Assignment Overview
Introduction to Grid Structures
This project introduces students to compositional grid structures initially drawn utilizing symmetries through repetition, variation, and transformation within a grid format. In the process, students will explore how a drawn symmetrical grid design is later transformed into painted colour that asymmetrically interacts across a series of replicated squares. The end goal is to create a unified painting that balances unity with invention and variety in a painted asymmetrical composition.
Objectives of the Drawn and Painted Grid
The central goal of this project is to show how painted colour can asymmetrically override the initial drawn design of repeated squares in a symmetically drawn grid pattern. The drawn symmetrical grid is not a waste of time. It provides essential practice in combining thick lines, shapes, geometric, and organic forms, and creating a progression of space within a symmetrical grid format. Anticipate that the initial grid drawing structure will later be transformed by the painted colour, where the concepts of the drawn squares and complex symmetrical grid pattern will be transformed into a complex new asymmetrical composition through the use of painted colour.
Experimental and Improvisational Colour Process
Through an experimental and improvisational process, the painted colour should eventually override the symmetrical drawn grid pattern. Some brief and basic planning of the painted colour is helpful, but be prepared to revise, layer, and adjust the colour as part of your process. It may take time to gradually create asymmetrical structures and clear movements with the colour, and for your eye to adjust to the optical effects of colour. This is part of the process in gradually learning to sensitize yourself to seeing how colour interacts and causes new optical effects in your initial drawn forms.
Note: There should be considerably more time spent on painting the assignment than designing and drawing the squares and the grid.
Surface Requirements
- Minimum size of surface to paint on: 16 x 20 inches
- Surface must be primed or sealed
- The grid must contain 20 squares
General Instructions for Creating/Drawing the Grid
- Arrange squares as either 5 rows of 4 squares or 4 rows of 5 squares
- A border around the 20 squares is acceptable, but there should not be borders between squares
- Each square must be a minimum of 4 inches in size
- Each square must follow the same design, but individual squares may be rotated or mirrored
- Squares should be drawn lightly in pencil, evenly spaced and consistent across the surface of the overall grid pattern.
- Collectively, the squares create a complex but homogenous grid (a grid pattern that is overall symmetrical and consistent)
Designs and Composition of Individual Squares Requirements
- Each square should depict a balance between simple and visually complex elements
- A combination of geometric and organic shapes and thick lines must overlap in each square
- The overlapping of shapes and lines in each square must help create a sense of spatial progression from foreground to middle ground to background
- The initial drawing of the individual squares in a grid pattern is a review of combining geometric and organic shapes, creating spatial progression, and establishing a symmetrical overall composition in the grid pattern
- Once the squares are lightly drawn in pencil, anticipate that painted colour will subvert the design, creating new movements, spatial shifts, and structures throughout a complexly painted asymmetrical but unified composition in the entire grid pattern
Important Considerations While Painting on Assignment
- Use a minimal range of painted colours at the beginning. Expand colour gradually through layering and revisions
- Strive for low colour contrast in some areas and high colour contrast in other areas to collectively create major and minor movements. Low contrast occurs when two colours are very similar in value or hue. The edges between adjacent shapes remain distinct, but the similarity in colour causes them to optically join together, subverting the symmetry of the drawn grid pattern
- Pure black must not be used as the top layer.
- Also, avoid using pure white as the top layer. Instead, use white to mix tinted hues or shift colour value
- Allow for revisions and layering. Building up surfaces through trial and error is part of the process
- Embrace improvisation rather than overplanning the painted colour
Step-by-Step Approach to the Assignment
1. Create the Grid Foundation
- Measure and draw a grid of 20 equal squares on your surface
- Choose whether to arrange the grid as 5 rows of 4 squares or 4 rows of 5 squares
- Keep the drawn pencil lines light, clean and consistent
2. Establish the Underlying Design in Grid
- Invent a basic design motif that can be repeated in each square, ensuring that it still meets the "
- As an option, this motif could rotate or mirror within the grid's composition.
- Remember to draw a more symmetrical design that eventually allows painted colour to take on a dominant role in an overall asymmetrical composition.
- The initial drawn design is manageable to paint later, while simultaneously meeting the "
3. Establish the Role of Painted Colour
- Begin with a minimal range of colour, anticipating that revisions will happen as you layer
- Through a trial and error process, let colour gradually override and subvert the drawn designs with basic major and minor movements, initially using the minimal range of colour
- Stay open to improvisation, so avoid overplanning and allow colour choices to evolve
4. Mix and Apply Painted Colours
- Start off with a minimal range of colours, and gradually, being strategically selective from the full colour wheel, gradually work toward using as many colours as possible
- Apply colours strategically rather than randomly
- Use both high and low colour contrast to build movements and visual rhythms:
- Low contrast creates subtle optical joining of elements (shapes and thick lines)
- High contrast creates separation of elements (shapes) and visual emphasis on major and minor movements
- Integrate mixing tints, neutral, shades, secondary and tertiary colours to support assignment objectives
- Be prepared to revise and layer colour to achieve the desired visual effects that will ultimately assist in creating variety, clear movements (major and minor movements) and some depth (spatial variation)
5. Develop Unity and Complexity in Grid Painting
- Allow colour to dissolve some of the square borders and override the initial design
- Create a composition where movements, structures, and spaces emerge through colour rather than the drawn pattern
- Step back often to view the entire composition and adjust contrast, placement, and unity
- Aim to eventually have a final composition that is visually complex yet unified
Some Very Good Examples with Areas for Improvement (Below)
The examples below demonstrate strong engagement with the assignment goals, but also highlight common challenges or areas that could be improved to fully meet the requirements. These observations are meant to guide your own practice and understanding of the assignment requirements.
Some Weaker Examples with More Shortcomings (Below):
The examples below show common challenges when attempting the assignment. These observations highlight areas that need improvement while still acknowledging effort. They are intended to guide your own practice and help you understand the assignment expectations more fully.
In Progress Examples at Various Stages of the Assignment Process (Below):
These examples illustrate how a painting may evolve during different stages of the assignment. They are intended to help you see the progression from initial planning to the start of colour applications and to anticipate the inevitable adjustments, layering, and revisions that create the final composition.
There are many ways to start and proceed with the assignment. Below are samples of some options on how to proceed with the development of the assignment:
Optional Art Theory Resource
The readings below are not a requirement for the Painted Grid assignment and are not connected to the grading criteria of the assignment. However, if you are curious about how artists and theorists have reflected on the grid in modern and contemporary art, one or more of the essays below may provide additional insights and context for your own art-making processes beyond this course.
Grid Theory in Art and Contemporary Perspectives
Rosalind Krauss — “Grids” (1979)
Foundational essay on the grid in modernist art and its ideological/formal implications.
Read via logging in to JSTOR (not open access).
Margarita Tupitsyn — “The Grid as a Checkpoint of Modernity” (Tate Papers, 2009)
Situates the grid historically as a marker of modernity. A bridge between Krauss and contemporary perspectives.
Read on Tate Papers (open access).
Paul Smith — “The Grid & The Jester: On the Trope of the Grid” (2016)
Considers how the grid operates as a trope in contemporary painting, showing how artists play with or break the structure.
Read here (open access).
Edward Bacal — “Grids” (2021)
Reflective essay treating the grid as both a formal device and symbolic structure across art and design.
Read here (open access).
Jonathan A. Anderson — “Grids, Nets, and the Unspeakable” (Bridge Projects, 2022)
Explores how the grid shifts into nets and porous structures in contemporary practice, expanding Krauss’s legacy into new territory.
Read here (open access).
Grids, Perception, Colour, and Optical Effects
Paul M. W. Hackett — Fine Art and Perceptual Neuroscience: Field of Vision and the Painted Grid (2014)
Connects grid-based painting to perceptual neuroscience and optical phenomena. Particularly useful for thinking about colour interactions and optical effects in painting.
ResearchGate entry with excerpts and materials (partial access).
Jonathan Cohen — “Perceptual Constancy” (review article, University of California, San Diego, c. 2010)
Explains perceptual effects like contrast and colour constancy, clarifying why colours in grids interact in surprising optical ways.
Read PDF here (open access).
Work-in-Progress Photographs
Take work-in-progress photographs and submit them for evaluation, along with the required photo of the completed work, to help demonstrate the evaluation criteria below. Correlate each individual in-progress photo to one or more of the grading criteria below. (Label or title each photograph file)
Demonstrating revisions, layering, and experimentation with paint will be particularly important to capture in the work-in-progress photographs.
Demonstrating revisions, layering, and experimentation in any course assignment is always beneficial to the grade of any assignment.
1. Complexity and Criteria in Design of Individual Squares – 30%
· Drawing Accuracy and Consistency (5%): The symmetrical grid and repeated square motifs are measured accurately, drawn consistently and evenly across the surface and drawn in a way that is ready to be painted on.
· Use of Geometric and Organic Shapes (15%): Each square demonstrates a thoughtful visual relationship between geometric and organic elements, with thick lines and overlapping forms that suggest progression from foreground to background. Also incorporates some shapes and or lines that extend to the edge of the square.
· Complexity and Variation (10%): The design within each square is visually engaging and avoids oversimplification. Collectively, the overall drawn grid design will be manageable to paint, and the overall design creates strong potential for transformation through colour.
2. Sophistication of Colour – 70%
· Unified Asymmetrical Composition (20%): Colour transforms the drawn symmetrical grid into a cohesive but asymmetrical painting. The overall composition is unified while still allowing for variety and invention.
· Creation of Movements and Structures (15%): Colour establishes clear major and minor visual movements, rhythms, and structures that override the original grid design.
· Strategic Use of Contrast (10%): High and low contrasts are used intentionally to dissolve edges and emphasize forms and movements, helping colour take precedence over the initial drawn grid structure.
· Creation of Spaces (5%): Colour creates depth and spatial variation that subverts the initial symmetrical drawing, suggesting foreground, middle ground, and background shifts across the entire grid.
· Layering and Revision Process (20%): Evidence of revisions, layering, and experimentation with painted colour is visible. The student demonstrates willingness to adapt and refine, rather than stopping at an early stage or simply filling in colour in a formulaic or basic manner.
