13 Rectangles: The Game

After viewing part of a video series on Foundations of Color, I picked up on the painting 13 Rectangles by Wassily Kandinsky where I left off.

This time I tried playing with color groupings:

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And then I wondered about trying to do realistic scenes:

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And then I wrote out the rules for the game that I’m creating.

It’s called “13 Rectangles” and you can play it at four levels, depending on the challenge you want.

It has the appeal of Pictionary, but you don’t have to be able to draw.

Levels

Student: The only rule is that you have to use 13 rectangles. Can be any color, size, or placement on the page, including skewed.

Amateur: You must use 13 rectangles that include the colors Kandinsky used. Placement on the page can only be at right angles to the edge of the canvas.

Pro: You use 13 rectangles in the same color, proportion and size Kandinsky used. Placement must be at right angles to the edge of the canvas; some but not all pieces must overlap.

Kandinsky: You use 13 rectangles in the same color, proportion and size Kandinsky used, at right angles, with eight of the pieces overlapping each other.

Challenges

Challenges are the concept of what you try to portray in your game painting. They would be at levels of difficulty to match the painter-player’s level.

Students get easy subjects like “houses” or “city.”

Amateurs get intermediate subjects like “ocean” or “dancing man.”

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Pros get abstract concepts like “passion” or action ideas such as “breaking glass.”

Kandinsky players have to come up with compositions for more complex ideas like “jazz” and “modernity.”

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Scoring

This is a social game. You can play in teams like Pictionary, scoring a point if your teammate guesses the concept. Or you can play it like solitaire, just to stretch your creativity.

Individual players can post photos of their paintings online, where other players score them based on originality, use of color, and clarity of interpretation.

How to play

Prototype is in development. Wanna play? Contact me.

Day 115 2015

Day 115: The penny is a 2015, for the year I copyrighted the game “13 Rectangles.”