Two Merrifield plates stacked: above, prisms whose flat faces each keep a narrow range of tone, with sharp changes at the corners; below, cylinders that shade gradually from light to dark.

Concept · Seeing Light

Flat Planes and Round Forms

Flat faces change value mostly at their edges; curved surfaces change value gradually.

Compare Merrifield's Plate 5 prisms, above, with her Plate 7 cylinders, below.

  • Many painters block in round forms as a few flat planes, then soften the joins.

Image: Internet Archive · Public domain (published before 1931)

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