Shape PowerPoint 2

1. • A shape is a flat, enclosed
area that has two
dimensions – length and
width. We can see a
shape because a line either
surrounds it, or because a
change in color or value
allows us to see its edges.
When we paint on a flat
sheet of paper, we make
shapes of many kinds.

2. Why
learn
about
shapes?
• Learning about kinds of
shapes is an important part
of art since we always begin
with a line and with that line
we can create a shape.
• Knowing what kinds of
shapes you are using in your
artwork will not only allow
you to make intelligent
decisions about your art, but
allow you speak
intelligently about your
work.
• Keep in mind that it is
difficult to talk about one
kind of shape without
talking about others.

3. Let us first identify the types of
shapes that are most commonly
used by artists..
•Organic Shapes
•Geometric Shapes
• Abstract Shapes
•Positive Shapes
•Negative Shapes

4. Organic Shapes
• All shapes are either
geometric or
organic.
• Organic shapes are
freeform and curved –
people, clouds,
animals, trees,
flowers, etc.
• It would be
impossible to name
all the organic shapes
in the world!

5. Geometric Shapes
• Geometric shapes
have hard edges
and are precise
and regular –
triangles, squares,
circles, rectangles,
and combinations
of these shapes.

6. Abstract
Shapes
• Abstract shapes are very simplified, flat shapes of three –
dimensional things that we can sometimes recognize, but
which may not look real. They might often seem to be
silhouettes of real things. Some abstract shapes are just
random shapes that do not resemble anything we
recognize. Abstract shapes can either be organic or
geometric.

7. Positive & Negative Shapes
• Shapes are either
positive or negative.
The subject in a work
of art is usually the
positive shape and the
background is the
negative shape.
Positive and negative
shapes can either be
organic or geometric.

8. • In the first painting, the
artist used both
geometric and organic
shapes in planning and
creating the large collage.
Most of the numbers are
organic shapes and are
placed on rectangles,
which are geometric
shapes. The entire work
is made of shapes. The
bright colors make the
collage seem like a festival
banner – she calls it
Octogenarian Celebration.

9. In this piece entitled,
“Bond”, Escher uses
both Organic and
Geometric Shapes in
his composition.
His use of positive and
negative shapes are
also very evident.
Maurits Cornelis Escher (17 June 1898 – 27 March 1972),
usually referred to as M.C. Escher was a graphic artist. He is known
for his mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and
mezzotints. These feature impossible constructions, explorations
of infinity, architecture, and tessellations.

10. Metamorphosis also effectively uses organic, geometric, positive and negative shapes

11. Organic & Irregular Shapes
• Shapes in nature are
usually organic or
irregular such as flowers,
people, trees, or lakes. If
you want to draw or paint
them, you need to see
their shapes. In this
photo, the leaves are the
positive shape, and the
blue background is the
negative shape.

12. Contour line
drawings follow
the edges of
objects. In both
of these illustrations,
the lines are all
organic except
for the cushion
the turtles are
on, which is
geometric.
• Contour line drawings can help identify organic shapes.
Changes in color or value can create edges that also
describe organic shapes. If you traced the dark shapes on the
turtle, they would prove to be organic shapes.

13. Organic Shapes & Contour Lines
• In this agate, the
colored lines follow
each other closely.
• These are called
contour lines.
• The shape of the rock
and the lines are
organic.

14. Robert Wood, Flight, Watercolor
• The cliff painting is made of organic earth
shapes – the cliff, rock, sun, bird, water, wave,
and cloud shapes are all organic shapes. Notice
the variety of sizes that these different shapes
have. This allows us to identify the objects.

15. Donna
Berryhill
Don
Mixed
Media
• In the figure painting we can see both positive
and negative shapes. The main object in any
painting is usually the positive shape, and the
background area surrounding it is called the
negative shape. The figure in this painting is an
organic shape. The rectangular brush strokes in
the background are geometric.

16. • Shapes are either positive
or negative. The subject
in a representational work
is usually the positive
shape (the sheep), and the
background is the negative
shape. A representational
work is one in which the
subject is easily
recognizable, in this case,
a sheep. Both the sheep
and the background are
organic shapes. The
overall shape of the
painting (square) is
Wil Bullas geometric).
A Sheep on the Job
Watercolor

17. Positive and Negative
shapes using organic
shapes. The leaf is
organic in
shape. The backgrounds
are
organic shapes.
The shape of the
paintings are
geometric (rectangular).

18. Positive and Negative
Shapes using Geometric
Shapes

19. Henri Matisse &
Shape
• Henri Matisse (December 31,
1869 – November 3, 1954)
was a French artist, noted for
his use of color. He was also
known as a draughtsman,
printmaker, and sculptor, but
principally as a painter.
Matisse is one of the best-known
artists of the twentieth
century. He was initially
labeled as a Fauve (wild
beast), which was a short lived
group of modern artists called
Fauvists. They simplified lines,
made the subject of the
painting easy to read, and
exaggerated perspectives.
His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing is
apparent in a body of work spanning over a half-century, and won
him recognition as a the father of modern art.
In this painting,
Matisse uses
organic
Shapes in the
figure along
with irregular
geometric
shapes with
hard edges in
the yellow star
like objects and
the circle heart..

20. Organic Shapes
• All shapes are
either geometric
or organic.
Organic shapes
are freeform and
curved – people,
clouds, animals,
trees, flowers, etc.
• It would be
impossible to
name all the
organic shapes in
the world!

21. Georgia O’Keefe
Georgia Totto O'Keeffe
(November 15, 1887
– March 6, 1986) was an
American artist. Born near Sun
Prairie, Wisconsin, Georgia
O'Keeffe was a major figure in
American
art from the 1920s.
• Georgia Okeefe’s paintings are filled with organic shapes. Her
paintings often bring together the elements of earth and sky.

22. Ram’s Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills, 1935

23. Geometric Shapes
• Geometric shapes
have hard edges
and are precise
and regular –
triangles, squares,
circles, rectangles,
and combinations
of these shapes.

24. Jasper Johns & Geometric Shape
• Jasper Johns, Jr. (born
May 15, 1930 in Augusta,
Georgia) is a contemporary
U.S. artist in painting and
printmaking. is one of the
great “noodlers” of modern
art. Noodling, a term that
enjoyed currency at the time
Mr. Johns first hit the scene
in the 1950s, is about
fussing and worrying images
into existence, often with
monotonous, obsessive
repetitions.
In Flags, by Jasper Johns, he uses the
geometric shape of a rectangle in the
overall shape of the flag, the lines in
the flag, and also star shapes.
This painting does NOT have organic shapes in it.

25. Jasper Johns
& Organic &
Geometric
Shapes
• Here is another painting by Jasper Johns, called
Nine. He uses the geometric shape of the
rectangles, and then paints organic shapes of
number over the top of the rectangles.

26. Abstract
Shapes
• Abstract shapes are very simplified, flat shapes of three –
dimensional things that we can sometimes recognize, but
which may not look real. They might often seem to be
silhouettes of real things. Some abstract shapes are just
random shapes that do not resemble anything we
recognize.

27. Picasso & Abstract Shapes
• Pablo Picasso’s painting,
The Three Musicians, is
an abstract painting in
which the three figures are
simplified to an
arrangement of flat
shapes. The artist used a
variety of shapes in
creating an image that
resembles an interlocking
puzzle.
Pablo Picasso, (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) commonly known as Picasso, is one
of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art. He is best known for co-founding the
Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles embodied in his work.

31. Abstract Art &
Positive &
Negative Shapes
• In abstract or non objective art, positive shapes are usually
central or featured elements; negative shapes surround them.
Most of the shapes in this painting are geometric.

32. Abstract
Simplified
Organic
Shapes
• Abstraction often reduces things to their simplest shapes.
• Margo Hoff has reduced people to flat, organic “S” shapes in
simplifying the start of a marathon race to it’s basic elements.

33. Describe the images in the following slides
Using the following terms:
Organic Shape
Geometric Shape
Positive & Negative Shape
Abstract Shape

34. 1

35. 2

36. 3

37. 4

38. 5

39. 6

40. 7

41. 8

42. Shape Review
• Abstract shapes
are very
simplified, flat
shapes of three –
dimensional
things
• Shapes are either
positive or negative
•Organic or Geometric
•A shape is a flat, enclosed area
that has two dimensions –
length and width.
•Contour line drawings can help describe organic shapes.
• Changes in color or value can create
edges that also describe organic shapes.