Shapewelding is the compositional device of linking up related tones to make larger units.


Here’s a simple pencil sketch with some attention paid to shapewelding. The back of the white shirt links up with the white shape behind, and the dark front of the apron joins the farther shadow shapes.

We’re constantly faced with this circumstance in real life and in photographs, and the viewer enjoys imagining lost contours, but I find it takes a bit of deliberate effort to put it into a drawing or painting.

Previously: Shapewelding.
 
Top