Negative Space Drawings

Negative space is everything in a picture except the subject. It defines the subject so that it is the main focus of the design.

I found negative space in my cut out picture and in my stool drawing within the spaces in and around the subject. For the cut out piece I focused on the black and grey in the picture we were given. First, I cut out all of the parts of the picture of the house and traced them on one of the pieces of construction paper. Then I arrange the pieces that matched the black parts of the picture onto one half of my other piece of paper. Then, I arranged the remaining pieces that matched the grey parts on the second half of the full sheet of paper. The finished product was a picture of a house with the negative and positive space colors reversed on each side. Also, my technique for my stool drawing was that I shaded the entire paper and then erased the shapes of the subjects which were the table, stools, plant, and wire.  

It helps an artist to see in negative space so that it is simple for them to notice and portray the subject. When they recognize negative space, either they can sketch everything around it so that then they have a guide to make their subject. From that point the artist can pay attention to the details of the subject in order to finish the piece. They can also alter the proportions between negative and positive space to make the design look good. From there the artist can easily focus on details inside of the outline and finish the piece.

Negative space is useful in creating art, because it brings balance to the composition. When negative and positive space are unproportional in a picture, it looks wrong and unpleasing. Also, negative space is used to define a subject. Therefore, when there is not the right amount of negative space there is either too much of the subject or the subject becomes lost.