Shapes: positive, negative, and planar

Artistic Elements

SHAPES: POSITIVE, NEGATIVE, & PLANAR

Shapes

A shape is defined as an enclosed area in two dimensions. By definition shapes are always implied and flat in nature. They can be created in many ways, the simplest by enclosing an area with an outline.

They can also be made by surrounding an area with other shapes or the placement of different textures next to each other – for instance, the shape of an island surrounded by water. Because they are more complex than lines, shapes do much of the heavy lifting in arranging compositions.

 

Shapes: Positive - Negative Shapes  &  Figure - Ground Relationships

Shapes animate figure-ground relationships. We visually determine positive shapes (the figure) and negative shapes (the ground, or the space around the figure). One way to understand this is to open your hand and spread your fingers apart. Your hand is the positive shape, and the space around it becomes the negative shape.

However, identifying positive and negative shapes can get tricky in more complex compositions. Take a look at the diagram below, the four grey rectangles on the bottom left have corners that touch each other, if you shift your gaze you can see that they are also creating a solid white shape in the center. What do you see when you focus on the middle of the heptagons on the upper right? A sun? So, which would you say is the positive shape?

Shapes, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic License

 

Remember, a positive shape is one that is distinguished from the background. In the module about Line we looked at the painting ‘Las Meninas’ , look at the painting again and see how the figures are the positive shapes because they are lit dramatically and hold our attention against the dark background. What about the dark figure standing in the doorway? Here the dark shape becomes the positive one, surrounded by a white background. Once we find that dark figure, our eyes always return to it as an anchor to the painting’s entire composition. 

Velazquez's painting, Las Meninas, is fundamentally an arrangement of shapes: organic and hard-edged, light, dark, and mid-toned, that solidifies the composition within the larger shape of the canvas. Looking at it this way, we can view any work of art, whether two or three-dimensional, realistic, abstract, or non-objective, in terms of shapes alone.

In three dimensions, such as sculptures and buildings, the positive shapes are those that make up the actual piece.  The negative shapes are the empty spaces around, and sometimes permeating through the work itself. In the module about Line, the sculpture Laocoon is a good example of this. The overlapping arms, legs, snakes, and bodies, create complex negative shapes that adds energy and tension to the overall feel of the sculpture.

And of course, as we discussed, artists like to play with all the rules and combine new information together because that's what creates compelling work. The sculptor Bruno Catalano, in his The Travelers series Links to an external site. turns  positive-negative and figure-ground relationships upside-down:

 

Bruno Catalano, Fragments,Venice, Italy, 2013, source: brunocatalano.com

 

Plane

First, in two-dimensional art, the picture plane refers to the flat surface an image is created upon: a piece of paper, stretched canvas, wood panel, etc. Traditionally the picture plane has been likened to a window the viewer looks through to a scene beyond. The artist is constructing a believable image within that "window" showing implied depth through planar relationships.

A plane is defined as any surface area in space that implies dimension.  A shape’s orientation within the picture plane creates a visually implied plane, inferring direction and depth in relation to the viewer.

The graphic below shows three examples, imagine that a flat disc is turning and tilting:

Shape Planes, 11 July 2012, Creator: Oliver Harrison
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic License

 

Planes are used to create a sense of depth on a flat surface. The artist Richard Deibenkorn (1922-93, born in Portland, OR)  in addition to painting incredible light, he used planes beautifully and playfully to depict space.  Looking at his painting Driveway (below), at times the planes fall into being "just a shape" and then snap back into defining space:

 

 

Here, artist Katy Ann Gilmore Links to an external site. uses mathematics to draw a three-dimensional illusion on interior walls of architecture at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, CA:

 

 

These artists use of planar description is related to the idea of space and how it’s depicted in two dimensions. We will look at the element of space just ahead.