Tools for Overcoming Overwhelm
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“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.” ― L.R. Knost
Summer 2023 has been trying. In place of balmy sunny days, we have uncontrolled wildfires, smoke, deadly heat, catastrophic floods, and tornadoes. The news is filled with suffering and tragedy; mass shootings, frightening new diseases, growing crises in education, inflation, strikes, hopelessness, loneliness, mental illness, and addiction, Politics is gearing up for another divisive election year that will intensify heated conversations and polarize families. It’s a lot. I feel like I am on trial, being tested for strength, endurance, and commitment to optimism.
The bad stuff is not going away. In our world of paradox, the bad is the flip side that exists to contrast with the good. Light cannot be seen without darkness, goodness gains strength in conflict with badness. Each of us is strong and weak, wise and clueless, overwhelmed and underwhelmed. Despair is not our only option. We do not have to passively accept things as they are.
You and I are powerful and creative artists. We have the power to imagine a better future and collaborate with others to paint it.
Your artist toolkit holds more than just paint and brushes. Your toolbox contains everything you ever learned from every challenge you have ever faced. You prevailed over many difficult challenges in your lifetime. You have tools to help you stay calm, centered, and mindful in the midst of any storm. Your tools were earned surviving everything life threw at you. Inside you have everything you need to keep you safe, tools to keep you strong, and skill sets that will allow you to “MacGyver” your way out of any situation.
What future will you choose to paint?
You have the power to determine and regulate your internal state. Consider how important it is for you to be a beacon of optimism and hope for those around you. Spiraling despair, confusion, fear, and anxiety are even more contagious than possibility and positivity. You can choose daily to be a super-spreader for joy! Your power tools for managing your own overwhelm are focus, effort, and commitment.
Today I am sharing some of the tools I keep in my toolbox for prioritizing my physical, mental, spiritual, and artistic health. Please borrow them freely, and I invite you to share yours with me and everyone around you.
Values:
What I value is painted into everything I do. Everyone and everything I brush with my words should feel uplifted. My words and imagination are the paint I use to create an inspiring picture of what is possible.
I value peace and do my best to keep my cool in heated conversations and minimize the influence of news, advertising, and social media on my psyche. I prioritize staying above the noise, affirming new alternative perspectives, patience, and calm. I believe that everything that happens to me and around me is working in my favor and for my benefit even if I do not understand it at this moment.
Sanctuary:
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs our most basic need is for safety. Do you have a place where you feel secure and relaxed? Are you surrounded by safe people who welcome your truth? Is there a place in your home where you can retreat to sit in peace and meditation? Peace in the outer world begins with peace in our own hearts, our bodies, our surroundings, our homes, and our communities. What is one thing you can do to create more peace in your heart and home?
Have you created an imaginary sanctuary where you can escape in your mind? If you haven’t done that yet, spend some time creating one, it is a delightful pastime selecting whether you will be in a tree house, a beach house, a mountain aerie, a castle, etc., and the creatures, colors, scents, and sounds that will surround you there. A sanctuary is a place where you feel safe enough to let down your guard and exhale. An imaginary sanctuary is available to you at any time and you can retreat there for even a moment when you are stressed. You might want to create a painting of your sanctuary to remind you that its there in times of need
Treat your mind like a sanctuary. Place strong boundaries around the communications you allow to enter your mind, your home, and your daily life. Doomscrolling and sleeping with the news blaring panic and crisis is not restorative or restful.
Carefully curate truthful sources for your information. With the advent of AI deceptive news practices will soon increase exponentially. Fill your email inbox with messages that uplift and reassure you. Keep inspiring words where you will see them often. Inside your home and your mind speak only positive words and truth to yourself.
Consider how you can act to improve the safety of others. Notice how people respond when you walk into a room, do they light up or do they close in and protect themselves? Can you register the energy of a room? Are you sensitive enough to feel who in the space is sad, anxious, or angry? As a teacher, I got to practice creating a space of safety in my classroom. A space where all are welcome just as they are, a space with boundaries protecting the occupants from outside stress, teasing, or threats. Creativity is blocked when we are worried about survival.
Creativity/Imagination/ Possibilities
Hope arises when you believe a desired outcome is possible. Ask yourself how the future might look if everything goes your way. Creativity is your artist's superpower. As an artist, you are trained to look differently and see what others miss.
Just having an idea, a vision or a plan brings it into existence as a possibility. As an artist, you are a specialist in ideas, solution-seeking, experimenting, revising, and reiterating. Once a vision exists in the imagination of an artist all it needs is your creativity and collaboration to shift it from impossible to possible to likely.
Try this Mantra: I have the power to create the life I am designed to live. I am motivated to create positive change around me. I have the strength to carry my purpose forward. I am guided and supported in all I do.
Painting:
For me, painting brings gratitude. I paint subjects to uplift and inspire me. I love my studio and the abundance of art supplies at my fingertips. I take lots of time to draw and paint the near and dear people and elements within my circle. Some of you have joined me for vision board workshops where we created images to inspire the new year. Painting your future visions is a powerful way to bring them into reality.
For others, painting is a way to get pain and emotion out of the body and onto the canvas or paper. Either way, the act of creating is transformative.
Support:
Being alone and isolated in a party of one is not healthy. Surround yourself with people who see you and appreciate your uniqueness. Stitch yourself into a web of people who remind you of your strength and make you laugh. Take the time this week to acknowledge someone who is always there to cry or celebrate with you when you need them. Now more than ever we need supportive friends, family, and animals.
Summer is also a time when many generations of family gather together. It is a great opportunity to reach out to older members of your tribe for their wisdom. Ask them how they did it. You may find their survival stories of war, hardship, loss, and persistence make your own troubles seem small in comparison. Ask for advice, listen to their stories, and tell your story too. Find a child and follow them in their curiosity and explorations for a day to reconnect with optimism and joy.
Look around you. Are you surrounded by people who are positive, learning, and choosing joy and healing? Do you have someone to call and share your ups and downs? Notice your own energy around others. Notice who makes you feel drained and tired and who makes you feel energized and strong. Make a commitment to walk away from those who want your company in misery and victimhood.
Community:
Are you aware that a close community is a better preventative for depression than any pharmacological intervention? We are living in an epidemic of loneliness that will not vanish on its own. Too often, we choose our community by default. The social network sucks us in, or we’re picked for a certain team at school. We have the chance, instead, to choose who we belong to with intention.
If you do not already belong to a tight-knit community you can build your own with a little focus, effort, and persistence. One place to start is with your own judgment of others. How can you be more inclusive of your colleagues at work, in your school, or neighborhood? Are there people around you who also feel excluded you could reach out to give them access to more social engagement? Are there relationships you could repair and restore?
You have watched me grow and expand my own community of artists through this newsletter and my art gatherings. I found many kindred souls in my local art clubs and guilds. By volunteering for leadership in these organizations I am welcomed with warmth and invited to participate by the inner circles of these groups. Every organization I know needs leaders so opportunities abound. In my experience, leadership always gives you more than it takes. I started building this new community after retiring from teaching in 2020. Trust me, it is never too late to make new true friends and there is no such thing as having too many friends.
Collaboration:
Tightly-knit, coordinated teams of motivated, creative people can change the world. Cooperation, connection, and the power of being in sync is getting more important every day. We do better together. When we work together, we have more fun. Technology allows us to collaborate simultaneously with dozens of people we’ve never met or who live on the other side of the earth. Never before have we had so much in common with everyone else. Never before has diversity offered more opportunities for creative problem-solving.
Skillsets:
Sharpening your skills is just as important as gathering the right tools. Skills allow you to use your tools more effectively. When everyone around you is stressed and under pressure, communication skills are critical for staying calm, centered, and positive.
For the past several years I’ve been honing my communication skills. I am taking responsibility for the role I play in my own life dramas and learning to communicate my needs without anger, passivity, or defensiveness. I am not always successful but I am much more aware when resistance arises and where my body constricts with different emotions. A one-minute breath and positive affirmations to myself that I can handle anything helps me to stay calm.
Listening is an underrated skill, often considered a “soft” skill. Connecting with others to collaborate and build community requires active listening. People who feel heard and validated are more willing to listen in return. Active listening means holding direct eye contact, rephrasing what you hear, and allowing the person speaking their own experience without judgment. Communication is only 7% of the words we speak, the tone is 38% and body language is 55%! So stand with confidence, make eye contact, smile, and touch appropriately.
Meditation/Prayer
Meditation is a tool and a skill that allows you to be safely present with whatever is happening around you. There are many forms of meditation and all help you to find inner peace. Prayer is when the conscious mind speaks to Universal power. In meditation, the mind is open and ready to receive inspiration and guidance from your inner higher power.
Take a few moments every day to check in with yourself. Ask yourself: How am I doing today? What am I feeling? Don’t judge your answers or immediately try to “fix” how you’re feeling. Just become aware. Ask your heart what it is experiencing and what it needs in order to stay open.
Mantra:
Mantras are like soap for the mind. They clean the corners and crevasses of your subconscious mind leaving you feeling refreshed and lighter. Each has a specific vibration made from sound combinations honed over the centuries. This is a favorite mantra meditation of mine:
Hummee Hum Mantra: it means I live in the present. I am open to new ideas and perspectives. I am in balance with my inner and outer existence.
Acceptance:
Acceptance involves two steps: First, acknowledge your situation with clarity, focusing on the facts you know to be true. Second, identify one step to move forward with less stress and struggle.
We tend to underestimate how much ruminating on stressful situations drains our energy. Practicing these two steps of acceptance when you find yourself caught in a loop of negative thoughts helps to focus your attention on what you can control and take productive action, however small.
Gratitude:
When you send gratitude into your most challenging circumstances you master them. Being able to send gratitude for the experiences most people would describe as hard, and brutal... is a sign to the Universe that you are complete and ready to move on. You are surrounded by magic and miracles waiting for you to notice them.
Place your hands over your heart and breathe it full of light. Imagine this light expanding with each inhale, and shrinking again with each exhale. As the source of the light, know that your heart carries this energy within, for yourself and to share.
Mantra: Where there is a light, there is energy; where there is energy there is purpose. Being centered makes me aware of myself, my existence here, and my purpose.
Contentment:
Find moments every day to savor and soak in a sacred moment or two of contentment. Maybe it's your morning coffee, reading to your children or grandchildren, a cozy fire, clean sheets, or the contentment that might be waiting for you in your garden. For inspiration look no further than your dog or cat. Our cat sleeps for hours stretched out in complete and total contentment.
Patience/Abiding:
Patience is a calm acceptance that things can happen in a different order than the one we have in mind. Abiding means living with conditions that are not as we wish them to be. Having grit means you are able to abide by difficult challenges without losing your cool.
Try this Mantra for more patience abiding by whatever is happening around you: I release my need to control everything around me. I trust that all will be well in divine timing. I connect to the Universe and accept any wisdom I receive.
Movement:
If you're looking for a Swiss army tool to realign your energy, movement is the key. If exercise were a drug it would outperform any pharmacological antidepressant. Your body is designed to move. It really doesn’t matter how you move; walk, dance, stretch, run, lift weights, swim, box, bicycle, skateboard, or do yoga… all that matters is that you get your heart beating, your breathing deeper, and your butt off the sofa every few hours.
You will feel your spirits rise as soon as you do. Notice how long the effects last for you. You may find that a good exercise session will lift your mood for 48 hours or more.
Sleep and Rest:
Sleep is another powerful tool for combating overwhelm. Lack of sleep is a major predictor of “all-cause mortality” including cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression, and suicide. Sleep isn't just about rest. It's about the body repairing itself. If you want to improve every single aspect of your life and wake up feeling refreshed and rested each and every night make sleep a priority - carve out an 8-hour window to sleep every night.
Sunlight:
Sunlight’s impact on our well-being includes increased motivation, productivity, confidence, improved mood, better sleep, and enhanced physical health. On the surface, it doesn’t seem to make any sense - but it’s true! According to Jacob Liberman, OD, Ph.D., when sunlight enters the eyes, the entire brain lights up. Sunlight stimulates our optic nerves, awakening our visual perception and making everything seem brighter and more alive. Exposure to full-spectrum sunlight in the morning causes our bodies to produce serotonin, which not only helps later on with nighttime sleep but improves mood throughout the day.
Just 15 to 30 minutes in direct sunlight daily can do the trick. It’s as simple as taking a stroll outside, tending to your garden, walking the dog or finding a sunny spot to relax in. You don’t need to spend hours in the sun to feel its mood-boosting effects. So, next time you’re feeling down, take a moment to step outside and let the sun work its magic. Even a short dose of sunlight can do wonders for your mood and brighten your day.
Extensive scientific research links sunlight to reduced stress, enhanced mood, regulated circadian rhythm, improved Seasonal Affective Disorder, the release of endorphins, a decrease in the stress hormone cortisol, elevated energy, social connection, and reduced loneliness. If you’re curious to learn more follow these links:
Grounding:
Placing your bare feet on the Earth will absorb and release stuck negative energy and send it back to you recharged with positive energy, warmth, security, and peace.
As you stand on Mother Earth repeat this Mantra: What is of the Earth, returns to the earth. I am held safe in its embrace. Being grounded gives me a solid foundation.
Joy/Play/Laughter
It hardly needs repeating that taking a break for play, joy, and laughter will help you to shift your energy from negative to positive. By definition, play is about being creative, free, and unbound from limitation. Treat yourself to frequent play breaks, watch programs that make you laugh, and collect joy every day.
Laughter yoga is a practice where alone or in a group you laugh out loud for no reason at all. See if you can laugh for two or three minutes and notice how you feel afterward.
Signs of Hope:
Collect signs of hope and beauty from whichever media you trust. I particularly like my subscription to Nice News. It's free and it's all positive.
I collect new stories that give me hope. When people like me make a paradigm shift with global problems like climate change it raises my spirits. I read this story today and want to share it with you.
I've shared my favorite tools with you today; Values, Sanctuary, Creativity, Imagination, Mantra, Support, Community, Collaboration, Skillsets, Listening, Acceptance, Gratitude, Contentment, Patience/Abiding, Movement, Sleep and Rest, Sunlight, Grounding, Joy, Play, Laughter, and Signs of Hope.
Whenever you find yourself in the downward spiral of despair, confusion, fear, and anxiety reach into your artist's toolkit and pull out one, two, or more of these tools. You have a full toolbox already. You’ve used them before surviving everything life threw at you.
Thankfully you now have a few new tools you didn’t have before and you know where to go to acquire more. There is nothing to buy, no need to wait. You can put them to work right now to alter and regulate your inner state. You do not have to passively accept things as they are.
You and I are powerful and creative artists. We can use our creativity to transform challenges we haven’t encountered before. We know how to stay calm, centered, and mindful and abide by any storm. We can imagine a better future and collaborate with others to paint it.
Jack Kornfield says “You don’t have to fix the whole world, but you can reach and mend the places that you can touch.”
What future will you choose to paint? Whom will you invite to collaborate with you? Where will you shine your light?
If you would like my guidance and advice in sharpening your tools and adding to your toolkit I am happy to share my insights and knowledge with you.
I welcome the opportunity for conversation, cooperation, collaboration, and commissions.
With Light and Delight
Susan
Shape Design for Dynamic Emotional Expression
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Georgia O'Keeffe "Seaweed"
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way - things I had no words for” - Georgia O'Keeffe
Visual Music:
Beautiful paintings are not the result of talent, technique, or having a great resource photograph. Creating an engaging painting is more than copying the confusion of colors in nature. It is analogous to the way music is created by arranging the incredible variety of sounds in nature into a logical pattern of sounds in harmonious relationships. In music, these sounds are called notes or chords, organized into scales, harmonies, and rhythms. Painting is similar but composed of shapes, lines, and colors instead of sounds.
The essence of painting “Visual Music” is to design dynamic shapes that intrigue and captivate the viewer. Whether you are a realist or an abstract artist you can think of a painting as a two-dimensional surface built from a series of interlocking shapes combined into a mosaic-like structure
A shape is a region limited by some kind of boundary, typically a line. Shapes are essential to art and design because they convey meaning, create visual interest, and help define a work's composition. Shapes are the building blocks of everything we see, and the meaning of shapes speaks fundamentally to how we understand our world.
Since all visible matter has a shape, the sheer number of possible shapes and meanings is never-ending. It is useful to sort shapes into overarching categories that share meanings as groups. These are the most common types of basic shapes but note that even these categories overlap.
Simple vs. compound: Simple shapes, sometimes called primitives, are the foundational geometric forms such as squares, triangles, and circles. They also include their corresponding 3D forms—cubes, cylinders, cones, and spheres. Compound shapes are larger, more complex shapes built out of simple shapes.
Organic vs. inorganic: Organic shapes are those that regularly occur in nature, such as a leaf, a bird, a tree, or a rolling hillside. They tend to be curvier, composed of looser lines, and less symmetrical than inorganic shapes—rigid, geometrical forms that are reminiscent of man-made objects such as buildings or machines.
Abstract vs. non-abstract: Abstract shapes, while often geometric and compound, tend to act as symbolic references. Most commonly these come in the form of icons, such as the abstract humanoids used in bathroom signs. Instead of the component shapes, the circles triangles, and rectangles make up this abstract icon and we understand the shape to represent a person due to our familiarity with the symbol. In short, abstract shapes depend on prior context or cultural knowledge.
Compelling Shapes:
Basic shapes are the building blocks for all other shapes. But basic tends to be static. It's more enlivening to shift, alter, edit, and carefully compose your shapes to enhance balance, rhythm, pattern, contrast, and mood in your entire painting.
Here are four ways to begin varying your basic shapes to make them more dynamic;
1. Shift, stretch, edit, and alter them.
2. Overlap them.
3. Connect them to form one shape.
4. Hide or cover part of them.
Editing Nature:
You probably learned how to draw by breaking objects down into basic geometric shapes. You started by defining the large shapes, combining them into one where possible, and then adding detail for clarity. In these simple drawings, each shape is usually defined by outline or color.
In real-life observation, each object and component is separate and defined by light and shadow. Light and shadow are what we use for accurate three-dimensional realism. (See my last newsletter). But real life and your resource photo have more information than needed to create a beautiful composition with visual poetry.
Where do you begin since every object and its components has a shape? The problem with too many small and similar-sized shapes is that they confuse your message. Outlines tend to give a childish quality to your compositions so unless childish is the emotional quality you seek you may find that editing the details by simplifying and joining similar values into larger shapes makes for better compositions. Joining complex objects that are not explicitly connected in real life helps unify your shapes and your message.
Editing Shape:
If you want your work to have Visual Music, you will need to edit the shapes you see in nature and redesign them from an artistic point of view. Generally, this will mean simplifying the shapes and removing distracting items.
When planning a new painting begin by breaking your subject down into compound shapes connected by value. Identify what you love most about your resource. Look for the largest, most dominant shapes, then work down from there toward the smaller, more intricate shapes. I like to find a shape to repeat and vary throughout the painting as a hidden reward for the viewer. If I were painting sailboats that shape might be a triangle and I would stretch and play with the other shapes in my subject to make them more triangular and reminiscent of a sailboat.
It helps to observe the silhouette of each value area instead of separating it into individual items. Instead of trees, rocks, grass, and sky, create compound squares, circles, triangles, and organic shapes separated by value. This is one reason I love Notan so much. In the example below you can see how the two-value shape pattern makes the dominant shape in each example more apparent.
Your subject will be much less confronting once you have broken it down into these compound value shapes. Instead of having to solve one large 1,000-piece puzzle, you can solve several smaller but easier puzzles. Just like in a puzzle interlocking shapes hold together better and are much more engaging than shapes that rest side by side.
Great Shapes:
Great shapes are descriptive of the subject, visually exciting, and varied along the edges in relation to the surrounding shapes.
As a silhouette, your shape should describe the objects in the painting. Strong shapes have a variety of segment lengths, changes in direction, and detail. Great shape-making requires time and thought.
Every shape has 360 degrees of edge, and to achieve greatness you will need to deal with them all. Be willing to edit your shapes until they are perfect.
Every edge of a shape should be significantly different from its opposite edge and in harmony with it. Draw an imaginary vertical line through the middle of your shape. If the left side mirrors the right, the chances of having a visually interesting shape are not likely.
Shape Variety:
When creating shapes you will generally want to have one dominant shape. In other words, one shape that is much bigger and repeated more often than all of the others.
Contrast:
Contrast is the key to successfully separating and joining shapes together.
When you look at an object, let your eye move along its edge and observe the contrasts. Contrasts make the object visually dramatic, lack of contrast makes a shape unite with its neighbors..
Vary the edges of your shapes using light against dark, dark against light, warm next to cool, cool next to warm, warm touching warm, cool touching cool, pure against neutral, strong contrast, mild contrast, and no contrast at all.
Lost Edges:
Edges do not have to be obliterated to appear lost. Simply matching values where two shapes meet can allow the eye to flow unimpeded. See if you can find an example where Klee did this in the image above. Lost edges allow the forms to breathe with the painting.
Interlock your shapes and create bridges to lead the eye to move and rest on a journey through the work.
If you are painting a sunflower, you could use the high contrast iconic symbol of a dark circle surrounded by yellow petals to represent it, or you could play with the shape of the sunflower to give the viewer something unusual and unexpected to engage with. What if the center of your sunflowers were elliptical and partially obscured by the leaves and petals? Shifting the direction, size, value, color, and shape of the petals then becomes the dominant and most interesting shape inside your larger form.
Notice how Van Gogh joined the two sunflowers together to make a larger compound shape that touches three sides of the canvas. How has he varied the petals?
Having a variety of large, medium, and small shapes in your composition adds interest. Usually, the smallest and highest contrast shapes are located in your area of focus. A variety of differently sized and angled shapes is far more engaging than one in which the shapes are all of a similar size. Some people refer to this as the Goldilocks proportion with one or two big papa bear shapes, some medium size mama bears and a scattering of baby bear shapes.
Study the relationship of the opposing elements of each shape. If the east side is dominated by long curved lines the west side should be made of short straight lines. Take care to shift and alter the length of each segment as your eye moves around the circumference of each shape. The goal is for each side of the shape to be different while still being harmonious. Do not ignore the edges on the bottom of your shapes.
Positive, Negative, and Implied Shapes:
Positive shapes represent the space where objects exist, while negative shapes represent the space between those objects.
Positive space is usually the composition's focus, while negative space helps to define and support it. Positive space is often created through lines, shapes, and forms, while negative space is usually created by the space around and between these elements. Negative shapes are just as important as positive shapes in a composition.
When you make a positive shape larger, the surrounding negative shape tends to get smaller, and vice versa. The interplay between form and empty space can evoke thought and feeling in the viewer.
Space is an indicator of time so when shapes are spaced far apart there is less tension between them than when they are close together. Deepening, balancing, and heightening visual tension can all be achieved through the interplay of positive and negative shapes and space in a composition.
Negative space can also be used as a design element in its own right. An artist can create exciting and dynamic visual effects by carefully manipulating the negative and implied space in a composition.
Cropping for Shape:
When you crop your scene, you create a shape between objects in the photograph and the boundary of the image. Experiment by cropping your entire scene to make the shapes within it more enticing and to draw the viewer into the parts of the scene that most excite you.
Shapes in Context
Shape language or shape psychology allows artists to convey characteristics and emotions in a nonverbal way. The same way our body language can conflict with our words, shape can amplify or contradict our intentions. Failing to understand the meanings of shapes can result in unintended or mixed messages. You can utilize these cues to heighten the mood of your art and to make sure your shapes are speaking a language your viewers will understand.
Unless you are going for stark minimalism, your design will contain multiple elements and this will obligate you to work with several different shapes at once. This is where visual hierarchy comes into play: if you are going for a particular meaning, you want to make sure the associated shape takes precedence. This allows its meaning to overpower the other shapes that are sometimes necessary for compound forms.
Imagine you are creating a character for children. Would you want to use lighthearted circular forms or heavy, hard, and blocky squares? Your character does not need to be entirely circular like the Michelin man. You can exaggerate the roundness of the head and chest while keeping the straight lines in other parts of your character.
Most importantly, shape psychology works best when it is subliminal. Like body language, people don’t usually look at shapes and consciously think of words like “stable” or “dynamic.” It is more about the unspoken feeling that shapes create.
With this in mind, don’t assume that you have to be too literal in your shape construction. As long as the elements of your design suggest forms, even loosely, they will carry the message. Moreover, a loose approach will prevent the individual shapes from calling attention away from your overall composition.
Along those same lines, it is not always necessary to use the complete shape. Partial shapes such as semi-circles or the points of triangles will often still convey the associated traits of the whole.
The eye will instinctively choose to interpret the simplest possible form. This means that when presented with an image containing multiple shapes, the mind may choose to separate them or group them depending on which solution is the most straightforward.
Now that you understand the different forms these shapes can take, let’s explore their meanings in detail.
Squares:
You expect squares to stand firm. Similarly, a character with square shoulders and/or upper body can come across as strong, imposing, or immovable. In terms of personality, squares imply both reliability and sternness.
Meaning:
Stability
Trustworthiness
Rigidity
Heaviness
Reliability
Strength
Seriousness
Squares are the go-to shape for order and organization, as well as all other traits associated with these, such as logical, calculating, and above all, efficient. Squares and rectangles can be a little bland by undermining other attempts to be vivid or fun. Their straight lines present a clear-cut and neatly defined pathway, so there’s no distraction — the fastest route, not the scenic route. In the business world, squares and rectangles are a favorite emblem of serious industries like insurance or finance.
Rectangles;
Smooth Horizontal Rectangles give a sense of stability and calm
Vertical Rectangles are exciting and active. They rebel against Earth’s gravity. They imply energy and reaching toward the heights of heaven. If a horizontal bar is placed at the top of a row of vertical rectangles stability reigns like in a Greek temple.
Diagonal Rectangles give a feeling of tension. Diagonal shapes are dynamic because they imply motion or tension. We tend to read diagonals from left to right as though they are rising or descending.
Rectangular shapes that lean toward the protagonist block forward progress while shapes that lean away give the impression of opening up the space or leading the protagonist forward.
You can further customize the message rectangular shapes send by tweaking the angles of their corners. While perfect right angles highlight the emphasis on stability, slanting those angles can create interesting hybrid shapes, depending on how sharp the corner is. This is one technique to make otherwise boring rectangular shapes more exciting
Circles:
Circles are the near opposite of squares: their roundness implies that they are always on the move, and hard to pin down. Where squares are strong as bricks, circles can be light as bubbles or clouds. They remind us of a wheel or a bouncing ball. They have no sharp edges, which makes them appear friendly. All of this gives them a joyful, almost mischievous personality, and they are commonly found in art aimed at children.
Despite this, circles are not all immaturity: the fact that they have no beginning or end leads them to be associated with lofty concepts such as eternity or recurring cycles, as in the rising and setting of the sun
A circle is a line that never ends, it represents both movement and completeness. other circular shapes like ovals and ellipses — represent both unity and protection. Lacking any sharp or jagged edges, circles are a much friendlier shape than the others for encompassing other images within. Because they tend to “invite” the viewers into their “completeness,” circles exhibit a strong sense of community. For these reasons, they are one of the most popular choices for logos, or at least to frame logos inside them.
The meaning of circles;
Lightness
Happiness
Softness
Innocence
Movement
Infinity
As decorative shapes in backgrounds or building blocks in other images, circles are playful and graceful and put viewers at ease. Circles never stop, and so neither does the eye when viewing them, giving them a childlike whimsy.
Triangles:
Although they are not the only shape to contain points and corners, there is something that feels extra sharp about a triangle’s edges. Triangles remind us of spearheads, and rows of them can feel like a shark’s teeth. As such, they inherently imply danger.
At the same time, the points are literally pointing, and we are used to seeing triangles in directional contexts, such as compasses or maps. Likewise, many ancient triangular structures such as pyramids and ziggurats are believed to have been built with the implication of reaching heaven. This can lend triangles an air of divine guidance, depending on the context.
The meaning of triangles
Sharpness
Danger
Energy
Guidance
Divinity
Balance
When finding the meaning of triangles, the most important factor is which direction the point is facing. Triangles and arrows change their meaning entirely based on whether they’re pointing up, down, left, or right, and blend those meanings for degrees in between.
Upward-facing triangles are structurally sound (like rectangles) and therefore symbolize stability and trust. Because the point draws the eye upward, they also represent growth and success and tend to signify leadership or even domination.
Downward-facing triangles are almost the opposite. Because they look like they might tumble at any moment, they represent risk and can cause slight tension, which can be used to intentionally create an edgy visual.
An arrow’s greatest purpose is to convey direction. Using arrows can help your viewer follow a path of information from one part of your image to another. You can use them as pointers to your focal point or to move the viewer's eye through the artwork.
If triangles are facing left or right, it represents progression: either forward in the sense of moving onward, or backward in the sense of backtracking or dwelling in the past. Consider the iconic “play” button for videos. It’s worth noting that which side represents which depends on the direction that culture reads; in Western cultures that read left-to-right, a right-facing arrow represents forward progression.
Curves and waves:
A curvy or wavy line takes the fun and whimsical properties of a circle and applies them to otherwise straight edges. The severity of the wave — think “frequency” — determines how much eye movement it causes; just like sharp edges, wavy lines with a high frequency can be jarring and disruptive, although not quite as much as pointed edges One of the most useful applications of curves is to temper the more serious effects of shapes with hard corners to make them a little friendlier. You see this often in web design, where rectangular buttons are given rounded edges to soften their look.
Curved shapes embrace and protect us. We associate them with rolling, hills, rolling seas, the curves of our bodies, and our mother’s body.
Spirals:
Spirals take the wave movement to extremes. They maximize the effect of a circle “drawing you in,” almost hypnotizing the viewer by keeping and holding their attention. They’re visually “busy,” and so they counteract images that strive to be calming or easygoing. They’re also highly magnetic, so they tend to compete with any other nearby visuals. On the other hand, when spirals are used alone and are the central focus, they can effortlessly create a dynamic and intense visual.
The traits of spirals:
Growth
Evolution
Harmony
Hypnotizing
Magnetic
Dynamic
Captivating
Intense
Organic Shapes:
Birds, leaves, trees, and rivers are all organic shapes. Organic shapes share many properties with circles as they tend to be characterized by curving lines. In this way, they communicate lightness and well-being, bolstered by the fact they are associated with nature.
But as organic shapes are not geometric, they tend to feel even less stable than circles. They often look unorganized and unplanned (as opposed to the mathematical precision of geometric shapes), which gives them both a feeling of freedom and fragility. As they are usually not symmetrical, they foster the impression that they can be easily toppled over.
The traits of organic shapes
Freedom
Nature
Flow
Delicate
UnpredictabilityAbstract Shapes:
Abstract shapes typically rely on symbolism or references based on external knowledge, their meaning can vary widely depending on the specific shape and context. For example, in some cultures a cross can represent the four seasons, and in others it is a religious symbolic reference to crucifixion.
Similarly, in everyday app usage, we understand three parallel lines (the hamburger icon) to signify a menu. Imagine showing that icon to someone who had been living without any technology for the last few decades and had never used an app? Without the shared cultural understanding, it would mean nothing to them. For all these reasons, it is best to research shapes like these individually whenever you plan to use one in design.
Abstracting shapes in your compositions makes them more "iconic" and associated with all people, all trees, all rivers not just the particular object in front of you.
Shape Color:
When using shapes in your artwork, you will most definitely be using color as well. When two or more objects in a picture have the same color we associate them with each other. We associate color even more strongly than we associate shape. The meaning and emotion we assign will depend on context.
The combination of certain shapes and colors already has a defined connotation in our subconscious. For example, a yellow circle usually represents the sun, while a red half-circle often represents a slice of watermelon. Unless you are trying to send a direct message with your composition, shapes, and colors are mostly an accessory and should be considered as such.
If you are entirely new to shape language, you can start by paying attention to how other artists use shapes and notice the deliberate way they design their shapes to add dynamism, meaning, and interest to their art. In the examples in this newsletter I introduced you to a few of my favorite shapeshifters.
Look around you and notice the shape language used by advertisers who want your business. How are graphic designers using squares, circles, triangles, etc. to communicate the emotional qualities of their business? Look at children's books and notice the intentional way they employ shape for meaning. Stay attuned to mixed messages where the shapes conflict with the meaning the artist intended.
Beautiful paintings are not the result of talent, technique, or having a great resource photograph. Creating an interesting painting is much more than copying the confusion of colors in nature. In the same way, a musician arranges the incredible variety of sounds in nature into musical harmony you can compose beautiful visual music from shapes, lines, and colors.
In hero stories, a shapeshifter is a catalyst whose changeable nature compels transformation in our hero. A shapeshifter’s role is to add suspense and force the reader and the hero to question beliefs and assumptions.
I hope this essay has helped you to question your beliefs and assumptions about shape design and you feel empowered to use your newfound understanding to be a commanding shapeshifter and create more meaning in your work and deepen the emotional experience for your viewers.
This month I used the following books and articles as resources:
Skip Lawrence, “Painting Light and Shadow in Watercolor”
Molly Bang, “Picture This” Chronicle Books
https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-techniques/composition/turn-simple-shapes-stunning-works-art/ Kathie George
If you would like my guidance and advice in adding more dynamic and meaningful shapes to your paintings I am happy to share my insights and my knowledge with you. I welcome the opportunity for conversation, cooperation, collaboration, and commissions.
With Light and Delight
Susan Convery
Darkness Reveals the Radiance Within
To read the entire newsletter along with the illustrations please follow this link: https://conta.cc/3qffzd2
In the greater world, the forces of light and dark are dancing the same yin-yang ballet they have followed since life began. We need darkness in order to perceive light. Light reveals and shadow veils, connects, and obscures. Shadows provide depth, complexity, and dimension, they provoke introspection, courage, and silence.
Our souls find meaning in this interplay of joy and sorrow, hope and despair, vulnerability and resistance. Our inner world is populated with multitudes - inner goddesses, wounded children, rebellious teenagers, cunning demons, and fearless warriors... When we embrace our own shadow, the dark and wounded aspects of our psyche feel safe enough to enter into the light for healing. Light is a metaphor artists use to contemplate the radiance of the soul and shadow reminds us to embrace the totality of our human experience.
In the realm of art, luminous light serves to mirror our hope, joys, sorrows, and aspirations. Light symbolizes grace, beauty, and truth. It conveys the ephemeral nature of the soul.
Darkness and shadow provide contrast and evoke emotional recognition deep within. Using the alchemy of light and shadow an artist’s vision of reality becomes a prism through which it is possible to witness the world anew and experience the emotions, memories, and perceptions of our shared humanity
Regardless of the subject matter, this interplay between light and darkness is our metaphor to convey the very essence of the soul. Many artists have become so absorbed in their quest to master the representation of light on canvas that they felt even one complete lifetime was not enough to master it. In fact, many of the great masters of the past have made light their central subject rather than just being guided by how light transforms things.
In the late 19th century an art movement arose out of the Hudson River School of Art called Luminism. Artists in this style aligned with the Transcendentalist writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau in their desire to immerse themselves in nature to know themselves and the divine.
Most Luminist paintings emphasize tranquility and depict land or waterscapes with calm reflective water. Characteristic hazy skies depicting the effects of natural light on the landscape take up more than half of the composition. Luminists use glowing light to capture moments in time through the use of atmospheric perspective and concealed brushstrokes. April Gornik said, "I began to see that the luminists... attempted to recreate a landscape's experience for the viewer...Their paintings were not so much depictions as they were complex machines of special effects." A 1980 National Gallery exhibition of Luminist art influenced many contemporary artists to embrace and expand on these questions in new and interesting ways.
Some living artists who work with luminosity are Thomas Schaller, Mitch Albala, Skip Lawrence, Brian Keeler, Cathie Hillegas, and Jeanne Dobie. I borrowed some of their suggestions on how you too can capture more light in your paintings.
Sunlight is powerful stuff. Your paintings will become more meaningful, and personal if you can throw off the elementary concepts of copying, describing, embellishing, and adding details to labeled objects in local color. What emotional response might you create if you painted only the essence of light and shadow, the conversation between brilliance and obscurity?
Sunlight has the power to make a black roof appear white and white objects appear black. When you see only the patterns and shapes created by light and shade you free yourself from the limits of objects and your compositions are distilled down to their basic essence where they can approach the more expressive realm of poetry. Simplify, condense, and eliminate details that detract from the mood and meaning of your subject and see what emerges.
Seeing the shape of the shade is not easy. In a past essay, I introduced you to the Japanese concept of Notan. Notan is an alternating pattern of black and white where white represents all areas in light and black represents the pattern of shade. If your subject reveals itself and has a strong abstract design at the most preliminary phase it is much more likely to be a strong painting when you add in many more values and colors.
If you have access to Photoshop it is easy to experiment with Notan using the editing feature “threshold” on a photograph. I am including a few links here to articles and videos if you are able to experiment with Photoshop.
To create a Notan drawing use white for every area that is in the sunlight. Disregard all local colors and values. A black surface receiving sunlight is left white. A red, yellow, or blue surface in light is left white.
Be committed to this idea. Identify the source of the light (sun or lamp) and remember that anything perpendicular to it is in light. A clear blue sky without clouds should be interpreted as white paper. The flat planes of a lawn remain white. Look for and color in cast shadows. Any surface that has cast shadows on it is in the light (white).
Color in only that portion of the subject that is in shadow.
Your drawing should contain an interesting, rhythmically connected pattern of both light and shade which distills your excitement and emotions for the subject. Walk away and gain perspective on your drawing to see if it carries your idea from a distance.
Manipulate the light to mold reality into a more subjective and personal statement. Are there shadow areas you can link together to create a stronger shape with a variety of segment lengths, changes in direction, and detail? Are there lights you can connect to define your subject more clearly? Save your detail for the edges of your light areas. Use overlap to create depth, add in features to improve your composition if needed
Trace or copy your shade shape onto good paper or canvas. Fill this shape with paint just slightly darker than the white of the page in single light value. Use warm colors in your first layer and focus this warmth and saturation in the middle area of the painting. Do not overwork or overcomplicate the detail in the shadows. Let the shapes merge and melt together into a unifying haze. Defined details should appear only where the edges of your shadow shape meet the light. With just one layer your subject will appear to be bathed in a hazy, strong light or thick atmosphere such as fog.
Add cool colors in your second darker layer to contrast with your first layer and create more glowing light in the shadow areas of your scene. This can make the glowing light stand out and give you the ambiance you want.
As the contrast of values moves further apart the light expressed will appear stronger. Brilliant light can only be seen in contrast to a strong dark. Experiment with this. Try tinting the paper or canvas before adding a darker value shade shape. Use 4 or 5 values. Notice how these variations affect the luminosity of your subject.
Here's a step-by-step I created to demonstrate this process :
This is a drawing of the shadow shapes
Here is a Notan of the beach shack based on the drawing above.
I filled in just the shape of the shaded area with a single mid-tone value using mostly warm colors.
This version has a full range of values, but I've been able to keep the painting loose and the colors related and harmonious. Notice how the purple sets off the yellow of the house.
