Brief

This is an assignment about repetition and forms of rhythm and pattern. Although there is an element of monotony to this, there is also an aspect of meditation and training. You can embrace all of it.

1. Decide on a mark that you can make with your pen. It could be a circle, a check mark, a zig zag. Whatever you choose make it simple and easy on your hand because you will be making a lot of them.
2. All marks should be black only.
3. Make a composition on your first sheet of paper using only 100 of your chosen mark. You can vary the size, placement, or value of the mark. Do not attempt to make a recognizable image. Put the first mark down and then the next responding as you go.
4. Make a new composition on a second piece of paper using 2,000 marks.
5. Make a composition on a third piece of paper using 10,000 marks. The 10,000 mark image takes about 3 hours to complete. You will have to find a system to count the marks as you go rather than trying to count them up later! We are working on the honor system here. The instructor will not break out a magnifying glass and a calculator to tabulate the marks.

Each composition will have different characteristics depending on the amount of marks and how you decide to vary the mark. Because you are using the same mark throughout, your composition will have unity. Because of the shifts in value, size, and placement of the marks, the composition will have variety. Use the same mark for all three compositions. You can overlap marks to create more congested, and therefore darker areas.

Look to your fifty composition thumbnails for inspiration, but remain responsive to what is happening on your paper. Think about gestalt and different composition formats. Think of how your eye might move through the composition.

Materials

• 3 sheets of 11 × 14 in. paper (mixed media pad)
• Micron pen
• Listen to the following podcasts as you work to break up the monotony and prep for the next class on color theory:
  • Radiolab: “Colors,” 01:07:39.
  • 99% Invsible: “The Secret Lives of Color,” 44:58.
• Optional:
  • Sharpie or other permanent marker, and/or black acrylic paint for thicker lines

Examples

10,000 Marks

10,000 Marks

Deliverable

Upload your images to the Google Slides template (see link at top of the page) for this assignment under your name.

Grading

Assignment grades will be based on the following:

Aesthetic Principles (40%)

Student demonstrates evidence that they understand and inventively integrate aesthetic principles.

• Excellent: Student employs the aesthetic principles addressed in class to create work that is individual and engaging.
• Average: Student is able to rotely employ the principles addressed in class to create a standard project, but not make it their own.
• Below Average: Student struggles to demonstrate a grasp of the principles and shows no facility in internalizing the ideas.

Labor and Technique (40%)

Student works fastidiously to apply appropriate techniques to the project and shows a growing facility with those techniques. The student’s labor is evident and ample given the allotted time.

• Excellent: Student understands demonstrated techniques and nimbly employs them in their work.
• Average: Student makes some stylistic and technical mistakes by ignoring provided guidance.
• Below Average: Student repeatedly makes the same mistakes and ignores instructor input and suggestions.

Following Instructions (10%)

The student adheres to the guidelines provided for the course and the assignment. If the project has a particular framework, the student adheres to that framework. If an assignment is to be submitted on a Google Slide, the student does not email the instructor a JPG.

• Excellent: A detail-oriented student who takes instruction and fastidiously executes it within their work.
• Average: A student who misses some details because they didn’t read instructions thoroughly or take proper notes when instructions were given.
• Below Average: Student ignores basic instructions and guidance given for assignments.

Reflection (10%)

Student notes on critiques along with personal reflection on their projects show a growing sense of awareness of how their work can be received and understood.

• Excellent: Student diligently takes notes during critiques, noting the core concerns of the critics, and expresses their own views thoughtful and honest self assessment.
• Average: Student’s critique notes address only surface concerns and/or their own self reflection writing is hurried and vague.
• Below Average: Student does not take good notes and their self assessment is incomplete or dishonest.

On-time Submission

Work that is not present for a synchronous critique, or is too late for an asynchronous critique will lose points under the Reflection category for not having notes from the critique.

Why?

This is partly to train your hand and mind in doing a deep dive on an artwork. It is also another way to think of a composition—as a series of tiny parts/marks rather than a few planes.

Learning Outcomes Addressed

Spatial Skills

Students will be able to generate, organize and communicate ideas in two-dimensional space using basic principles of color and composition.

Technical Skills

Students will be able to employ various digital and analog techniques to realize and evaluate aesthetic compositions.

Aesthetic Sensibilities

Students will be able to create two-dimensional compositions of varying sensibilities and articulate their appreciation of others’ art.