Negative Space

What is negative space? Lets say you were viewing a building, and you were drawing the building. What would you usually do? You would draw the space that the building occupy’s. The space that you normally leave blank would be the negative space, the space that has nothing in it. That space is the negative space.

In the cut out drawing I did. I took the one half of the bird print out, and I would trace each part on the green piece of paper, and I would equally balance the green cut outs on each side of the black background. It is hard for me to explain it so if you take a look at the drawing, try to see what it is that I did because I cannot put it into words.

I found the negative space in the stool drawings by examining the objects and determining which space would I normally draw, and what space I would normally leave blank. Then I would draw in the space I would normally leave blank, and leave blank the space I would normally fill in.

For an artist, if you see negative space, you see more of the picture than is you were just looking at the positive space. It can help you make a much better drawing than previously before.

Seeing negative space can enhance drawings if you know how to use it properly. It can make objects stand out if you want them to. It is a very useful tool.