Shape
Home > Learning > Visual Elements > Shape
What is a Shape?
"a two-dimensional area created when the ends of a Line are joined together to create a closed area"
Organic Shapes
All shapes fall into one of two categories Organic or Geometric. Organic shapes are shapes that are found in nature. Organic shapes generally do not have their own name and are instead described by what they look like for example a flower or a leaf.
Organic shapes are irregular and imperfect meaning these shapes will all be slightly different from one another. They are often curved and flowing and can seem unpredictable.
Geometric Shapes
Geometric shapes are easy to recognize as these shapes generally have specific name associated with them (such as a square). You can use maths to find information about these shapes and geometric shapes tend to follow mathematical rules. For example all the sides of a square will be the same length.
Geometric shapes do not have to be regular shapes like circles and squares, they can also be quite complex shapes that we can’t quite put a name to, so long as they’ve got straight edges and corners it can be a geometric shape.
Circles
Circles are an exception because unlike most geometric shapes (which have corners and straight edges) circles have curved edges. Circles are still geometric shapes because they can be defined mathematically (they’re defined by the number Pi).
Positive vs Negative Shapes
Positive shapes are the shapes of actual objects they’re solid shapes, negative shapes on the other hand are the space around or between objects. Negative shapes can often appear almost like a hole or a gap, the relationship between positive and negative shapes helps the person looking at an artwork to understand what they are seeing.
Positive Shape
Negative Shape
Implied Shapes
Implied shapes are shapes that are suggested by other things. Implied shapes are shapes that are created through something else and there is an implication that they are there but they are not actually fully there so we can see the edges of these two squares are quite clearly here but I’m not actually drawing a square.
This square is made up with lots of diagonal lines.
Whereas this one is made up of vertical lines.