Week Two: Shape
April 27 - May 1
Starting just like a line, a shape is a dot that goes for a walk and then... comes back home. When you think of shapes you probably think of geometric shapes like a circle, square, triangle, rectangle, etc. However, many shapes are organic - think of a blob shape, a leaf shape, and other shapes found in nature. If the shape does not have a name, we call it organic. So what about a heart or a star? They're geometric. They have names that everyone calls them.
Here are some examples of organic and geometric shapes.
Below, you will see a few featured artists that use shape in their art. Click on the artist's name to learn more about them!
Finally, there are some shape-inspired art activities for you to choose from. Enjoy creating!
Henri Matisse – (1869-1954) Matisse used shapes in his collages. A collage is made when an artist cuts pieces of paper, arranges them, and glues them to create their art. Some of his collages are abstract and some are non-objective. Abstract means you can see something in them but it doesn’t look quite right and non-objective means it’s not of anything. Sometimes Matisse used organic shapes and sometimes he used geometric shapes. See if you can spot the organic and geometric shapes in Matisse’s art!
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MarcPaperScissor – (still alive today) MarcPaperScissor is a relatively new artist who is still creating art today. Like Matisse, MarcPaperScissor also makes collages using paper, scissors, and glue. MarcPaperScissor and Matisse both “draw with scissors” which means they don’t draw what they are going to cut with a pencil before cutting, they just cut what they want to cut.
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Piet Mondrian – (1872-1944) Piet Mondrian used mostly squares and rectangles in his art. That means he was a huge fan of straight lines. He is also known for using the primary colors. If you were in Eau Claire for kindergarten, you may remember him from kindergarten art – he uses very basic shapes and colors.
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How can you use shape in your art?
Try one of the examples below!
SHAPE COLLAGE
Use papers or items you have around your home, along with glue and scissors to cut and glue organic and geometric shapes to make a picture. Your art could be of something or it could be non-objective (just a design). I chose to make mine non-objective. |
GEOMETRIC/ORGANIC SHAPE DRAWING
Find a surface (sidewalk, paper, cardboard) and a drawing material (chalk, pen, pencil, crayon, marker, etc.) and draw as many organic and geometric shapes as you can think of. When you're finished, see if you can transform those shapes into something else. I made a sun out of my circle and a crazy monster out of an organic shape. |
SHAPE PIZZA
Using only shapes, build a pizza. You can cut and paste your design as a collage or you can draw the shapes and color them. (Ideas for paper: junk mail, magazines, wrapping paper, brown paper bags, or color your own)