Form

Home -- Syllabus -- Schedule -- Resources

Administrative -- Technical -- Historical

Typography -- Theory -- Terms -- Language -- People

Basic 2D Design I. Consideration of the Viewer II. Principles of Design III. The Elements
A. Line B. Shape C. Form D. Space E. Value F. Texture G . Color

III. Elements of Art --- C. Form

form - a figure that appears to be three dimensional (mass, volume); or the overall organization of a work

1. Making Shape Take Form

a. plane structure

1. the representation of straight-sided figures in 3D (square as cube)

2. breaking down the rounded contours of a figure into flat planes (human drawn as interlocking geometric forms) Skeleton Volumes, courtesy of FARP

b. shading / modelling - the depiction of relative darkness in areas where light has been partially blocked Michelle White Still-Life, 1991

2. Positioning Forms in the Pictorial Space

a. overlapping - illusion of depth created by forms "in front" obscuring parts of forms in "back" 1921 Fernando Leal, Zapatistas at Rest

b. atmosphere - using hard and soft edges, warm and cool colors, etc. to indicate compositional position Alex Katz, January Snow, 1993

c. scale - using size to indicated distance from the viewer John Jacobson, Reaction, 2000

3. Illogical Use of Form - using familiar visual cues to depict something that does not exist yet is somehow strangely familiar Max Ernst, The Eye of Silence, 1943-44

More Art:

1883 John Singer Sargeant, Madame X

1937 George LK Morris, Nautical Composition

1842 JMW Turner Snow Storm

Basic 2D Design I. Consideration of the Viewer II.Principles of Design III. The Elements A. Line B. Shape C. Form D. Space E. Value F. Texture G . Color