Join Us. First things first, sign up for the Art Synergy Project group on Facebook here. This will provide an easy and effective way to communicate everything going on with the project that is not provided here as well as allowing you to contact the other artists with ease.
Basic Structure of the ASP. Within the ASP, everytime the artists exchange criteria, produce art based on said criteria, and have a juried gallery for that art is called a Session. Sessions break down into the following phases in the order they occur:
Exchange. Artists pass on criteria. Artists who receive criteria modify them and post them on group's wall. Group is made aware of the new criteria. Poll is put up for next session's criteria.
Execution. Artists begin work on their submissions. The end of this phase is the deadline for submission entry.
Exhibition. All submissions for a given session are put in a gallery in which the submissions will be voted on. The submission with the most votes is considered the Session's Artist.
Exchange. Artists pass on criteria. Artists who receive criteria modify them and post them on group's wall. Group is made aware of the new criteria. Poll is put up for next session's criteria.
Execution. Artists begin work on their submissions. The end of this phase is the deadline for submission entry.
Exhibition. All submissions for a given session are put in a gallery in which the submissions will be voted on. The submission with the most votes is considered the Session's Artist.
Criteria.Criteria. At the core of the ASP lay the criteria. It's to these fundamentals of art that each artist will use what they know to craft their chosen masterpiece. As any ASP artist can tell you, the criteria will often force one's mind into unfamiliar place in which it's difficult to utlize one's creativity in such a different way. This is both the bane and boon of the ASP.
Criteria are chosen by the group as a whole and then edited by a select few. This in theory will ensure that not only is the art being influenced by everyone, but each Session is a unique event in and of itself.
The Criteria are as follows:
Anatomy (Human). From our DNA all the way up to the entire human figure with all its systems, it's entirely up to the artist to decide what they want to select. But here's something to think about: the other artists would probably appreciate something more along the line of building upon what we have learned so far. For example, it would be easier for us all to render the muscles of the adbomen after having worked on the ribcage (and before that the spine, etc). If you wish to attach actions/expressions to your anatomy selection, feel free to do so.
Medium. Pencils, photography, oils, digital, graphite, sculputre, mixed media - any tool that can be used to create art is game.
Perspective. One Point, two point, or three point perspective. Now to be clear, perspective isn't the same as foreshadowing. Vanishing points must be CLEARLY demonstrated to be in use. If you do not know what vanishing points and horizon lines are, you know have a very valid reason for interacting with the group; that's what we are here for!
Setting. A specific time and/or place. Swamps, sewers, plains, abandoned wheat silos, islands, submarine interiors, mountains, observatory outposts, forests, a Native American village during the 1500's, a cityscape after a nuclear war, Atlantis at night, a plane of reality based on the essence of gravity and fire. If what you are thinking can be considred a place and/or time, then you're good to go.
Style. Realism, pop art, abstract, cubism, expressionism, objectivism, postimpressionism, manga, black & white, etc. If it can be considered a style, then it fits. I am asking a personal favor though and suggest we stay away from pointilism. Please.
Theme. Essentially any random collection of adjectives that you think would be cool.
If an artist feels that s/he needs to add a description, link, image, etc., in any combination when declaring their criteria, please feel free to do so.
To further explain the concept of criteria as applied to this project, below is a submission done for the ASP followed by a description written by the artist on how they used the criteria to guide their work.
Criteria are chosen by the group as a whole and then edited by a select few. This in theory will ensure that not only is the art being influenced by everyone, but each Session is a unique event in and of itself.
The Criteria are as follows:
Anatomy (Human). From our DNA all the way up to the entire human figure with all its systems, it's entirely up to the artist to decide what they want to select. But here's something to think about: the other artists would probably appreciate something more along the line of building upon what we have learned so far. For example, it would be easier for us all to render the muscles of the adbomen after having worked on the ribcage (and before that the spine, etc). If you wish to attach actions/expressions to your anatomy selection, feel free to do so.
Medium. Pencils, photography, oils, digital, graphite, sculputre, mixed media - any tool that can be used to create art is game.
Perspective. One Point, two point, or three point perspective. Now to be clear, perspective isn't the same as foreshadowing. Vanishing points must be CLEARLY demonstrated to be in use. If you do not know what vanishing points and horizon lines are, you know have a very valid reason for interacting with the group; that's what we are here for!
Setting. A specific time and/or place. Swamps, sewers, plains, abandoned wheat silos, islands, submarine interiors, mountains, observatory outposts, forests, a Native American village during the 1500's, a cityscape after a nuclear war, Atlantis at night, a plane of reality based on the essence of gravity and fire. If what you are thinking can be considred a place and/or time, then you're good to go.
Style. Realism, pop art, abstract, cubism, expressionism, objectivism, postimpressionism, manga, black & white, etc. If it can be considered a style, then it fits. I am asking a personal favor though and suggest we stay away from pointilism. Please.
Theme. Essentially any random collection of adjectives that you think would be cool.
If an artist feels that s/he needs to add a description, link, image, etc., in any combination when declaring their criteria, please feel free to do so.
To further explain the concept of criteria as applied to this project, below is a submission done for the ASP followed by a description written by the artist on how they used the criteria to guide their work.

Session 1's Final Criteria
Anatomy (Human): Torso
Perspective: One Point
Theme: Bold, Earthly, Natural, Retro
My use of the anatomy in this image is quite obvious. Female torso.
The perspective in this image, I admit, is not blatantly obvious but I attempted to illustrate it with the pinwheel of colors in the background, with the vanishing point being directly behind the girl.
I carried out all elements of the theme as best I could. The color pallet I used in this piece alone fairly covers most of those. I also incorporated the elements by doing the following:
Retro: I chose a hippie-esque style in the piece for a 1960s retro feel. The faceless individual has her left arm in the air and a daisy flower in her right hand, signifying either peaceful protest of military action, or that shes just dancing and having a good time-- both very hippie-like things ^-^
Natural and Earthly: The naked human body is about as natural as one can get. Hippies also touted striving to be one with nature and mother earth, and in case that was not enough, a wildflower in her right hand.
Bold: Nudity is always a bold way to make a statement, and not surprisingly was used in that era by that particular subculture. The main reason I included a white daisy(symbolic of purity and love), was to illustrate that the nudity of the piece was not necessarily out of wild lewdness, as many may perceive, but out of an innocent and good purpose.
Author/Artist: Deb
Criteria Selection. Now that you fully know what criteria are, the next question is to ask is how are they selected and how does the group interact with them? Essentially, the criteria are voted on by the ASP artists as a whole and then edited by a few.
It all starts here. There lay the polls that the group use to vote on the fundamental criteria that tie the ASP together. Once the voting is completed there will naturally be criteria that have received more votes than others. These are considered the top criteria. The default number of top criteria each Session works with is 3.
If you have inherited the right to select criteria from another artist, you go to the current Session's Criteria poll, select from among the top 3 criteria of said poll, add your own mix to one of them as explained in the Criteria section, and post your edit on the group's wall. Example:
Arist A goes to group wall and posts, "My Criteria is X."
Once 3 Criteria are edited in this fashion, the ASP moves to the Execution phase of the Session and we work our asses off!
Your job as a Criteria Selector isn't done yet though. Once the current Session ends, you have to pass Criteria Selection onto another artist during the Exchange phase of the next Session by posting on the group's wall as well. Example:
Artist A goes to group wall and posts, "I'm passing Criteria Selection onto Artist B."
Once Artist B posts his/her Criteria edit onto the group's wall, they begin the cycle anew and that's how this all works.
An artist may not pass on criteria to the artist that passed it onto them until they pass it to someone first.
Also, an artist can not select the same artist twice consecutively to receive criteria.
It all starts here. There lay the polls that the group use to vote on the fundamental criteria that tie the ASP together. Once the voting is completed there will naturally be criteria that have received more votes than others. These are considered the top criteria. The default number of top criteria each Session works with is 3.
If you have inherited the right to select criteria from another artist, you go to the current Session's Criteria poll, select from among the top 3 criteria of said poll, add your own mix to one of them as explained in the Criteria section, and post your edit on the group's wall. Example:
Arist A goes to group wall and posts, "My Criteria is X."
Once 3 Criteria are edited in this fashion, the ASP moves to the Execution phase of the Session and we work our asses off!
Your job as a Criteria Selector isn't done yet though. Once the current Session ends, you have to pass Criteria Selection onto another artist during the Exchange phase of the next Session by posting on the group's wall as well. Example:
Artist A goes to group wall and posts, "I'm passing Criteria Selection onto Artist B."
Once Artist B posts his/her Criteria edit onto the group's wall, they begin the cycle anew and that's how this all works.
An artist may not pass on criteria to the artist that passed it onto them until they pass it to someone first.
Also, an artist can not select the same artist twice consecutively to receive criteria.
Submission Entry. Unless dictated otherwise by Criteria, submissions can be of any size and/or medium. The only must have for each submission is a title of the art being submitted. However, the more information an artist provides to go along with their submissions the better.
The default location to upload one's submissions will be the here. However, there is no problem with an artist using another place on the web to host their images. In fact if you are thinking of doing so, I HIGHLY suggest deviantart.com.
The default location to upload one's submissions will be the here. However, there is no problem with an artist using another place on the web to host their images. In fact if you are thinking of doing so, I HIGHLY suggest deviantart.com.
Deadline. It's pretty simple; this is the time in which no further submissions for the current project will be accepted. The deadline will be clearly posted on the project homepage along with a timeline of all other events regarding the project.
Exhibition. After the deadline, a voting poll will be put in place for a given amount of time and the submission that receives the most votes, wins. The polls will be open to be voted on from anyone that has an internet connection so it is in each artist's best interests to let everyone they know about it. I know friends will tend to vote for friends but each artist should tell their friends to vote for the best submission and not them by default. Regardless, the more the merrier... obviously *cold sarcastic stare*.
Merit (Optional). An artist who participates in the Art Synergy Project will eventually earn Merit. Merit can be used by an artist to alter the flow of the project. However, spending Merit won't be enabled by default since not everyone may like it. This basically has to be voted into use on the Facebook discussion linked to this project.