Shape, Form, Space
During this unit students will examine the relationship between the elements of shape, form and space. Objects are either shapes or forms and the space around them influences how you perceive them . During this unit we will create drawings and paintings with forms and shapes and we will learn to shade so as to create the illusion of depth.
Assignment: Create a still life by carefully drawing the observed shapes, then shading them to create the illusion of forms. Watercolor the background with a repeated shape pattern.
Download the assignment sheet - Shape and form still life
Shape
A shape is a two-dimensional area that is defined in some way. It can be either geometric or organic (free-form).
Examples of shapes are squares, circles, triangles and silhouettes.
Form
Forms are objects having three dimensions. They have length, width and depth. They can be either geometric or organic (free-form). An example of a free-form form is a flower and an example of a geometric forms is a cone or pyramid.
Space
Shapes and forms exist in space. Space is the element of art that refers to the emptiness or area between, around, above, below or within objects.
Positive and Negative Space:
In both two and three dimensional art, the shapes or forms are called the positive space and the empty spaces between the shapes or forms are the negative spaces.