Compositional Study-24 Squares

Compositional Studies: Repetition and Variation

Assignment:

Part 1: 24 Thumbnails

Materials:

Sharpie, sketch pad, Bristol paper (11” x 14”), ruler, hb pencil, Microns, Sharpie

Principles: Repetition, Variation, Scale, Cropping, Positive and Negative Space, Balance, Tension

Assignment Description:

Make 24 thumbnail sketches using a letterform of your choice. The letter
may be invented or copied from a standard typographic form, but once
you decide upon a form, you must stay with it. You may find the form online or draw it freehand, as long as you are able to keep the form consistent while changing its scale, placement, position, orientation.

Your assignment is to visually interpret the letterform in 24 different ways.

This is an exercise in both resourcefulness and endurance.

Specs:

The letter form can be repeated, cropped, or overlapped, turned, etc.
It can change in scale from the monumental to the barely detectable.
It can be black on a white ground or white on a black ground.
Pay special attention to the relationship between the positive and negative space.
You can add lines to create value and movement to your composition
Transform your letter shape through diverse compositional arrangement.

Steps:

1. Create a grid using a ruler and pencil on sketch paper. Each square
should be approximately1.5 x 1.5”.

2. Choose your letterform. Make sure you establish a repeatable form.
The form will remain the same while the composition will change.

3. Do 24 thumbnail sketches in your sketch pad grid, feeling free to erase, make changes and experiment. This is the research phase of the project. We will take a look at these on Friday.

4. Make revisions

5. Revise again

6. Create a new grid in pencil on Bristol, 12 squares on each. Outline each square with a Micron.

7. Sketch your 24 selected compositions in the squares with pencil. Note that they look somewhat different within the new larger scale .

8. Make further revisions

9. Ink in with Sharpie and Micron pens