two spirals, parastichies they’re called. One unfurls gracefully from the center in the hush of clockwise whispers, while its counterpart whispers secrets in the tender breaths of counterclockwise motion. A subtle ballet unfolds, where the number of these spirals gracefully mirrors the whispers of adjacent Fibonacci numbers, composing a delicate symphony in the sun-kissed fields.” says ChatGPT if I force it to be a little poetic. I made a simple tool, Fibonacci Portraits to generate Sunflower Spirals with an output that gets data from any image. You can use it to create artwork if you choose the image carefully. It is a basic programming exercise for Grasshopper.

This Grasshopper definition generates Fibonacci Spirals with variable radii circles, resembling an input photo. The input parameters are the size of the spiral and the photo. Thus, it is possible to re-generate the classical spiral (the Sunflower Spiral) and explore new designs (with the help of the Image Sampler component). The result is a set of circles. Therefore, it is ready for laser cutting or CNC milling. I made the definition with the help of the native Grasshopper components in Rhinoceros 7. So, no external add-on is necessary.

You can rebuild the definition by looking at the diagram above. However, if you want to support this website by downloading my Grasshopper file; would you consider being my Patreon? The link to my Patreon page includes the working Grasshopper file for Fibonacci Portraits and more.