🎀 The 7 Elements of Art – Shape 🎀

What is Shape in Art?

Shape is one of the 7 Elements of Art. It is a closed area, bounded by lines, a change in color, texture, or value. We can observe it when a line encloses a space or when a change in color/texture creates a clearly visible boundary.

Formal Definition: A shape is two-dimensional; it has height and width, but no depth (volume). Form (3D) is its three-dimensional counterpart.
Artistic Definition: Shapes are one of the fundamentals of art. They are like “puzzle pieces” that an artist uses to assemble their work, creating representations of figures, objects, or completely abstract arrangements.

Why is Shape So Important in Art?

Shape plays a key role in almost every aspect of creating and perceiving art. It is one of the most frequently used elements of art.

Creating the Illusion of Space and Form: By using different shapes (e.g., darker ones for distance, lighter ones for the foreground), artists can suggest a third dimension on a flat surface.

Organizing Composition: Shapes are the main elements that an artist arranges to guide the viewer’s eye. Sometimes they create a focal point and provide the composition with balance, unity, and harmony, and sometimes a complete lack thereof. Either way, shape fulfills both criteria.

Communication and Symbolism: Shapes carry strong psychological and cultural associations.

• Circle: unity, infinity, perfection, heaven, divinity.
• Square: stability, solidity, order, earth, honesty.
•  Triangle: dynamism, conflict, energy; pointing upward – aspiration; downward – instability.

Organic shapes are associated with nature, fluidity, growth, comfort, and irregularity.

Building Mood: A composition will be perceived differently depending on the quantity, type, quality, size, and kinds of shapes used. Shape helps artists consciously influence the dynamics of their works and how they are perceived by the viewer.

The Basis of Abstraction: Shape is a key element of abstract art, where it often represents nothing beyond itself, and the composition is based on a pure arrangement of forms, colors, and lines.

History and Evolution of the Approach to Shape

Prehistoric and Ancient Art:Shapes were simplified and schematic, used to represent people, animals, and symbols. Shape was used in its purest form here, though purely artistic meaning often gave way to practicality.

The Renaissance: Artists strived to perfectly and harmoniously render the shapes of nature, attempting to fit animals, people, or plants into ideal, harmonious shapes.

Cubism: This was a revolution in the perception of shape. Artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque “shattered” objects and figures into geometric shapes and depicted them from multiple perspectives in their works. At this historical point, shape had its ‘breakthrough’ and began to be treated more in this artistic form than in the previously purely practical one.

Movements such as Suprematism (Kazimir Malevich) and Neoplasticism (Piet Mondrian) reduced art to the simplest geometric shapes and basic colors, seeking a universal language and spiritual purity within them.

Pop Art and Contemporary Art: Shapes became flat, bold, often borrowed from mass culture, comics, and advertising. Today, artists mix all styles, using both geometric and organic shapes. Shape is still perceived more in this artistic form, though it is more prone to repetition and copies without much attention to composition.

Exercises for Practicing and Understanding Shape

Negative Space Drawing:Take an object with a clear shape (e.g., a chair, scissors, a flower pot).

Instead of drawing the object itself (positive space), focus on drawing the shapes of the empty space around it.
This means shading the background while leaving an empty area in the place of the object. This exercise will help you realize how significant shape is.

Simplification into a Geometric Shape (Silhouette):

Find a photo of an animal or a person in a clear pose.

Try to draw its general form, reducing it to the simplest possible silhouette shape.
E.g., eyes can be circles, a torso can be represented by a triangle.
This is an exercise that helps in understanding shape, anatomy, and the overall spatial relationship in our work.