Abstract Shapes
UncategorizedWhat makes a Shape Abstract?
If you are human, you are surrounded by shapes.
Even your body itself is made of shapes put together.
In Conversation,
Have you ever heard someone say-
- I’m watching my Shape
- Shape Up!
- She’s very Shapely.
- It’s losing it’s Shape.
- This thing is really Shaping Up!
Shapes are all around us. Our world is made of shapes.
Abstract VS Realistic
Abstract Shapes are free form, basic building block shapes.
A painting or drawing is made up of these shapes.
Some you recognize, some you don’t.
Abstract means the shape is not literally, exactly, detailed, reality.
It takes what you see, say a dog,
and makes it a shape mass made of a rectangle blob on 4 cylinder legs,
with maybe a dot for a head, and a dash for a tail.
You see enough of the real Dog in the Shapes to tell you-
its a painting of a dog in a field.
The Viewers Eye
The viewer eye scans a piece of art and looks for recognizable shapes.
The eye looks for Meaning, through identifying shapes.
The brain wants to name the shape.
If the eye sees a vertical brushstroke on a beach scene,
with a circle sitting on top of it,
about the size of a human,
the eye will send a message to the brain – person on the beach.
Tigers
This is how our eyes and brains evolved.
See a shape that looks like a Tiger?
Run.
You don’t need to see all the details.
Run.
The faster the eye and brain can Identify and discern shapes,
the better for humans to stay alive and avoid the Tigers, Snakes, Bears, Sharks, etc.
This makes Sense.
The brain wants to make Sense of what it is seeing
Abstract Adds Interest
Abstract Art may not have anything recognizable in it.
But Realistic Art certainly has things that are abstracted.
In fact, many top artists purposely leave things abstract,
like a dog,
so that the viewer’s eye has to fill in the details.
The Brain finds this tremendously Engaging.
Trying to Make Sense of It All.
Thus the viewer is Engaged.
Walk the Line
There is a line between Abstract Art and Realistic Art.
There is a line between Abstract Shapes, and Realistic Shapes.
The best artwork walks the line – and leaves some shapes, Abstract Shapes.
We are making a painting, not an exact photographic copy of an image.
That would be called a Photograph.
In painting, we are making our own interpretation of a scene before us.
It needs to have some of ourselves in the mix- our emotions, our viewpoints –
In other words, it is The Way We See It.
Abstract Adds Meaning
It is this mix that gives the Sense of the Artist,
otherwise called the Makers Mark, or the Artist’s Hand.
The Intent of the Artist is revealed with many techniques,
and Abstracting the Shapes in the scene is one of them
See your Shapes as the Abstract Masses that they are.
Leave off details that the brain doesn’t want or need.
Painting the Light
Powerful paintings focus on the Light, Such as,
where is the light coming from?
When you leave Shapes as Abstract,
you can leave out the Labels and show the Brain the basic
Light Shapes and Dark Shapes.
This immediately creates – Form, 3-D, Volume, and Depth, see below image.
Abstract Your Tigers
Abstract Your Shapes to involve all these techniques in your paintings.
The Viewers will be more engaged and their brains more entertained,
And your message will be more powerful to them.
Maybe even as powerful as a Tiger?
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