Negative Space Reflection

  • A. What is negative space?
The object in a drawing is the subject. For example, if you are drawing a plastic bottle, the plastic bottle is the subject. The negative space is the area around the subject, also known as the background.

  • B. Explain how you found negative space in 1. your cut out?, 2. in your still-life drawing?
  1. I found negative space in my cut out by cutting along the edges of where the two shades of gray met on the template. When I glued the pink pieces of paper onto the green piece, the green paper was the negative space.
  2.  In my still life drawing, I found negative space by sketching the edges of the water bottle (where the subject touches the background), and then coloring the outside of that shape in black sharpie.

  • C. Why does it help an artist to see in negative space?
If I am struggling to draw an object, I can draw the space around it (the negative space). Focusing on the negative space around the object more than the subject makes the drawing look more realistic and accurate.

  • D. How is negative space useful in creating art?
Drawing negative space gives art a different look without making the subject unrecognizable. Instead of shading and coloring details inside the subject, an artist can boldly shade the background all in one color. Drawing negative space is similar to drawing with a different perspective.
Even if an artist draws the negative space and the subject, looking at both makes difficult parts of a drawing easier to complete, and the entire drawings looks more realistic and to scale.
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negative space drawing 001(1)
negative space drawing 001(1)
negative space drawing 002(1)
negative space drawing 002(1)

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