Negative/Positive Space cutout - Matthew Nguyen

Negative Space in layman's terms is what is in the background of an image.  Negative space is generally what isn’t what needs to be seen in an image, while the positive space is all that does need to be seen.  More simply put, positive space tends to be closer while negative space tends to be further back. When negative and positive space are drawn as only single colors rather than the range of colors or with outlines, it appears to be as if it is a silhouette of the image.  

In the cutout, I found the negative space to be what is not the tree and that on the drawing was what was already white, and the positive space was in grey.  However, that only gave me defines between negative and positive space. To actually see what is negative and positive space, it took looking at the image and seeing “aha!” this is a tree and this figure is the positive space, so thus the rest must be negative space.  

It helps an artist to see in negative and as it shows them what to focus on and what parts are more important in an image.  It allows them to split up and comprehend the image based on certain figures. Seeing in negative space ultimately enhances drawings as it gives a more realistic effect to drawings as it allows people to contrast between background and foreground and see what is supposed to be seen in an image.