Shifts in color and/or shifts in the value (lightness/darkness) of the planes indicate the turning of form. As opposed to works that use larger planes to indicate form, smaller planes can indicate a more refined sense of observation on the part of the artist, and the painting/drawing brings us closer to what the artist sees or imagines, while clearly showing the hand of the artist at work.

Small planes used to indicate form need not be hard edged. Each plane might be created with a single brushstroke, and these strokes might blur into one another.

The planes might be compressed near the edge of a form, elongated in the direction of the edge, in order to indicate the turning away of the form from the viewer.

Small planes can also be used in purely abstract works that create the illusion of a three-dimensional abstraction.

Featured: Portrait of Grace Obata Amemiya from the Faces of Iowa State project by Rose Frantzen