This is the last day in our 30 Day Creative Challenge!
A big public THANK YOU to those artists who posted your sketches to Instagram or to Padlet. While the posting type people are wooting amidst their social media glitter and confetti, I’ll pass a word of quiet appreciation to the unknown number of you who responded to the challenges privately, without posting. You’re part of this. For those of you who did the challenges in your head and then, for whatever reason, moved on with your day without lifting a pen, I feel you, but really, do this one. Just this one. One. Pull out that scrap of paper and a pen. If you do this one today, you win.
Composition is a game, an optical illusion. Even though the square weighs nothing, gravity is implied. There is a tension of gravity vertically, as well as with the edges of the rectangle itself. Notice how a square that is centered and level within the rectangle is static. It’s stable. If you tilt the square it gets a less comfortable energy. It seems to want to move. If the corner of the square approaches any of the edges of the rectangle, those edges “activate” and kind of start to itch while the edges on the far side of the rectangle seem to deactivate. The closer the square gets to the edge of the rectangle, the more it itches. When it overlaps, the tension resolves. The square might also seem to weigh different amounts when it is higher, lower, left or right on the rectangle. Try it! Make a black square and put it on a piece of white typing paper to see for yourself.
Our final challenge is a composition challenge, with an inspiration from Kazimir Malevich. You can have one black square of any size, and you can put it anywhere you want to on your compositional rectangle, which is any dimension you choose. How big is it? Where do you put it? How do you make it? What are the materials you use? What do you think are the most interesting compositions?
Share your black square composition on Instagram with these tags: #30sal, #blacksquare
Bee-Pin by David Dodge Lewis (1997). Vitreograph on paper, edition of 30. Photo courtesy of the Littleton Collection. Vitreography is a printmaking technique that uses a thick glass matrix instead of the traditional matrices of metal, wood or stone. Sound interesting? You can make your first vitreograph next week! VitreographyTuesdays 6-10pmStarts Sept 23REGISTER TODAY!
I posted yesterday about the burning of Notre Dame. The medieval cathedral was home to many paintings, musical instruments, religious relics, and stained glass, and the building itself was a work of art. Since yesterday’s post, I’ve been collecting status updates for artworks and the cathedral, working to find out which artworks escaped the fire, …
What would you do if you loved to draw, and then you went blind? For two years now, Kathy Paul has been a regular in my drawing classes. When she started in figure drawing, I admired her uncommon and interesting way of recording the forms. Then on March 3, 2019 Kathy suffered a stroke in …
If you haven’t seen Wayne Thiebaud’s cakes, his gumball jars, the ice cream cones in rows, you simply MUST check them out. They are what made Thiebaud famous, and with good reason. But don’t look here for gumballs and meringues. They are not here. This post has a few of his sketches, and less common …
Day 30: Black Square #30SAL
This is the last day in our 30 Day Creative Challenge!
A big public THANK YOU to those artists who posted your sketches to Instagram or to Padlet. While the posting type people are wooting amidst their social media glitter and confetti, I’ll pass a word of quiet appreciation to the unknown number of you who responded to the challenges privately, without posting. You’re part of this. For those of you who did the challenges in your head and then, for whatever reason, moved on with your day without lifting a pen, I feel you, but really, do this one. Just this one. One. Pull out that scrap of paper and a pen. If you do this one today, you win.
Composition is a game, an optical illusion. Even though the square weighs nothing, gravity is implied. There is a tension of gravity vertically, as well as with the edges of the rectangle itself. Notice how a square that is centered and level within the rectangle is static. It’s stable. If you tilt the square it gets a less comfortable energy. It seems to want to move. If the corner of the square approaches any of the edges of the rectangle, those edges “activate” and kind of start to itch while the edges on the far side of the rectangle seem to deactivate. The closer the square gets to the edge of the rectangle, the more it itches. When it overlaps, the tension resolves. The square might also seem to weigh different amounts when it is higher, lower, left or right on the rectangle. Try it! Make a black square and put it on a piece of white typing paper to see for yourself.
Our final challenge is a composition challenge, with an inspiration from Kazimir Malevich. You can have one black square of any size, and you can put it anywhere you want to on your compositional rectangle, which is any dimension you choose. How big is it? Where do you put it? How do you make it? What are the materials you use? What do you think are the most interesting compositions?
Share your black square composition on Instagram with these tags: #30sal, #blacksquare
Or post to this Padlet.
I’ll publish my favorites soon.
Related Posts
Vitreograph by David Dodge Lewis
Bee-Pin by David Dodge Lewis (1997). Vitreograph on paper, edition of 30. Photo courtesy of the Littleton Collection. Vitreography is a printmaking technique that uses a thick glass matrix instead of the traditional matrices of metal, wood or stone. Sound interesting? You can make your first vitreograph next week! VitreographyTuesdays 6-10pmStarts Sept 23REGISTER TODAY!
Artworks saved and lost at Notre Dame
I posted yesterday about the burning of Notre Dame. The medieval cathedral was home to many paintings, musical instruments, religious relics, and stained glass, and the building itself was a work of art. Since yesterday’s post, I’ve been collecting status updates for artworks and the cathedral, working to find out which artworks escaped the fire, …
A Different Way of Seeing
What would you do if you loved to draw, and then you went blind? For two years now, Kathy Paul has been a regular in my drawing classes. When she started in figure drawing, I admired her uncommon and interesting way of recording the forms. Then on March 3, 2019 Kathy suffered a stroke in …
Uncommon Works from Thiebaud
If you haven’t seen Wayne Thiebaud’s cakes, his gumball jars, the ice cream cones in rows, you simply MUST check them out. They are what made Thiebaud famous, and with good reason. But don’t look here for gumballs and meringues. They are not here. This post has a few of his sketches, and less common …