To create a more complicated or interesting design, an artist can change around the placement of motifs within a pattern. A half-drop design lowers each row of motifs half the height of the row above it (dropping it down by half). You can also stagger the rows so they are no longer in perfect alignment. This type of pattern seems to create a wavy movement. Fish scales and the leaves of an artichoke are examples of half-drop designs found in nature.

The scales of a fish show half drop pattern formation: the scales are not perfectly aligned.	These artichoke leaves are arranged in a half drop pattern.

Another way to understand half drop patterns is to look at brick work. The example on the left shows a tile wall, and the example on the right is a half-drop pattern, with the centers of each rows of brick shifted halfway to the side.

These tiles are arranged in a grid, and all their edges and corners line up.	These bricks are arranged in a half-drop fashion, because each row is shifted half a tile width to the side.