Ok, so this post is going to cover quite a bit of ground, so I hope to be clear, but please just let me know if I didn’t explain something clearly. That being said, let’s dig in.

The definition of a shape is “the outline of a thing; a contour; that can be made by value, line, texture or color, and may be suggested or implied.” So what does that mean? Basically, just as a line is a point for a walk, a shape is a line for a walk. Whereas line defines direction and length, shape defines actual space (in 2 dimensions).

The most fundamental form which can be expressed is the line. The best definition that I’ve heard for how to describe the line is from the great painter Paul Klee who wrote, “a line is a point out for a walk.” A point is a term used in art to refer to a specific location in space which has no length, width, or breadth, and is useful only in concept for indicating a place within a piece. The natural progression of the point is the line which would form if you were to trace a point as it moved. Now it is important to say here that the line is purely abstract, there is no such thing as line in nature, there is nothing that you can find which has no width or breadth, but only width. The abstraction of the line, however, is convenient for the artist to be able to talk about the rest of a piece. Now enough philosophy, on to the practical.