Today's Class- Today we started the Final Project of the semester, to design a board game based on works of historical fine art. The artist should be one who has achieved art world recognition, such as appearing in art history survey texts or be included in the collections of major museums. Check with me if you're not sure. The work must be representational.
Board Game- For this project you base a board game on the work of a specific artist. Your sources should be more than one work by the same artist. The game's theme should relate to the artwork(s). Above is a sample game based on the art of 14th century painter Hieronymus Bosch. Bosch's work usually had religious and moralistic themes, and this game adapts a common theme of his- the sinful nature of mankind and the possibility of eternal punishment in the afterlife.
All games must have a path of some kind. It can be a one-way start to finish path (such as in Candyland), a continuous loop that is repeated until conditions result in a winner (such as Monopoly), or something where players can move in multiple directions (such as chess). Rules for moving should be worked out, such as use of dice, spinner, or drawn cards.
The board design should not just be a copy of a single painting with a game path on it, but rather an original design that makes use of images from the artist's painting(s). This game borrows images from two Bosch paintings- "The Garden of Earthly Delights" and "The Last Judgement". All the visual elements on the game board should come from your artist, but the compositional design should be yours.
The game board should be made from mat board or illustration board, and must be able to fold in half like traditional game boards. Recommended sizes are between 16" x 16" and 18" x 24", but you can make it a little bigger if you prefer.
The game board must include the name of your game somewhere in the design. In the above example, I gave the Bosch-themed game the name "Heaven and Hell".
You must provide tokens to represent the game players. You can make some special for the game, or repurpose tokens from another game. Below are some additional student examples from previous semesters.
Love Story
Roy Lichtenstein
Victory Climb
Cezanne
Roots
Kerry James Marshall
