Forms. Congratulations! We’ve evolved from shapes to using the big kid blocks. Squares? Circles?
Triangles? Welcome to the big leagues, we’re in cube, cylinder and pyramid town now, kiddos!
But don’t think you’re out of the kiddy pen just yet. Yeah you know 3d geometry with your base times
height times width and your pi-r-squared times height and your base times height multiplied by
a third, whatever whatever...you know it's been a while since I had to google two of those, but
as we all know this isn't a math class and your calculators have no power within whatever amount
of minutes this video is. And just like shapes are essential to drawing, forms are the next
essential step to learning more complex concepts to create stunning works of art. Let's continue.
Our friend google states that Form as an element of art is three-dimensional and encloses space.
Like a shape, a form has length and width, but it also has depth. Forms are either geometric
or free-form. Wowza, we did it yall, a concise and easy to understand definition from google! I don’t
even need to expand on that one. But I will anyway because the video mandates that I must. Like the
definition says, Form is the three dimensional counterpart to shape, adding another length of
measurement; depth. Just like shape, forms can be broken down into two categories -- geometric or
free form, which is just another way to say organic. They hold around the same principle as geometric
and organic shapes, but let me expand upon both. Geometric forms are forms that are mathematical,
precise, and can be named. These include our basic and well known geometric forms that we
learn in math and that I mentioned previously -- cubes, rectangular prisms, cones, pyramids, spheres,
cylinders, and more are all considered geometric forms. Just like geometric shapes, geometric forms
achieve the same thing -- illustrating and building man made objects are always done with geometric
forms because they’re easier to calculate and repeat. Skyscrapers, houses and cars, just
to name a few, are all considered geometric, all built with geometric forms. An example
of geometric forms in artwork is 'Asteriskos' by Tony Smith. Again, for….very obvious reasons.
See you’ll get mad at me for choosing something so blatantly geometric but I was originally gonna
go with, like, any of Anne Truitt’s works and then decided against it. This sculpture is made
up of nothing but rectangular prisms, creating a very geometric and precise overall look. Lots of
Tony Smith’s work also follow these lines, where they’re built up of geometric forms to create
very minimalist, geometric sculptures. We still got lots more to talk about. Moving on. Organic
forms are forms that look more natural. They are irregular and may seem flowing and unpredictable.
The most obvious example of organic forms are things in nature, or living things. So just like
organic shapes, organic forms have no real name attached to them, and tend to be fairly random
and irregular. Can you calculate their volume? I...I guess, but you’d probably have to do a bunch of
fancy math equations. An example of artwork that uses organic forms is Reclining Figure by Henry
Moore. While looking at this piece, you can’t really say it’s made out of proper forms that have names
while looking at it. However, if you take some forms and combine them, you get the piece in front of you
and the next point I’m about to make -- all organic forms can be broken down into geometric forms, just
like shapes. Knowing those geometrics are essential to creating your organics, and as always, of course
I have examples for you. You ever seen those wooden dolls in an art store that you’re supposed to draw
to figure out how to pose people properly? That’s probably as obvious as it’ll get when it comes
to geometric forms building up an overall organic form, and this is as basic as it gets when it comes
to drawing people as well. Cylinders make up the limbs, spheres make up the joints and midsection,
etc etc. These all make up the super basic forms you need when it comes to drawing the body. I
have a couple of these wooden dolls -- like I don’t really use them cuz they don’t have as wide
of a range of motion as I’d like, but they’re good starters when it comes to drawing people,
and also make GREAT art nerd room decor. But one thing these wooden dolls do really well
is show off how important using forms are for perspective, especially foreshortening.
But, I’ll get into those for the next example. You can also use forms for an isometric scene.
Isometric forms are how most people start out drawing 3D geometry, but it isn’t true perspective
because there are no vanishing points. Everything is set on a 30 degree angle, so it stays within
that locked perspective no matter what. You’ll see isometric art in a lot of mobile games and
some RPG’s and dungeon crawlers, where it almost feels like everything’s on a chess board. With more
complex illustrations, using 3D forms are essential for perspective, which makes things appear 3D on a
flat or 2D surface. Artists achieve this by using shading, but even without shading artists can
can still use linework to imply perspective. The basic types of perspective are one point, two
point and three point perspective, referring to the amount of vanishing points there are on the piece.
All things recede towards a vanishing point, and how it recedes depends on how many points there
are. Games as geometric as Minecraft make it pretty easy to see things in perspective because of all
the straight edges. But we’ll go more in depth on perspective in another video. Foreshortening is
a very advanced artistic concept that a lot of artists tend to struggle with when starting out.
It’s like an extreme perspective, where objects appear to be almost compressed to show that
something’s getting closer or farther away. Knowing geometric forms is essential to getting
perspective right, and even more essential to understanding how foreshortening would
work. Let's return to one of my favourite manga in terms of illustrative quality, One Punch Man. This
manga is masterfully illustrated all around, but it's foreshortening is intense and used in a lot
of action scenarios, adding that extra bit of extreme movement and extra drama to each panel.
In this panel, the foreshortening is used most notably within the long tendrils coming off of
this boss character. Something a lot of artists use when foreshortening limbs and tendrils in
particular is either the ring technique or the coil technique. These use rings or coils to emphasize
a form coming closer or getting farther away. The rings get smaller and closer together as they grow
more distant. Getting these curves right are key to making a form feel 3D -- if it’s done incorrectly, the
whole piece can feel weird or flat. Understanding what geometric shapes you need to build up your
organic shapes are incredibly important when it comes to perspective. Prisms and cylinders are the
most common geometric forms in the human body, so understanding those forms are key to learning to
draw the human body in perspective. In this panel, you can see how understanding cylinders would be
vital to this entire scene; Orochi’s tendrils are practically huge, extended cylinders, and Saitama’s
body can be broken down into a few cylinders as well. Don’t be discouraged if this all sounds a
little crazy -- forms are one of the most challenging elements of art to get right! As mentioned in
our shape video, focus on mastering shapes before attempting forms -- it takes a ton of time to
get forms right, and with enough practice, you’ll definitely get there. Forms are easy to grasp
at first, but drawing them in perspective can add another layer of challenge to them. They’re
incredibly important to your drawing fundamentals, just like shapes are, and understanding them
completely -- in both artistic and some mathematical ways -- is key to creating masterful works of art.
For your next piece, think about how you can use forms and perspective into your pieces.
What forms make up your art supplies? Can you draw your bedroom in 3D? How about your arm
as it goes into the distance? Begin by learning to draw isometrically first before moving on to full
perspective! Start with little challenges when it comes to illustrating forms, and then move onto
the more advanced concepts once you’re ready. If you're a teacher, we have worksheets on the topic
which you can find on our website along with other art resources for your classroom, link down below.
If you liked what you saw, make sure to leave a like on this video, comment down below to tell
me what you'd like to see me draw next, and hit subscribe so that you never miss an upload! Join
our little art community with the links down below. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time. Buh-bye!