NEGATIVE SPACE ART HOW TO

He raised negative space to the ultimate art form where shapes gradually morph into each other to form something entirely new yet remain ultimately connected. Escher demonstrates the powers of negative space in his engraving of birds turning into fish. Negative space, known as ‘white space’, is a misnomer, considering that white space is effectively one of the most ‘positive’ things we can see, taste, hear, feel, and smell.įOR ARTISTS: Leaving aside the obvious daunting white space of a blank canvas, M.C. Escher THE ESSENTIALS of ‘NEGATIVE’ SPACES FOR ARTISTS, WRITERS, and DEEP THINKERS. Leave some areas deliberately obscure to allow viewers to bring their own imagination to the piece.Original art – M.C. Do not be afraid to lose some of the edges of the objects in the shadows - such loss is true to life and a feature of this type of drawing. The resulting black and grey tones will give the drawing atmosphere.Ĩ/ Use a good clean plastic eraser to bring back the sharp light effects. This will produce a very black and white contrasting drawing.ħ/ Smudge the drawing, either by tonking it with a rag or, preferably, by smearing it with your hand. This action makes seeing the shadows easier.Ħ/ Fill in the shapes of the shadows with the compressed charcoal, making the shaded areas into a dense black. It will help your understanding if you squint when looking at the group. It is important the shadows appear as shapes that exist both on and of the objects. This will create a dramatic atmosphere by throwing long shadows across the group.ĭraw the shapes of the shadows using line. Set up a light from an acute angle at one side. What you have produced is an outline of the group of objects.Ĥ/ Begin to fill in the shape and form of the objects.ĥ/ At this point you need to illuminate the still life group. Draw a line that goes over the top of the objects and off the edge of the paper at the other side.ģ/ Now go back to the starting point on the other side of the paper, and draw a line that describes the bottom edge of the still life.

For instance, if your drawing is A1 your window mount should be A5. Remember that your window mount should be in scale to your drawing otherwise you will get distortion.

Draw what you see through the window mount. A tip - don't make it too complicated.Ģ/ Start to draw your composition from the edge of the paper. You can do this by using a window mount to frame the composition that you like best. The second stage of the drawing requires you to look analytically at the nature of light and the way it can be used to describe and express a scene and mood.īefore beginning the drawing, arrange the objects on a table.ġ/ Establish the composition on the picture plane, i.e. This well established method entails drawing the space around objects to establish the composition. The drawings use the negative space way of working we encountered in the Pencils section see the examples after Van Gogh beginning on page 40.

NEGATIVE SPACE ART HOW TO

The next series of examples will highlight how to use the medium for this purpose.

Compressed charcoal is very useful for making strong lines and very dark dramatic tones.

Negative space art