This article is the second part of Pulling it All Together: Expressive Lines, Shapes, and Forms blog.
Circles are considered either man-made or organic. According to artist Wassily Kandinsky, the circle is the only shape that falls into both categories.
So how can you tell which type of circle is organic or man-made? By paying attention to how the work was created.
Look at the two pieces below and consider how each piece was created.
Seven Circles, 1926 by Wassily Kandinsky
Image by James Thomas, courtesy of Unsplash
The top image, by Wassily Kandinsky, was created with paint. You can see the hand of man in its creation through the brush marks. For example, some areas of the paint application are inconsistent.
The bottom image, by James Thomas, appears to have been created digitally. The edges of each ring are crisp and clean, which is what you might expect from a piece of digitally created art.
With this in mind, the top image is an example of circles that are organic, while the lower image are man-made circles.