Week 4 - Reading: Shape and Form

Alrighty here is another episode of me doing the reading and writing down the main points.


Shape and Form

Shape - A figure that appears to be flat

Form - A figure that appears to be three-dimensional


Designs that emphasize shape





The first painting shows us how shapes are emphasized in the drawing. The painting can seem like just a trapezoid held up by two rectangles.


Geometric Shapes


Viewers all have an understanding and familiarity with geometric shapes and have preconceived notions about what they do. As an artist it is vital to be mindful of the associations viewers have with certain shapes.





Invented Shapes


These shapes do not remind us of the world on which our notions of order are based.





Enlarged Lines, Letters, and Numbers




Familar Objects





In the figure above we know that the "2" is a 2. We don't need it to be fully complete to understand that.





The poster above is for a tea ceremony where the figure is an apple.

This poster is very simple yet exquisite due to the attention to detail and asymmetry of the apple and the use of economy.





In the above painting. The figures look like an array of snails, flowers, etc.

When drawing paintings that look like figures, it is crucial to understand the associations that come along with it, as those are the things that give it a deeper meaning.


Vocab word:
Biomorphic (shape) - Shapes that remind us of structures from the natural world


Unfilled Areas as Shapes

So apparently this drawing below is a woman because of the "boobs"?





Anyways the empty space gives a feeling of a feminine figure. The paper collage on canvas is called Venus by Henri Matisse.



Sometimes the figure and ground are balanced that it's hard to tell which one is which.

When there is a perfect balance like this, it's called physical figure-ground reversal.





In the figure below, even though there is more black than white, the figure and ground can still be interchanged.

This is called optical figure-ground reversal.





Implied Shapes









Holding Shapes Together


Shapes would look like this if there was no unification. All messy and shit.




Abutting - to be next to





Interlocking - holding together like jigsaw puzzles





Suggestions of Continuity


Paintings like the one below is nice and easy to parse because of the straight lines. It's easy for our eyes to navigate through it and get what we need.





Where as painting that have more circular elements force us to take more time to grasp everything.