Design Theory: Shape Appeal

hey everyone cynics here it's finally time for a very special and important video today we're going to discuss one of the most basic aspects of illustration design it really just art as a whole and that is shape appeal every object you draw is a shape and this only gets compounded when you paint because every stroke you make also becomes a shape it would certainly be helpful if we had some sort of guide for what makes some shapes look better than other shapes this is an incredibly abstract and complex subject but in this episode of design theory we are going to start chipping away at this most basic principle of art let's get into it the first thing to acknowledge is that there are no perfect rules for these things I will give you some guidelines that will help you make better looking art but it's up to you to know when you're ready to bend these guidelines or even break them I'm going to start by defining a couple useful terms we can use when referring to shapes do you know the difference say between organic shapes and inorganic shapes it has nothing to do with the subject matter we're going to actually define an organic shape as any shape that has offset angles and curves and of course then an inorganic shape is just the opposite so everything is very squared up and aligned so if I draw a box that is a very inorganic shape all of the angles are perfectly squared to each other skewing the box slightly will offset the angles more and make it instantly more organic and of course further skewing can lead you in even more organic directions the same thing can be done with circles triangles in really any shape or combination of shapes each can be warped into progressively more organic shapes now being organic or inorganic isn't inherently special but since our brains are built to detect patterns the in organic shapes tend to give off more individuality and read as stronger graphic elements it is worth noting that most of the time when we're drawing things we don't want the individual parts of an object to feel distinctly separate from the surrounding parts instead we want to create flow and that is going to be our second huge word to discuss flow this is also going to be our first key guideline to what makes an appealing shape so we're going to use flow to refer to both individual shapes and how well they indicate some form of direction and also how well shapes relate to an overall direction with their surrounding shapes on the individual level most appealing shapes create a singular sense of movement we can represent this easily through controlled and continual tapering so another quick example here I can take a box and add a taper to it now it seems to have a distinct sense of direction of course now it'd be a good time to remind ourselves that 90-degree angles often read in organically and that graphic individuality creates hard stopping points in feelings of separation which is certainly no good for creating flow acute angles have a similar problem while they can be used in organic shapes the more extreme they are the more they create their own competing sense of direction and flow the ideal angle is to use in a shape would mostly be obtuse wide open angles allow for a relaxed sense of flow in an object it's accessible comforting and obvious in its intention which is coincidentally also why we associate sharp pointy angular things with villains and treachery so on a subconscious level our art will create more visual appeal with an overall reliance on chunkier flowing shapes so knowing that even if you're trying to design some evil pointy angular looking villain you should still try to have an underlying sense of reliable and understandable flow so rewinding a bit even that tapering box can potentially be improved by adding extra obtuse angles and more complicated shapes can also be given more flow and visual appeal using those obtuse angles here's a quick test you can do just when you're creating any shapes imagine your shape was a top-down view of a room and it was filled with people now imagine one of them pulling a fire alarm and all of those people have to get out do they have a good sense of how to get out are some people going to get pushed into random corners and left behind look at all those poor people left to die in a needlessly complex shape whether your shape represents an abstract version of a C curve or s curve it should be doing its best to maintain some obvious sense of direction through a continual sense of tapering and that tapering doesn't have to come solely from one edge it can also come from a more central area if you want to give your shape to fire escapes now it could be considered a part of flow but another key guideline is going to be simplicity of course good flow has good simplicity but just to double down on our mental notes while we're drawing constantly ask yourself does this shape have flow is it simple enough or can I simplify it more simplification leads to comfort and comfort leads to appeal so flow and simplicity they go hand-in-hand to lead us toward better art I mentioned a lot about individual shapes but let's actually get into putting shapes together because that's what's important so flow should exist between separate pieces of the same object in fact good flow should lead to the visual combining of two pieces of an object into a continuous singular overall shape this is extremely important in anatomy and creature drawing but really applies to every type of object the more of a singular flow you can create in an object the better now all this stuff also relates to big medium small of course so go watch that video if you have it you'll start to find that it's really wonderful when you can create flow between parts of limbs or torsos and heads or anything one quick example I always enjoy is to draw a foot of someone that's standing on their toes it can seem like a difficult challenge when you're starting out and really overthinking things but once you take into account flow and simplification it becomes elegantly easy and appealing I was actually having trouble doing purposely bad examples because I've trained myself to always find the flow in shapes but just trust me it's the over complication of thoughts and ideas that can often lead to a lot of stumbling blocks in art in that spirit let's talk a little bit about intuition it's a favourite topic of mine when it comes to making aesthetically pleasing art I already made a video about focus which relates to intuition a lot but there are other important factors as well one of which is tempo but that topic is fast enough to get its own video which will actually be a sequel of sorts to this video and don't worry I'm already kind of working on both of them in tandem so hopefully it'll be out soon anyway why did I bring up intuition well as many things as I can just go on telling you about simplicity flow and obtuse angles the best aesthetic outcome will come from committing these ideas deep into your brain and just letting them come out naturally the best part about this subject as a whole you know shape appeal is that it's really just trying to deconstruct something that you already know your brain knows what looks good and what doesn't if you see a cool design you instantly know it you don't need to analyze every factor that makes your brain enjoy it that's my job you just have to acknowledge that your brain already understands aesthetics to a degree that is far more complex and nuanced than any lesson I can teach so while I'm digging through these abstract theories you can still create amazing shape appeal by simply letting your intuition guide your hand more how sharp should you make an angle how large should a shape be should it be curved or angular your brain knows what looks good you just have to find the right level of focus tempo and energy in order to let it come out well that's most of the actual content I wanted to discuss but I would like to do some quick practical demonstrations to help you all along so back to the topic of inorganic shapes versus organic shapes and how 90-degree angles and rigid geometry create heart stops and flow once again that doesn't have to be a things let's talk about how to use that as a good thing there are indeed plenty of times when creating a hard stop in a flow is valuable and useful for many industrial designs it's perfectly reasonable and even preferred to give the silhouette a break in motion in the front or back or top of the object for instance a quick spaceship design might want to create some hard borders that help define it and very clear in obvious ways aka it can just be a box for a gun design this can even be helpful for defining a clear functionality to the prop a gun with a simple boxed out front will quickly tell the viewer that the flow of motion stops here and there is no ambiguity about where the dangerous part starts and stops this creates a very functional purpose to our brains interpretation of shape language a gun that creates no stop and flow at the front will generally feel less impactful and deadly of course you can use that to your advantage if it suits your goals carrying forth with our examples putting in organic shapes and 90-degree angles and more arbitrary places throughout the design we'll just create disjointedness and a feeling of discomfort for the viewer if your goal is to show a piece of the gun that needs to create its own distinct importance and stand out as a solitary thing then yeah a graphic design or inorganic shape language to break the flow of motion and draw attention to it could be great panel lines are the last thing I really want to hammer home because it is very rare that you would ever want to stop flow within an object using panel lines this should be avoided at all costs unless you really know what you're doing so please no 90-degree angles and panel lines and decorative interior lining stick to nice 45-degree angles for now and you'll have a much better result this keep in mind all of that delicious big medium small theory as well hopefully you're getting a good feel for shape appeal by now and possibly starting to identify it easily on your own as well as being able to identify when using inorganic shapes can be perfectly fine and when it should be avoided I know most of you aren't very into industrial design so let me apply this same theory to more general illustrative purposes in organic shapes in all of their graphic flow stopping glory can be amazing at being used as a contrasting background element to really bring even more life into an already organic drawing mukha was quite famous for doing this but it really can be seen in all aspects of illustration using graphic inorganic shapes to draw an extra contrast on the organic flowing shapes anyway I feel like that's probably enough for this video I hope you enjoyed it and maybe absorbed some good subconscious inclinations which I will be discussing in more depth in the sequel to this video which is all about tempo anyway thank you all so much for watching and as always forever and ever a huge extra thank you to the patrons that support this channel even in these slower months love you all see everyone

Channel: Sinix Design

Views: 126,193

Rating: 4.9878087 out of 5

Keywords: art, arttutorial, artist, resource, shape appeal, graphic design, art school, lesson, commentary, free, design, concept art, concept artists, design art, how to, make better designs, make better drawings, paint better, improve, conceptual, digital art, photoshop, entertainment design

Id: P6yJO9gKSAI

Length: 11min 52sec (712 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 10 2020