"All art should become science, and all science art"

Friedrich Schlegel

CONSTRAINTS IN ART PRACTICE

Any assignment for any client is constrained to one degree or another, which is not necessarily cause for frustration. Unlimited freedom would be paralyzing and frightening, therefore constraints should be embraced and cultivated both in their primary function of escape from the horror of blank page and in the playful turn they can give to the artist’s work.

The basic constraints cover the format, reproduction and time. A spot illustration is an effective spotlight on a single image, while a larger format offers more room, hence more possibilities.

The more vague the assignment, the more difficult it may be to start or to come up with an original idea. In these circumstances self-imposed constraints can come in handy: you can try picking a tool that you never use, drawing without a sketch, limiting the piece to one or two colors, building an invisible grid or borrowing an experimental technique from another medium.

ASSIGNMENT 7: CONSTRAINED ASSIGNMENT(S)

Come up with at least three constrained assignment ideas. You can focus on formal elements (size, materials used, shapes, methods of application) or conceptual specifics (a portrait without a face, a question in a visual form, a set of parameters that have to be met, etc), or both. The assignments should be challenging the artist to step out of their comfort zone, while at the same time allowing plenty of room for improvisation, rather than a single solution.

Format: come up with a format and include it in the depiction of the constraint