Interlocking Shapes
Learn how to create stronger, more connected compositions by designing shapes that overlap, connect, and move through one another.
This course explores the idea of interlocking shapes and shows how they can make a composition feel more unified, dynamic, and intentional. You’ll study finished examples, break them down through value and shape, complete an assignment, review student work, and then watch the idea carried into a full design and finished painting.
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Getting Started
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Design Examples
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Design & Demo
What You’ll Learn
What interlocking shapes are and why they matter
How to identify connected shape relationships
Using value to simplify and organize a composition
How overlapping and interlocking shapes create stronger movement
How to redesign weak or disconnected compositions
Adding or shifting elements to create better shape relationships
Applying the concept to a complete finished painting
Inside the Course
Approximately 1 hour 45 minutes of instruction
1 guided assignment
Student critique session
3 finished-painting walkthroughs
Value and shape breakdowns
1 complete design demonstration
1 finished painting demonstration
Who It’s For
This course is ideal for artists who want to strengthen their design and composition skills and better understand how shapes can connect across a painting.
It’s especially useful if your work feels fragmented, static, or like the individual parts aren’t working together.