• 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.

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.

Let us first identify the types ofshapes that are most commonly

used by artists..

•Organic Shapes•Geometric Shapes• Abstract Shapes•Positive Shapes•Negative Shapes

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!

Geometric Shapes

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

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.

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.

• 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.

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.

In this piece entitled,“Bond”, Escher usesboth Organic and

Geometric Shapes inhis composition.

His use of positive andnegative shapes arealso very evident.

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

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.

• 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.

Contour linedrawings follow

the edges ofobjects. In both

of these illustrations,the lines are allorganic exceptfor the cushionthe turtles areon, which is geometric.

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.

• 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.

Robert Wood, Flight, Watercolor

• 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.

Donna BerryhillDonMixedMedia

• 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

geometric).Wil BullasA Sheep on the JobWatercolor

Positive and Negativeshapes using organicshapes. The leaf is

organic inshape. The backgrounds

are organic shapes.The shape of the

paintings aregeometric (rectangular).

Positive and Negative

Shapes using Geometric

Shapes

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

organicShapes in the figure along

with irregular geometric

shapes with hard edges in

the yellow star like objects and the circle heart..

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!

Georgia O’Keefe

• Georgia Okeefe’s paintings are filled with organic shapes. Her paintings often bring together the elements of earth and sky.

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.

Ram’s Head White Hollyhock and Little Hills, 1935

Geometric Shapes

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Describe the images in the following slidesUsing the following terms:

Organic Shape

Geometric Shape

Positive & Negative Shape

Abstract Shape

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

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 areathat 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.