Negative Space In The Drawing Class

When drawing from life, it's just as important to see what is NOT there as it is to see what is there. So, in tonight's drawing class we focused on Negative Space. Those spaces between the things we normally think of as the objects that fill our world.

We all know what a chair looks like. You can probably picture one clearly in our minds eye. But, unless you develop the ability to see the negative spaces between the legs and runners, you will always struggle with drawing from life, because you are only looking at half the story.

In Kevin's drawing above, you can see how his focus on the spaces between the chair legs transforms the drawing, turning the chair into an empty void.

This seeing technique flattens the world into 2 dimension, which makes it easier to capture the relationships of ALL the elements in front of you. These relationships; positive and negative, are the building blocks for the construction a solid pictorial composition.

Next week, we explore making marks.