How compositions are made from geometric shapes

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Very often in the world of artists there are paintings that are largely different from oil and pastel paintings. They are more like drawings, patterns, sketches and are completely incomprehensible to a simple viewer. Now we will talk about compositions of geometric shapes, discuss what they are, what load they carry and why they generally occupy such an honorable place in the art of drawing and painting.

Simple compositions

Every brush master who started his career in art school will answer you that precise lines, geometric shapes and their combinations are the first thing they teach there. Our vision and brain are arranged in such a way that if you initially learn how to harmoniously combine simple forms with each other, then in the future it will be easier to draw complex pictures. Compositions of geometric shapes allow us to feel the balance of the picture, visually determine its center, calculate the falllight, determine the properties of its constituents.

It is worth noting that, despite the clarity and directness of such images, they are drawn exclusively by hand, without rulers and other auxiliary items. The parameters of the figures are measured using proportions, which can be located in a two-dimensional dimension (a flat picture), or they can go into perspective, to a single vanishing point of all lines.

Beginning artists draw compositions from geometric shapes in two dimensions. For such paintings, one of the sides is chosen - a plan or a facade. In the first case, all figures are depicted in a "top view", that is, the cone and cylinder become a circle, the prism takes the form of its base. If the figures are depicted in the facade, one of their sides is shown, most often the front. In the picture we see triangles, squares, parallelograms, etc.

Three-dimensional paintings

In order to develop abstract thinking and a sense of perspective, artists learn to depict compositions of three-dimensional geometric shapes that go into perspective. Such an image is considered three-dimensional, and in order to transfer it to paper, you need to clearly imagine everything. Similar drawing techniques are relevant in construction and architectural universities, they are used as exercises. However, students often make real works of art out of these “picturesque sketches”, drawing incredible insets of figures, dissecting compositions with planes and half-planes, depicting pictures in section.

In general, we can say that clarity, linearity are the main properties that any composition of geometric shapes has. At the same time, a drawing can be static or dynamic - it depends on the type of figures depicted and on their location. If the picture is dominated by cones, trihedral prisms, balls, then it seems to “fly” - this is definitely dynamics. Cylinders, squares, tetrahedral prisms are static.

Painting examples

Geometric forms have found their place in painting, along with romanticism and other trends. A vivid example of this is the artist Juan Gris and his most famous painting "Man in a Cafe", which, like a mosaic, consists of triangles, squares and circles. Another abstract composition of geometric shapes is the canvas “Pierrot”, artist B. Kubista. Bright, clear and very distinctive picture.