# Creating Art with Processing or P5

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/creating-art-with-processing-or-p5/5359>\
**Category:** Project Guidance\
**Created:** [November 8, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/creating-art-with-processing-or-p5/5359 "2018-11-08T22:49:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![GuerillaGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GuerillaGirl](https://discourse.processing.org/u/GuerillaGirl)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 10:49pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/creating-art-with-processing-or-p5/5359/1 "2018-11-08T22:49:06Z")

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Hi guys,

My son is doing a graphic art project using Processing/P5 and in two weeks he will be submitting his work to the Fine Arts contest in our state. I was wondering if you guys had any advice on creating art using processing?

Online, we found that using **noise** can give your code a harmonic look and **sine/cosine** can add beautiful movement to the work. We also read that some people advise you to use noStroke() for aesthetic reasons and to give background a second argument background(100,10); to add a fading look to the work.

**So my question for you is …what is your advise for making something look beautiful with Processing/P5?**  
**I know that is broad, so I apologize!**

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**Author:** ![PascalAudet](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/pascalaudet/32/1903_2.png) [@PascalAudet](https://discourse.processing.org/u/PascalAudet)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 11:29pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/creating-art-with-processing-or-p5/5359/2 "2018-11-08T23:29:44Z")

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> [@GuerillaGirl](#):
>
> what is your advise for making something look beautiful with Processing/P5?

Art is not obligated to be beautiful , but it has to be interesting or meaningfull.  
Try to find your self expression and go somewhere no one goes.

This is not a technical advise.

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**Author:** ![GuerillaGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4af34b/32.png) [@GuerillaGirl](https://discourse.processing.org/u/GuerillaGirl)\
**Post date:** [November 8, 2018, 11:59pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/creating-art-with-processing-or-p5/5359/3 "2018-11-08T23:59:28Z")

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Thanks for your advice. Definitely, agree on your definition about art but I think what I’m trying to focus in on are the “tricks” that the artists who post using the hashtag #creativecoding keep in mind. We went to a Saturday class from one of these artists and learned about the second argument for background and the noise function.

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**Author:** ![josephh](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/josephh/32/210_2.png) [@josephh](https://discourse.processing.org/u/josephh)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/creating-art-with-processing-or-p5/5359/4 "2018-11-09T00:08:07Z")

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Art is something that is difficult to define as well as beauty.  
It depends on you, your son, your neighbor, someone in another country…

I would suggest to explore all the possibilities with Processing and P5, practice and experiment as well as discover what other artists do.

Good luck ! 👍

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**Author:** ![Lexyth](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/lexyth/32/7403_2.png) [@Lexyth](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Lexyth)\
**Post date:** [November 9, 2018, 8:26am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/creating-art-with-processing-or-p5/5359/5 "2018-11-09T08:26:14Z")

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You might want to look into different functions and maybe dependence in General. For example, attributing x to sin( sin(x) ) and Same for y, you get some nice results. Just an example of a function, But x/sin(y) Would also have an interesting Effect (probably).

And for ‚dependence‘, you could have a Look at Convays Game of Life. Very interesting and definetly a piece of undefined deterministic Art. You could apply the Same approach to Most things.

And it‘s very simple to use (i just made one 2 days ago to get what the average pixel brightness is… no big result though…) and by changing some things within you can get totally different results.

And you don‘t have to just change the variables, But you can just take the principle of dependence and do whatever you can think of with it and See if the result is favorable.