Choosing Canvas Shapes 1

One important aspect of art making is how artists choose the size and shape of their work. In 2D art, there are three basic options:

·        a portrait format rectangle (vertical)

·        a landscape format rectangle (horizontal)

·        a square

 

So, how does an artist choose? It's not so simple as saying all portraits have to be portrait format. There are exceptions:

Breakfast in Bed, by Mary Cassatt

Nor must all landscapes be horizontal:

Sketch on the Huntington River, Vermont, by Sanford Gifford

The main question for an artist isn't what the subject is, but whether you want the viewer to look up-and-down, or side-to-side. That's what rectangles do. They help suggest how viewers should move their eyes.

What about squares? What do they do? Well, they're a bit more claustrophobic. :)

With nowhere to turn, you tend to look more at the center:

Daedalus Sorrow, by Pedro Inacio

And squares work really well with circular compositions, where your eye travels in a circle:

The Music Lesson, by William Merritt Chase

Those are the basics, but they're not your only options. Artists have used alternatives for centuries, primarily the tondo - a circular or oval shaped canvas.

The Alba Madonna, by Raffaello Sanzio

 

 20th century artists have developed "shaped canvases", where the shape and design of the canvas is the main creative focus - blurring the line between painting and sculpture:

by Charles Hinman

by Frank Stella

by Frank Stella

by Frank Stella