Activity A: Line Design — Variety & Unity

The Lines

Work only in black ink, drawn directly onto the board. There should be no actual gray anywhere in the piece. Any impression of gray or tonal value must be created optically — by how densely, thinly, or closely you place your black lines. Vary your lines across sections using:

• Direction (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curved)
• Thickness (hairline to bold)
• Pattern (parallel lines, crosshatching, stippled dashes, wavy repetition, etc.)

Construction Options

Choose either method, or combine both:

• Draw directly onto your board in ink.
• Draw your line patterns on separate paper, cut them out, and glue them onto the board (collage method).

Goal

The main objective is variety within unity. Each section of the grid should look distinct from its neighbors, but the piece as a whole should read as one coherent composition — not a random assortment of unrelated parts.

Emotional States / Moods

Translate a specific feeling into line — anxiety, calm, anger, grief, joy, chaos, tension release. Direction and density map directly onto emotional register: jagged diagonals read as agitation, tight parallel hatching reads as tension, loose curves read as ease. You may draw a word from a hat or work from a personal experience.

Sound / Music Translation

Listen to a piece of music (your choice, or one meaningful to you) and translate its rhythm, tempo, and dynamics into line variety across the grid. Loud sections become bold, dense lines; quiet sections become sparse, thin ones. The structure of the song naturally guides your variety within unity.

Environmental / Weather

Storm, stillness, wind, drought — atmospheric conditions bridge abstract mark-making and felt emotion. This is a good option if “express a feeling” feels too open-ended.