Instructions 12: Benjamin Speare

oil on canvas 15.25 x 15.25"

INSTRUCTIONS 12

1. Begin by building, buying, finding, stealing, adopting, a square picture plane that has an area divisible

by 12. e.g., 12x12, 8x8, 16x16.

2. Measure one quarter of the way from the top on both sides and make a mark. Connect the two marks

with a line.

3. Fill the top quarter of the plane with a flat, opaque off white. The flat should border or meet the line

4. Starting at the bottom of the picture plane on each side, measure up half way. Then divide this half

evenly into 12 equal stripes. e.g. if your half measures four inches, each stripe will be one quarter of an

inch.

5. The 12 stripes, divisible by 4, should consist of 3 pink, 3 red, 3 light green, and 3 orange stripes. Start

from the bottom with pink and follow the order.

6. The next few steps are a little complicated, so please read the whole thing before starting.

- First, make a square on the left side of the painting, halfway above the center and halfway below.

- Next, make a square on the right side of the painting, a quarter of the way from the bottom

- On each corner of the squares, make another square that is a quarter of the size of the two squares.

- Now each image should look like a fat Purina logo.

7. Fill the two images (Purina thing) with dark opaque reddish brown (more red than brown).

8. Time for some low-grade perspective. Turn each object into a three dimensional form. Use the line

on the top half for points. The reddish brown should be your middle value.

9. The other two planes, one lighter in value, one darker should be painted in with a similar color family

and should be opaque to cover the stripes

10. Now pick a corner, with a loose transparent gray, make a line that wraps one of the objects and

finishes back at the corner. The line should also touch the top quarter in some way.

11. Next, with a darker transparent gray, trace the previous line on one side with a smaller brush. This

should give some simple shadow effect.

12. Finally, at some edge of the painting, apply one of the following letters: D, H, L, P, T, or X. The letter

should be neat and applied with care. The color is your option.

Instructions 12