This piece began with an attempt to generate rippling patterns that imitate an ocean surface, but evolved into a wider exploration of wave interference as I discovered the potential to create bold, abstract, pop-arty patterns through the application of different colouring methods, palettes, and wave manipulations.

Multiple waves with different amplitudes, wavelengths, and orientations (sometimes circular as from 'droplets'), are generated randomly, and their interference pattern is calculated. The interference pattern is then coloured by either amplitude or slope, with amplitude optionally subdivided to create the appearance of multiple nested waves. Each colour segment is shaded using a random number of contour steps, which affects the apparent smoothness of the waves.

With the optional 'striped' feature, colours in each segment are selected randomly from the image palette, which allows for both continuous and discontinues colouring of waves as they traverse the stripe boundaries.

100% generative p5js code, custom palettes.

To save image:

Press '3' for 3000 x 3000 - may take > 10 seconds
Press '6' for 6000 x 6000 - may take > 30 seconds
Press '9' for 9000 x 9000 - may take > 1 minute