Generate colorful streamline pattern (using FOSS)

Question

I found a very interesting pattern, which I would like to recreate:

Source

I tried to start with the RGB-Noise filter of Gimp, but didn't get a comparable pattern so far. I understood, that there are 2 challenges: Generating the pattern itself and generating the palette.

Preferably, I would like to use FOS-software like Inkscape, Gimp, maybe even Python, since it's available.

Answer 1

This is for GIMP

1. Start with something like an A5 canvas size

2. Create a new brush like this

3. Create a new Paint Dynamic preset, and set the matrix as follows

4. Increase the size of the brush as you like, and paint random coloured lines, choosing different colours, on a new transparent layer above a black background layer.

5. Continue until you've built up enough coloured lines on the new layer. You only need a small section, it doesn't have to cover the entire canvas.

6. Click Edit > Preferences > Tool Options, and for the Scaling option set the Default interpolation to "None"

7. Back in your document hit Shift+T to bring up the transform handles and stretch the image something like this. When you have finished, hit the New Layer icon in the layers panel to add the new stretched layer to a layer of its own.

8. Now duplicate the resulting Transformation layer, and reposition with the move tool. Repeat until you have covered the entire canvas.

Just a little note to add. You could do this on a much smaller scale and use the Pencil instead of the brush tool, so that you get perfect pixel wide stripes. Then scale the whole thing up with interpolation set to none. Then add a texture layer, desaturate it, and set the blending mode to hard light.

Here's the result of doing that.

Answer 2

Photoshop is not in the list, but just in case. Image from unsplash.com:

Menu Filter > Noise > Add noise

Menu Filter > Blur > Motion Blur

Menu Filter > Sharpen > Smart sharpen

Select the part of the image you like most and crop it.

Adding an Adjustment layer of Hue/Saturation choose the color style:

Rotate 90º

To increase the image size if it's necessary, resample with Nearest Neighbor:

Change the Adjustment Layer to Vivid Light:

Answer 3

Here' my approach for Gimp:

1. Used an interesting photo with colours I liked

   
   Source: Wikimedia - New York Times Square

2. Chose a region of interest from this photo

   

3. Increased saturation, contrast, and (optionally) made an indexed Image

   

4. Used the inbuilt filter paper tile with broad width and low height

   

5. Scaled image to desired width

   

The fun part is when only you know the source photo hidden in the Image.