Team Avatar Primitive Figuration

According to 100 Ideas That Changed Graphic Design, Primitive Figuration is the simplification of forms such as heads, bodies, arms, legs and even facial features. Everything in the pieces are reduced to more abstract shapes, resulting in more raw, gestural and interpretive works.

                                David Ndambuki, "The Maasai," oil on canvas, 2006. Courtesy Real African Art Gallery

This image "The Maasai" is a very good example of Primitive Figuration because even though there are no facial features or really any features at all you can still get a general idea that this is a tribe of some sort gathering. The picture itself has unity and an amazing use of colour, which you can focus on since you don't have to pay attention to minute detail.

Jjuuko Hood, "Round Faces," oil on paper. Courtesy Real African Art, Zanzibar.

Though there are facial features in this particular piece, it is still very minimal and because of that you can 

focus instead on what the piece is made of and the process of how the art was created through brush 

strokes.

                         Dancing figures wearing African masks. Primitive art. Seamless Vector Illustration.

In this one, even the shading and value is primitive. In that only dark relief lines are used. But you can focus on the subject of the piece, the figures dancing in masks with exaggerated facial expressions.