The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Maurits Cornelis Escher, aka M. C. Escher, lived from 1898 to 1972 and died at 73. His artistic mind fused mathematical geometry and art, but, sadly, he was neglected in the art world. It wasn’t until he was 70, three years before his death, that a major exhibition of his work was finally held and his genius finally became mainstream.

This piece is inspired by his love of form, which often took on a humourous tone as up merged into down and left suddenly became right.

Midjourney prompt

A closeup portrait of a dodecahedron in the style of M.C. Escher, high contrast infrared photography, intricate pen and ink details, impossible geometry and optical illusions, tessellating patterns morphing from geometric shapes into surreal creatures, precise linework with cross-hatching and stippling techniques, depth-defying perspectives creating a mind-bending 3D effect, stark white highlights against deep black shadows, crisp edges and sharp corners of the dodecahedron, transforming facets with metamorphosis elements typical of Escher’s work, infinitely repeating smaller dodecahedrons within each face, subtle reflections and refractions on the polyhedral surface, background featuring Escher-like staircases and lattices, hyper-detailed textures emphasizing the pen and ink medium, no digital smoothing to preserve the raw artistic style, ultra-high resolution to capture the finest details –ar 11:8 –style raw –c 40 –s 250 –v 6.1