6 Simple Drawing Tips on Creating Forms from Shapes

One doesn't turn out to be a master of art overnight. It takes years of practice and the determination to improve one's skills. When hard work and skills are combined, the result is the emergence of a great artist. Every artist begins his journey from the start. Learning the basics, exploring his potential and later on improving his talent. But to begin with, he/she must have a sound knowledge of the basics of art. Knowing some tips and tricks always make drawing easier and enjoyable.

If you are a beginner, then this post will be a good one for you as we have attempted to include some tips on 'Transforming Shapes into Forms' by Matt Fussell. He is a famous visual arts instructor who loves to draw and paint and holds immense passion in teaching beginner and intermediate artists. Matt runs the website TheVirtualInstructor, which is a platform for him to help people create quality art. He has been a teacher for over a decade and teaching is his true passion. 

Mastering the art of shading is quite important for an artist as it is the most fundamental principle of drawing. Shading provides a whole new dimension to the drawing. As an artist, if one wants to incorporate the aspect of an illusion of light, then getting the shading right is crucial. Creating the shape first and then adding shade to the shape is what gives the illusion of form. For example, a circle is a shape and when the value (shading) is added to it, we get a sphere. The lightness and darkness of the color have specific locations to create the illusion of a form. This lightness and darkness of color help us in understanding forms. It also helps us in understanding where the light originates from. The specific locations of value include; the Highlight, Midtone, Core Shadow, Reflected Highlight and Cast Shadow. The highlight is the position where the light hits directly. Midtone position has middle value and the Core Shadow is usually darker than the rest of the positions. Whenever light hits an object it also gets reflected back by bouncing back off of the surrounding objects. This area of reflected light is represented in the form and Reflected Highlight. The Core Shadow is created when the object blocks the source of light. These are some of the basic aspects of shading and getting these techniques right means you can have a beautiful form that has been transformed from a shape.

Creating a perfect illusion would require adding a range of values to the shape. Here are some tips by Matte Fussell on How to Shade Basic Forms

1. Having a strong understanding of shading basic forms will provide an upper hand in shading complex forms.
2. Even the most complex forms can be broken down into basic geometric shapes. Therefore drawing basic shapes are very important.
3. Basic shapes can be transformed into basic forms through the illusion of shading.
4. The right application of both value and shadow can help in creating complex forms.
5. To create representational drawings an artist needs to treat objects as shapes.
6. An illusion is created by transforming a two-dimensional form into 
   three-dimensional form.

These are only a few tips by Matt on shading. If you are interested in knowing more about shading and transforming shapes into forms, then check out Matt Fussell's write up on "How to Shade Basic Forms - Transforming Shapes into Forms" here https://bit.ly/2DvXXxi. There are also other lessons on drawing and if you are interested in learning more tips and tricks of drawing, then make sure to check them all out on his website.