Negative Space drawing by Stephanie Richard via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution License
Many artists don’t feel they measure up until they can draw realistically from observation or from photo reference. As an art teacher I encourage students to learn all of the skills they can so that when they reach a point of creating original artwork, they know “the rules” well enough to break them.
Training your eyes to see both positive and negative space will help you draw more accurately from both photo reference and life observation. Today’s Tips & Tricks shows you how:
Watching a demonstration and practicing yourself are two separate things! So get practicing 🙂
I’ve created bonus ARTsheets for you today. You can print them out or work from them digitally. Go through each photograph and color in where you observe negative space. There are answer sheets at the end of the packet. Sign up here to get access to today’s ARTsheets:
“Train your artist eyes to see the negative space.” (Click to Tweet)
Be Creatively Courageous: Pick an object like a bike or a plant and draw ONLY the negative space. Show us your work in the FB Group.
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This was a great lesson. I loved it. Thank you for sharing.
I’m glad you enjoyed it April. <3
Thank you for these exercise sheets! How fortunate to have such a wonderful resource as Artist Strong. I am grateful for your knowledge Carrie!
I would like to become a patron (filled everything out and lost it at the very end a while back). Please send me a link.
Patti I’m so glad you like the exercise sheets! 🙂
Should you wish to be a patron you can go to https://www.patreon.com/ArtistStrong?ty=h and sign up by clicking “Become a Patron.”
Have a great day!
I took a watercolor class and the instructor had a do a “negative space” drawing of different leaves. She never explained negative space like you did and I failed the challenge miserably because I just didn’t get it. As I look at my watercolor of the leaves, I see the negative space I was missing, and how I could have made my painting/drawing of the leaves so much better. Thank you for explaining so simply. I get it now.
Yay Betty! I am So happy it clicked for you here! Negative space can take some time for our brain to process and practicing observing, but its a wonderful tool to help draw from photo reference and from life. 🙂