Shape
Shape pertains to the use of areas in two dimensional space that can be defined by edges, setting one flat specific space apart from another. Shapes can be geometric (e.g.: square, circle, triangle, hexagon, etc.) or organic (such as the shape of a puddle, blob, leaf, boomerang, etc.) in nature. Shapes are defined by other elements of art: Space, Line, Texture, Value, Color, Form.
Organic Shapes
Geometric Shapes
Suprematist Composition
Kazimir Malevich
1914 Oil on Canvas
Totem
Alexander Calder
Painted Metal
The Plum Garden in Kameido
Hiroshige Utagawa
The Battle of Trafalgar
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1806
San Giorgio Maggiore from the Dogana
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1819
The Battle of Issus
Alexander the Great Mosaic
c. 100 B.C. Tile Mosaic
Detail of The Battle of Issus
Alexander the Great Mosaic
c. 100 B.C. Tile Mosaic
Three Musicians
Pablo Picasso
1921 Oil on canvas
Red Room
Henri Matisse
1908 Oil on canvas
Eagle
Alexander Calder
1971 Sculpture
North Rose, Notre Dame Cathedral
1250 Stained Glass
Activities:
1. From six different colored sheets of paper, cut six organic shapes. From the same sheets of paper, cut six geometric shapes. Arrange all the organic shapes on the lower half of a colored piece of paper and arrange the geometric shapes on the upper half. Glue the pieces down.
6. Draw a figure shape in a series of movements on different colored papers. Cut them out, then overlap each change of pose, outlining each shape with black marker.
7. Draw the exterior of a house with many geometric shapes and a few organic shapes.
10. Cut out pictures from magazines of objects in nature that have organic shapes. Cut out pictures from magazines of manmade objects that have geometric shapes. Glue them down on paper and compare the shapes.