Shape
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A shape or figure is a graphical representation of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external surface, as opposed to other properties such as color, texture, or material type.
A plane shape or plane figure is constrained to lie on a plane, in contrast to solid 3D shapes.
A two-dimensional shape or two-dimensional figure (also: 2D shape or 2D figure) may lie on a more general curved surface (a non-Euclidean two-dimensional space).
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Shape
- as an element in art
Shape pertains to the use of areas in two dimensional space that can be defined by edges, setting one flat specific space apart from another. Shapes can be geometric (e.g.: square, circle, triangle, hexagon, etc.) or organic (such as the shape of a puddle, blob, leaf, boomerang, etc.) in nature. Shapes are defined by other elements of art: space, line, texture, value, color, form.
Geometric shape
A geometric shape is the geometric information which remains when location, scale, orientation and reflection are removed from the description of a geometric object. That is, the result of moving a shape around, enlarging it, rotating it, or reflecting it in a mirror is the same shape as the original, and not a distinct shape.
Objects that have the same shape as each other are said to be similar.
Many two-dimensional geometric shapes can be defined by a set of points or vertices and lines connecting the points in a closed chain, as well as the resulting interior points. Such shapes are called polygons and include triangles, squares, and pentagons. Other shapes may be bounded by curves such as the circle or the ellipse.
Many three-dimensional geometric shapes can be defined by a set of vertices, lines connecting the vertices, and two-dimensional faces enclosed by those lines, as well as the resulting interior points. Such shapes are called polyhedrons and include cubes as well as pyramids such as tetrahedrons. Other three-dimensional shapes may be bounded by curved surfaces, such as the ellipsoid and the sphere.
A shape is said to be convex if all of the points on a line segment between any two of its points are also part of the shape.
See also
- Biomorphism
- Bouba/kiki effect
- Form
- Glossary of shapes with metaphorical names
- Geometric studies by Leonardo da Vinci
- Human form
- Morph
- Patterns in nature
- Shapeless
- Shapeshifting
- List of geometric shapes
Namesakes
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