Eclectic/Pluralist Assignment

ECLECTIC/PLURALIST ASSIGNMENT

Complete  a drawing/painting/collage and or assemblage

This assignment in many ways is about trying to combine (and or collage) as many types of styles, images and sensibilities as possible but in a unified manner that is complex and unique.

These styles, images and sensibilities should come from a variety of cultural, historical and contemporary contexts.

The formal objectives of the Eclectic/Pluralist Assignment require a consideration of the objectives from the Abstraction Assignment but will also require the additional objectives of synthesizing the broadest ranges possible of imagery, styles and sensibilities.

Image sources in the Eclectic/Pluralist Assignment should try to include a combinations of all points listed below:

1) representational (realistic) drawing from observation

2) abstraction and mark making (modernist assignment)

3) pop art styles and advertising

4) graphic design and or illustration drawing styles

5) drafted diagrams and or drawn images of objects, or machines, or architecture

6) drawing that interprets media imagery from television, movies, magazines and the internet (interpretation of lens based mediums such as photography, video, and film)

7) drawing styles and images from art history, or folk art or arts and crafts

8) drawing that present imagery and styles of drawing from non western cultures such as Asian, African, South American or Aboriginal cultures

Suggested Drawing Materials:

It is suggested people use the coloured paint for this assignment but many other options are also available in conjunction with paint. Drawing materials such as oil or chalk pastels that cover large areas of your drawing quickly and offer good colour and have strong physical presence on the drawing/painting surface allowing for an investigation of mark making will also work as well. Over all you can use all other types of coloured drawing materials for detail work such as coloured pencils, coloured inks and coloured markers, but keep in mind these mediums do not cover a large area quickly nor do they offer any sort of physicality in terms of the mediums presence or mark making. As well you may use acrylic or watercolour as a base or intermittently as long as the work emphasizes drawing materials. It is recommended that you use a fairly thick paper as your drawing/painting surface. Some people have used canvas in the past but keep in mind the texture of the canvas causes the drawing materials to erode and ware out considerably quicker than if paper was used for a drawing surface. This work can be one large sheet of paper or it may be smaller sheets of paper joined together. Consider how the seems of smaller paper will be integrated into the drawing and or hidden in the drawing.

Studies or Smaller Preliminary Works:

The purpose of the studies is to assist you in the investigation of this assignment. All the objectives do not have to be met in each study but rather should be used to take risks and experiment with to find all the required objectives. The studies are not about making something small and then duplicating that small study at a large scale. Instead the studies and the larger work should feed off each other. During the process there should be a back and forth of working between the studies and the large work (especially at the beginning stages of the drawing) As well studies may include manipulations of digital photos of the large work taken while in progress. In general it is strongly recommended that you photograph the work in progress and periodically make some inexpensive prints at home to work on in order to consider all potential directions to develop the work. Overall experiment and investigate various options thoroughly with the studies and the large work.

Steps of Process to Consider for Developing Drawing(s):

Avoid having every formal and conceptual component of your drawing pre-planned or “figured out” before you begin. This will eventually suffocate any desire to work, because it is almost impossible to pre-plan every step in the process and get positive results.

If you are stuck with no ideas it is best to immediately start drawing with vague ideas and some random organic and geometric shapes such as in some of the examples posted below.

Prepare yourself mentally for a process of: risk, unexpected direction, layering, reworking, researching, making small preliminary works, applying criticism, generally experimenting with conviction in your drawing, and you will have a very successful work or series of works.

Optional Reading (Assistance in developing assignment):

Essay: The Flatbed Picture Plane by Leo Steinberg

(Some points may require more than one example while others points may be required in a less significant way)

Detail

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Detail

This work does not meet all the required objectives for the assignment but is using cartoon and illustrations in an interesting way. The imagery is utilizing a unique combination of various scales of similar imagery, variations of opaqueness and transparency, and use of asymmetrical pattern with large linear elements.

Painting 1 Winter 2003

Basic Design Summer 2006

The above work does not present all of the criteria for the Pluralist Assignment but does demonstrate an interesting combination of abstraction and a pop or cartoon style