Art, Inspiration, Creation

Form is one of the seven elements of art described in my blog DESIGN in your Art. Form is the name for describing a 3 dimensional object in space, whether on your canvas or as a sculpture. Form can be Geometric or Organic. Geometric forms are items like buildings, vases for flowers, or any object that forms what we know as a SHAPE (square, rectangle, triangle, circle, etc). Organic forms are curves, free-flowing lines and are not symmetrical, mostly occurs in nature. 

Most art contains both of these types of forms. FORM starts as a shape, and in order to make it 3-dimensional, the use of value, tone, light and shadow, will be used to accentuate the FORM. This article by Lisa Marder really goes into some depth about FORM, including sculpture. 

This toy bear, I painted from life. I think has a pretty good form, not extreme on the value scale, but still has the "feel" of 3D. I put dark cloth behind him and put a light on one side to help me find his FORM. In order to show better FORM in your painting, working from life is certainly the best way to learn how FORM is created with shapes, lights, values and shadows. When you are learning, try to work with values that are strong and extreme. 

Start with a small canvas or large canvas with lots of squares in a grid to practice seeing FORM. This 6"x6" canvas is a little Color Study, with a bright light on the left. This helped me to see the different planes, and how intense the value shapes were so I could create FORM. I can not emphasize enough to perform daily exercises to help your brain retain information and learn! There is so much science behind this that it is proven we learn best when we "CHUNK" information. Taking 15-30 minutes each day to learn a new task, will create two neurons to fire together to create a memory (If you want to explore this brain information Thorin Klosowski wrote an excellent article " The Science Behind How we Learn"for LifeHacker) He also states, that learning something right before we take a nap or go to bed, seems to be the best time. 

So start practicing FORM today! Even if you sketch it out, it will help you learn the shapes that pattern a FORM. Creating Art is a puzzle with many pieces to it, and sitting in a chair or standing in front of your project, is where the work begins. Make it fun, but challenging. 

Happy Creating!!!