Continuous-Field Composition

One solution in dealing with the edge of the picture plane is to negate its limitation by making a continuous-field composition. That is, if we imagined the picture plane to be extended in any direction, the image would also extend to produce a continuous field.

Thus, make a drawing that extends the limits of the picture plane. Choose for your subject a continuous field of textured surface, such as water, ground, grass, tree, leaf, skin, or other appropriate industrial object or factory-processed materials with compelling texture. You may work from direct observation from an object or a photograph. You must bring the object or a photo to class to work from.

Create an overall surface so that no segment of the drawing has precedence over another. There should be no focal point or dominant center of interest. The image depicted should occupy the entirety of the paper, reaching all four edges, or at least three sides of the paper, with implication that the subject continues beyond the edges of the paper.

References: Jackson Pollock, Vija Celmins, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Cynthia Lin, etc.

Evaluation Criteria:

How do you establish a sense of tension between the depicted motif and the spatial illusion in your work? Or, tension between the picture plane and the deep/shallow space? Is your method of drawing the motif effective?