Drawing lesson 2

Lesson 2

The Power of Negative thinking

Learning to see negative spaces is the single most powerful skill required by artists, photographers, interior designers, architects and graphic designers. 

Once you have trained your brain to see the negative spaces around, and inside of, all the 'positive' scenes that take your interest, you will be better equipped to create interesting images.

The science bit:

It is  much easier to draw negative shapes accurately, because our brain has no language-based concept of how these shapes should look. If I gave you a random shape to copy you would probably do it accurately because you have no mental references to draw upon and your 'receptive' right brain would simply respond to the information received by the eye.

However, if I gave you a hand, a foot or a chair to draw, your left brain would try to sort through all its filing cabinets to find everything it already knows about these forms and blind the eye to any new information. The left brain always thinks it knows best.

So we focus on negative spaces to remove the left-brain tendency to draw what it thinks it is looking at instead of what the eye is actually seeing.

The magic part is that by accurately drawing all of the negative spaces, we are automatically drawing all of the positive forms too, without realising it (as the edges of every negative space form a boundary with a positive form).

So for example, you can draw a series of 11 abstract shapes, and before you know it, you have drawn a bench, without even trying to draw a bench! 

A famous 'trick of the eye' game is the 'Vase or Face' image, below.  Do you see two faces or do you see a vase?

After your initial reaction of 'vase' or 'face' your brain starts to scan the image to try to visualise the alternative interpretation of this image. Your right brain is fighting with your left brain to accurately read the information and to cast aside any preconceptions. This can cause a bit of brain ache!

The value of drawing negative spaces is to help make sense of complex images especially where there are distorted or fore-shortened forms.

The cyclo is a favourite subject for Saigon artists but it is a very difficult subject to draw.  Starting with some of the key negative spaces can help you to read the image and to start constructing your outlines.

Your personal journey

Negative space is everywhere. Sometimes, it is the subconscious effect of negative space that causes something to be attractive. A well positioned picture on a wall is pleasing to the interior of the room just as much because of the negative spaces created around it as for the subject of the painting. 

Architects use the negative spaces of archways, collonades, balconies and canopies to create interesting patterns, proportions and shadows to give buildings texture and increase visual interest. The lack of any such features is also a deliberate choice.

1. Choose an object with a lot of negative space such as a chair, a stool, book case, bicycle, pushchair, corkscrew etc. and sit at an oblique angle to created interesting negative shapes.

• Draw only the negative spaces.

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