Shape
Definition: the external form, contours, or outline of someone or something.
Key Words:
What are geometric shapes?
Key Words:
- Abstract
- Composition
- Organic
- Geometric
What are geometric shapes?
What are organic shapes?
Notice the difference between the geometric and the organic shapes
In this image you can see simple geometric shapes being manipulated to become complex organic shapes
Summative Task: Abstract Shape Artwork
What does abstract mean?
You are going to create an artwork using pure art elements of shape and colour.
What does abstract mean?
You are going to create an artwork using pure art elements of shape and colour.
Artist in Focus: Grace Crowley
About the artist
As a little girl raised on a farm, Grace Crowley’s first drawings were chalk scribbles on an old water tank. Growing up, she moved on to sketching the cows, chickens and horses around her family homestead. Despite knowing
little about art, Grace’s parents encouraged her talent, sending her to art
school in Sydney. Grace went on to teach drawing and painting there before spending four years in Europe, where she was deeply inspired by modernism an approach to art that favoured experimentation over tradition. Back in Sydney, Grace co-founded the Crowley-Fizelle school and became an
influential figure in Australian painting.
About the work
Grace Crowley’s studies in France represented
a turning point in her artistic practice. The focus of
her paintings shifted from portraits and pastoral scenes to the formal elements of shape, line and colour. Grace’s work became more and more abstract as the years passed, culminating in a series of rhythmic geometric paintings created in the 1940s and 50s.
In Abstract Painting, 1953 the canvas is criss-crossed with diagonal bands of green, seeming to float above
a fractured field of blue, orange and brown. Where the colours intersect there is a layered, translucent effect – like light passing through slivers of coloured glass.
Image Grace Crowley, Australia, 1890–1979, Abstract painting, 1953, oil on hardboard, 53.0 x 91.7 cm; Bequest Grace Crowley 1981, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
About the artist
As a little girl raised on a farm, Grace Crowley’s first drawings were chalk scribbles on an old water tank. Growing up, she moved on to sketching the cows, chickens and horses around her family homestead. Despite knowing
little about art, Grace’s parents encouraged her talent, sending her to art
school in Sydney. Grace went on to teach drawing and painting there before spending four years in Europe, where she was deeply inspired by modernism an approach to art that favoured experimentation over tradition. Back in Sydney, Grace co-founded the Crowley-Fizelle school and became an
influential figure in Australian painting.
About the work
Grace Crowley’s studies in France represented
a turning point in her artistic practice. The focus of
her paintings shifted from portraits and pastoral scenes to the formal elements of shape, line and colour. Grace’s work became more and more abstract as the years passed, culminating in a series of rhythmic geometric paintings created in the 1940s and 50s.
In Abstract Painting, 1953 the canvas is criss-crossed with diagonal bands of green, seeming to float above
a fractured field of blue, orange and brown. Where the colours intersect there is a layered, translucent effect – like light passing through slivers of coloured glass.
Image Grace Crowley, Australia, 1890–1979, Abstract painting, 1953, oil on hardboard, 53.0 x 91.7 cm; Bequest Grace Crowley 1981, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Steps:
Practise using Illustrator by creating the batman logo
Steps for after Illustrator has been installed:
Practise using Illustrator by creating the batman logo
- Download Illustrator from the Adobe Creative Cloud website:
https://creativecloud.adobe.com/cc/# - Use your school email address: [email protected]
- Select 'Company Account'
- You may need to sign into EdPass using your Daymap login details
- Find Illustrator and select 'Download'
Steps for after Illustrator has been installed:
- Open the batman logo image into Illustrator
- Save the file by going to 'File,' 'Save' and place it into your 'School Work' - 'Art' folder on your computer.
Summative Assessment
- Consider what shapes you are going to use for your abstract art piece. Will you use geometric or organic shapes or both?
- Find images of the shapes you would like to use and save these images into your 'School Work' - 'Art' folder
- Open a new file in Illustator
- Choose a template by going to 'Print' and then 'A4'
- Name the file as 'Abstract Art Your Name'
- 'Create'
- Find the shape tool in the left tool bar
- Click and hold the icon to bring up more options
- Choose a shape type, eg. Ellipse tool and draw a shape
If you hold the 'Shift' key while you are drawing the shape it will stay in perfect proportions
- To create more organic or complex shapes use the curvature tool to adjust the shape
- With the curvature tool selected experiment creating various shapes by adjusting the placements of the nodes and by clicking on the line to curve sections of the shape in or out.
- You can change the fill of the shape in the properties panel
- Click on the little square next to the word 'Fill'
- If there are no colour options, click on the little palette icon
- Create another shape and move it onto your first shape so that they overlap
- In order to move the shape you will need to click on the 'Selection tool' in the left menu first, otherwise you will just continue to make more shapes
- Make the new shape a different colour
- You can change the opacity (transparency) by clicking on the little arrow and sliding the ruler to the desire effect
- Remove the stokes on both shapes by clicking on the little box next to the word 'Stroke'
- Select the box with a red dash going through it
This is the progress so far
You have now used all the tools needed to complete this project
You have now used all the tools needed to complete this project
- Continue experimenting with new shapes, colour and stokes
Here are some final examples for inspiration:
Extension Task
Learning to draw via shapes and guides
Shapes are a great tool to use when learning to draw.
Complex images can be simplified and broken down to help you see what you are really drawing.
Learning to draw via shapes and guides
Shapes are a great tool to use when learning to draw.
Complex images can be simplified and broken down to help you see what you are really drawing.