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

Print

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.