This week's art lesson brought my daughter and I face to face with the elements of shape. For a quick recap of what the heck I'm talking about, please see last week's Art Lessons post where I explain the how and what to this madness.

According to Wikipedia; A shape is the form of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, texture, material composition. Wow, it sounds kinda boring when ya say it that way. HLC and I took a bit more of a relaxed approach to our study. We explored the theory of course, but then we got busy actually making shapes by cutting construction paper into chunks of color. Then we begun laying them out to create a landscape concept.

Next we begun arranging the shapes to create a landscape concept. The assignment particulars required that we first chose a setting that stirred pleasing memories and evoked a sense of peacefulness. We both decided to craft a forest scene. Mine was of my favorite place to cast flies to monster trout, Smithgall Woods and Hannah's was of a patch of woods and walking path that meant something special to her. I didn't ask for details, I figured a girl deserves some secrets. Here's how they turned out.

Pretty cool, huh. I'm really encouraged by just how much she and I are learning by taking this straight forward approach to the classic components of design. It's easy to see using this construction paper method as a perfect way to begin compositions for much larger painting. Or as a means unto it's on end as Matisse did in the 40's. Speaking of Matisse, HLC, my wife and I got to see some of his paper cut outs up close and personally this summer when we visited the MoMA.