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Sandy Breckenridge’s career as a maker, designer, and artist span over 40 years.

Division Principles of Basic Shapes

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Flowers are great examples in nature to examine the division principles of shapes in design.

“The whole of nature is an endless demonstration of shape and form. It always surprises me when artists try to escape from this.” — Henry Moore

After the Five Depth Clues, the tenth tutorial of the Graphic Design Basic Element Series covers Division Principles of Basic Shapes.

Henry Spencer Moore (1898-1986) was one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century and arguably the most internationally celebrated sculptor of the period. He is renowned for his semi-abstract monumental bronzes, which are available worldwide.

Click  to view >  Henry Moore’s Artistic Collections.

What is a Division Principle?

All basic shapes are divisible, and the space within the body has a natural spatial arrangement that follows the orchestration of its form. Nature provides the most beautiful examples that are easy to see when closely examining an element’s natural form.

Any artist’s rendering style will benefit by paying attention to a shape’s natural division order. Essentially the design will follow along the lines of the edges of each form. Then subdivisions utilize the structure of each element.

Nature’s Examples

Black Cumin Seed Blossom

Imagine exiting the forest we explored in the previous tutorial and stepping onto an old country road bordered by colorful wildflowers and bees buzzing around the blossoms.

It’s easy to spot the circular shapes of the flowers on each side of the road. However, it takes a little more observation for awareness of the greater detail to unfold. The natural round, triangular, rectangular, and square forms are visible when paying attention.


Playful Division Exercises

Here are a few photo examples illustrating how to break down complex elements to see their form’s divisions and subdivisions. An artist can use the division outlines when planning a design and even in the entire layout of a painting or illustration. Touch each image to see in greater detail.

Division Principles of a Circle Found in a Flower
Division Principles of a Square Found in a Four Leaf Clover
The Butterfly Illustrates the Arc of the Golden Rectangle

The eye is also inclined to follow a natural order between the various elements in a painting. Therefore, providing a natural flow by purposely incorporating division principles can significantly enhance its appeal.

Art Play

Now it’s time to get out your art journal and photo collection and play with the division principles; Choose some objects and a few landscape photos or even a couple of artistic illustrations.

By analyzing an object’s division structure, you receive hints on how to break the form apart and put it back together. In addition, this exercise will help you identify where to add light and shadow, simplify the element to make it easier to illustrate, and even offer ideas to help you generate a stylistic technique.

Now examine an entire composition. Notice the objects and how the eye flows through the illustration. Does the eye flow naturally to the point of interest? Or does the eye follow a visual line that takes it off the canvas? The best design approach is to give the eye a path that takes you into the field, to the point of interest, and then back around again. Again, division principles are the key to a relaxed and captivating way to experience an artistic work.

Supportive Art Resources

Bruno Munari, one of the most fabulous designers of the 20th century, contributed to the fields of painting, sculpture, design, and photography. In the early 1960s, he published his visual case studies on shapes: Circle, Square, and Triangle a decade later. Now all three studies are available in one resource.

Click to view > Bruno Munari: Square, Circle, Triangle

Downloadable Tutorial Guide

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Our next tutorial will describe Examples of Division Principles of Golden Rectangle found in design and a downloadable tutorial image.

To follow along, click > Art & Design Tutorial Table of Contents

Five Depth Clues

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Five Depth Clues Cover Photo

“Details matter. They create depth, and depth creates authenticity.” —Neil Blumenthal

After Five Basic Removals, the ninth tutorial of the Graphic Design Basic Element Series covers Five Depth Clues.

Blumenthal is a transformative lifestyle eyewear brand’s designer, creator, and CEO. Examining his branding, you quickly learn that he understands why details matter in design, even abstract design.

What are Removals in Art & Design?

Transferring the ability to sense dimension and distance in a two-dimensional design requires implementing one of The Five Depth Clues. If a clue isn’t effective in a rendering, the eye will not sense the third dimension, or the intent of the design or illustration will be flat.

The Five Depth Clues are:

  1. Overlap
  2. Scale Change
  3. Foreshortening
  4. Defusing
  5. Shadow

Overlap

Overlap and Size Change Depth Clues
Overlap and Scale Change Depth Clues

Most everyone likes to walk in nature. Time spent in a forest offers real-life examples of each of the five depth clues.

Imagine standing on a walking trail in front of a grove of trees. Take note of the circumference of the tree trunks. How does their appearance differ depending on their position, size, and shape?

The partly hidden trees are blocked because the closer trees overlap from your vantage point. In a flattened view, the nearest tree is visually in full view. Therefore, the distant tree is only partly visible. This effect is the first depth clue to note, and its term is called overlap.


Scale Change

Another depth clue is a scale change and is easily identifiable from the same vantage point. In our nature example two trees that appear the same size are really different heights in the forest. The tree positioned at a distance seems much smaller. Scale change is another clue to convince viewers that the artist’s creation illustrates dimension and space.

Foreshortening

Foreshortening Depth Clue Illustration Example
Foreshortening Depth Clue Illustration Example

While standing on the same path, look back to where the walk began. Notice how the walkway appears more narrow. To garner an authentic sense of perspective, the depth clue of foreshortening is another vital clue.

A snapshot from a mountain vista of a long winding road is another perfect example when the use of foreshortening is noticeable and adds dimension. Another example happens when standing toward the front of a long and narrow building. The height of the back of the building appears to be much shorter.


Defusing

A misty or foggy day is perfect for capturing the effects of defusing. Imagine looking toward a vast field of flowers. The foreground flowers are clearly defined. However, when the viewer looks beyond them and focuses on the flowers in the distance, their shape loses definition. The flowers appear diffused and less vibrant in hue and tone.

Shadow

Light plays an essential role in providing depth clues. For example, an artist or illustrator can use three ways to create cast shadows. Each depth clue description depends on the position of the light and how the opaque surface blocks the light around the object.

Three types of shadows:

  1. Cast
  2. Formed
  3. Foreshortened
Three Types of Shadow Depth Clues
Three Types of Shadow Depth Clues

Cast

A cast shadow is the most obvious and can vary in size. The length and width are dependent on the light’s angle, and how much of the object’s volume is blocked by the surface. The value will vary along with the tone. There are usually three tonal values, with the darkest seen closest to the object. As the shadow’s distance stretches away from the object, its edges appear softer and less defined.

Formed

A formed shadow has softer and less defined edges than a cast shadow. The light source is closer to an overhead position. This relationship creates a more subtle shaded shape that creates the illusion of volume, mass, and depth. Sometimes the eye will have to squint to notice the shadow mass.


Foreshortened Shadow

Foreshortened shadow depth clues hug the object and mimic and distort its shape depending on the angle of the light. Therefore, a shadow created when using this depth clue has a condensed value and intensity. It is in direct contrast to the object’s angle from the light that it is blocking.

Online Learning Resource: The following link offers a very definitive and helpful resource to learn how to illustrate each of the five different types of shadows that provide clues of depth.

Art Play

By now, your photo collections are providing you with enough depth clue examples. Browse through your art play journal and find each of the five depth clues. Plan time to render clear and straightforward illustrations of each while including examples of the three variations of shadows. Your art journal is steadily becoming an inspirational resource for your ongoing creativity.

A design idea can always be repurposed in another illustration while incorporating different concepts and ideas! Your imagination is limitless.

Supportive Art Resources

Learn about a resource book you might enjoy adding to your art library, click > Key to Painting Light and Shadow by Rachel Rubin Wolf

Downloadable Tutorial Guide

Please feel free to download the 5 Depth Clues tutorial image.

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Our next tutorial will describe the Division Principles of Basic Shapes found in design and a downloadable tutorial image.

To follow along, click > Art & Design Tutorial Table of Contents

5 Basic Removals

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Examples of 5 Basic Removals in Graphic Design

“Talent is a pursued interest. In other words, anything you are willing to practice, you can do.” – Bob Ross

After Five Basic Relationships, the eighth tutorial of the Graphic Design Basic Element Series covers Five Basic Removals.

Bob Ross Publicity Photo
Bob Ross publicity photo

Ross’s quote comes from years of observation and is quite realistic. He experienced a long career as a recognized artist. He also taught oil painting on the TV series, The Joy of Painting, which aired from 1983 to 1994. It ran on the PBS channel and still streams on various cable services.

People tune into his streaming oil painting series to listen in while he paints; his infectious personality entertains because he is upbeat, instructive, humorous, and positive.

He describes elements in his renderings as happy little trees and flowers while sharing how to turn brush stroke mistakes into birds claiming how mistakes are opportunities.

Ross understood to develop creative talent, treat it like strengthening a muscle with exercise. He knew the more a person plays, practices, and devotes time to an art practice, the more adept they will become at implementing their desired result.

What is a Removal in Art & Design?

We saw an example of a removal in the last tutorial describing Basic Design Relationships when learning the characteristics of a negative/positive removal.

There are four additional removals that your eye will notice with ease in nature, design, and art.

They are: pop out, hinge out, slide out, slice off, extend out.

Pop Out

The first condition to understand is that a pop-out can pop in or out! The negative/positive removal pops out then the removed shape is recycled elsewhere in the design. But what would a pop-in look like?

Example of a pop out and extend out in graphic design
Example of a pop-out and extend-out in graphic design

Imagine two different colored cubes side-by-side. Out of each cube, remove the same size shape. Next, pop in the cut pieces into the adjacent block.

As long as a glimmer of light is seen between the two shapes the removal’s pop in relationship remains obvious. If the eye is not able to differentiate between the pieces, this relationship will appear as an overlap.

Architecture can illustrate a practical example. Imagine a piece of siding popped out of an exterior wall of a building. Perhaps, a stained glass window is installed in its place.

The window becomes a pop-in because it is easy to distinguish the different materials. The builder can recycle the sliding and pop it in elsewhere to complete the exterior.

Slide Out

Have you seen or owned a wooden pencil box with a flat sliding lid? When opening the box the lid slides out and away from the base of the box. This action creates a visual example of a slide-out. The top edges of the two sides of the box and the lid covering the remaining part of the box retain a referral relationship of edge-to-edge. The section of the box’s top that slides is now a slide-out.

Slide-outs offer an edge-to-edge relationship while also defining a new relationship encompassing the section of the surface that extends to cover an additional area of the design.

Slice Off

Example of Slice Off in Graphic Design
Example of slice-off and a hinge-out in graphic design.

Imagine a banana sliced in half. When one half slides partly to one side or the other without losing its connection the appearance is an example of a slice-off.

The banana could be sliced diagonally, horizontally, or even vertically and generate this relationship.

The slice-off could be edge-to-edge or edge-to-point as long as the identity of the banana is not lost. If one section of the banana moves too far away they will appear as two halves having the only similarity being both pieces are bananas.


Hinge Out

A perfect visual of a hinge-out is seeing a bird open their beak. In a two-dimensional perspective, the two sections illustrate a point-to-point relationship. The two angles between the top and bottom beak create the relationship when opening.

A hinge-out can have an edge-to-edge relationship, too. Imagine a perspective illustration of a lake with a featured tree reflecting in the water. It can appear like the tree is one continuous plane. But, the refection is now an edge-to-edge hinge-out.

Extend Out

Example of an extend-out in graphic design
Example of an extend-out in graphic design.

Finding a practical example of an extend-out is more challenging. Imagine two overlapping large, flat stones in a garden. A mason wants to use them as a frame around a bush.

He uses a stone die cutter to make a square hole through both stones by cutting out the overlapping sections. Once he cuts through both, he removes the two identical pieces to reveal the ground where he can now plant the bush.

While looking down, the two stones now would appear two-dimensionally as an extend-out. The connection of cut stones makes the relationship obvious.

The mason can repurpose the two removed pieces and place them elsewhere in the landscaping. Recycling is a design tool, too.

Art Play

Taking photos is a perfect tool to accumulate visual examples of every design element imaginable. Nature is an incredible canvas, and awareness can teach our eyes how to see beauty as a relationship between its creations.

Take some time before the next tutorial in the series. Find and photograph examples of the 5 Basic Removals and add them to your art play journal. Then enjoy sketching, painting, or drawing what you can imagine.

Supportive Art Resources

Design is StorytellingA stimulating book on art design to add to your art library is by Ellen Lupton titled: Design Is Storytelling

“Designers tap into people’s emotions to trigger feelings of delight, desire, surprise, and trust…” as stated by Lupton.

She provides a trove of design examples of storytelling. She describes how color entices the senses as it invokes a connection to taste and smell. She accounts how designers stimulate an emotional story through their creative choices and provides quite a tribute of examples.


To see an exciting example, click > The Coffee Taster’s Color Wheel

The content applies when an illustrator paints an image. Art and illustration are storytelling. An artist or designer shares the story through a two-dimensional visual that comes to life in a three-dimensional experience.

Downloadable Tutorial Guide

Free free to download the 5 Basic Removals tutorial image.

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Our next tutorial will describe the Five Depth Clues found in design and a downloadable tutorial image.

To follow along, click > Art & Design Tutorial Table of Contents

5 Basic Relationships

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Five Basic Relationships Introduction Image

“Design is as much an act of spacing as an act of marking.” – Ellen Lupton, Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

After Basic Picture Arranging Principles, the seventh tutorial of the Graphic Design Basic Element Series covers Five Basic Relationships.

Ellen Lepton’s, quote is a perfect statement to describe the esthetics of an art piece that is marked using a thoughtful relationship between the objects within the intended presentation.

When the subjects are too crowded, or the symmetry and balance lack planning, the art piece message may get lost in the design. A rendering or painting where design elements interact to support the theme will convey a pleasing story. The viewer may never know why they appreciate the art while feeling the statement captured the artist’s intent.

Referral

Relationship of Referral in Graphic Design
Visual example of the relationship of Referral in graphic design.

When two edges of an objects in the illustration are aligned parallel to each other but not touching the descriptive term is Referral in design.

An obvious architectural example is city buildings with a very small clearance between the structures.

This is often the case when taking a snapshot of a row of buildings from a street view.


Point to Point/Point to Edge

Relationship of Point to Point, and Point to Edge in Graphic Design
Example of Point to Point, and Point to Edge relationship in Graphic Design.

Two other relationships occur when round or triangular shapes are rendered.

An example is a round ball that butts up to a box. When looking closely only a very small point on the edge of the ball actually touches the wall. This is called point to edge.

Point-to point occurs when you place any apex of an angled shape, such as a triangle next to either a linear edge or a circular object. Only the apex touches the edge.


Overlapping

Relationship of Overlapping in Graphic Design
Example of relationship of Overlapping of contrasting elements in Graphic Design.

Another relationship is overlap, so overlapping is the third relationship.

Imagine a fence along a sidewalk. A gardener plants a row of flowers and even though the floral border doesn’t touch the background fencing, in a rendering the viewer perceives the rendering of the flora and fauna as overlapping.

The gardener may have placed a fountain in the scene next to the fence. Again, the fountain will appear as an overlap. In essence, overlap is a visual relationship. Contrasting elements are visually noticed.


Negative/Positive Removal

Relationship of Negative/Positive Removal in Graphic Design
Relationship of Negative/Positive Removal and smaller colorful block is example of Referral of Edge Alignments.

In a previous tutorial describing Basic Surface Enrichments, the qualities that create a pattern were described.

Design patterns are created using any surface enrichment or combinations. Negative/positive qualities were first introduced along with an example in this tutorial.

In a Negative/positive Removal  an actual shape is popped out of another shape. Then the removal is placed elsewhere in the visual story. The pop out might could be placed next to the initial shape and depending on the removal’s shape it could also have a relationship of either Referral, Point to Point, or Point to Edge!


Referral of Edge Alignments

In this last of the five relationships, a continuous flow of edges combine together to make an inclusive statement. A great example is a block of varied size posters placed on a wall together. Another might be many paintings placed to appear as a unified grouping telling a story.

Art Play

An enjoyable and rewarding art exercise is noticing the relationship between objects while taking a walk; take time and photograph several of each of the 5 Basic Relationships. You can also learn more about art and design by noticing your emotional response to the images as you review your photos later.

Supportive Art Resources

Picture This, How Pictures Work is a wonderful resource to provide a helpful understanding of the most basic creative principles. Anyone can gain an understanding of how to build powerful pictures. Picture This is used by art and graphic departments in colleges around the country.

Learning how pictures work to create emotional engagement gives an artist more creative power in telling a story with their art images.

Downloadable Tutorial Guide

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Our next tutorial will describe the Five Basic Removals found in design and a downloadable tutorial image.

To follow along, click > Art & Design Tutorial Table of Contents