What Is It?

In studying shapes and forms, we learn that there are two distinct types: geometric and organic.

The organic forms are fun and natural — the shape of a puddle, the shape of a cloud in a brilliant blue sky, the gentle curves of a river flowing to the sea.

Geometric shapes, on the other hand, are unnatural, usually man-made, and for the most part they have names — squares, rectangles, triangles, circles.

Even when we turn geometric shapes into forms, they generally have names by which they can be clearly identified. Circles become spheres. Squares become cubes. Rectangles turn into columns or beams, and triangles — well, they can become prisms or pyramids.

None of this information is new to you, of course. We learn these rudimentary facts about geometric shapes and forms in elementary school — or even before. What pre-school doesn’t have a set of blocks? What parent or grandparent hasn’t bought three-dimensional sets of shapes — much like the one I recently purchased?

Today, though, I came across a form that befuddled me. I was hexed by hexagons earlier as I’m working my way through my 100 days of shapes and forms, and although I didn’t share any of my drawings with octagonal shapes, well, they were a bit confounding, too. But at least I knew what they were.

Today’s shape? From one view, it’s simply a cone.

Now, I happen to like cones. I think — next to cylinders — cones are my favorite geometric form. Cones are essentially triangles with a slighly-rounded base and shading applied. Now, please make note that I didn’t attempt adding any shadow on today’s forms. Note, too, that since I’m doing a lot of work with textures, I did try to create the wood-grain pattern in this block.

So, yes, today I drew a cone. But that’s only one side of the story — and only one side of the form. Turn it around, look again, and, all right, folks, what is it?

It’s a cone but with an odd, flattened area near the base. Well, “flattened” isn’t quite right. This “face” recedes from the exterior inward toward the base. I’m not sure if I’m describing it in a way that makes sense. Well, here, I just drew another view of this form:

Does this strange geometric form have an actual name? Whatever it is, it has been challenging to draw — other than from the backside where it appears to be a simple, familiar cone.

I could draw this from many different angles, and that would certainly be good practice, but for now I’m going to put this wooden block away. It will show up again as I work my way through the complete 100-day project, and it actually will be fun to draw again. I’ll go so far as to say that this has been the most interesting shape I’ve come across since I began drawing these different forms.

But I have other things to do today, and it’s time to get started. I hope everyone is having a great day, and if you happen to know a name for this weird geometric form, please let me know!