Level: Intermediate Drawspace Curriculum 3.3.R4 - 8 Pages ... · means, including electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the

Resource

This resource has six sections:• How Your Brain Interprets Images• What Is Negative Space?• Negative Space in Use• Space within Space within Space• Combining Negative Space and Negative Drawing• The Benefi ts of Negative Drawing

How Your Brain Interprets Images Your brain is wired to store quickly-recognized features as a part of its defence mechanism. For example, if you see a pair of glaring eyes and huge, snarling teeth, you instantly recognize danger in the form of an angry lion and run! All detail is discarded and only features with hard edges are stored, such as the eyes and mouth.

That’s why children often omit the nose from drawings of people – it has no clearly defi ned boundaries. In addition, everything is stored as a frontal image because when speed of recognition is essential, simple is best.

Often, when drawing something from life or a reference photograph, especially something you know well, you stop observing and start drawing from memory. You draw what you know and remember about the object, rather than what it actually looks like and then you may wonder why it looks incorrect.

UNDERSTANDING Negative DrawingThe process of using your brain and vision to master the technique of negative drawing

Level: IntermediateFlesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 9.7Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 57.4Drawspace Curriculum 3.3.R4 - 8 Pages and 7 Illustrations

ISBN: 978-1-77193-255-4Copyright © 2016 Mike Sibley (http://www.sibleyfi neart.com) and Drawspace Publishing (http://www.drawspace.com). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any

means, including electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the purchase of an educators’ license from drawspace.com or the prior written consent of Mike Sibley and Drawspace Publishing.

Figure 2

By changing your focus to looking at the negative spaces rather than the object, it is more difficult to draw from memory, and you get a much more accurate drawing.

Drawing the unrecognizable shapes of the surrounding negative space confuses the brain.

When you recognized a shape, the response “I know all about that” leaps into your brain and takes over. “That’s a mouth and I know a mouth looks like this…”

Unfortunately, the resulting drawing is of a generic stored-image mouth and not that particular mouth.

Drawing the negative space will help you to really look at what you are seeing.

2

ISBN: 978-1-77193-255-4Copyright © 2016 Mike Sibley (http://www.sibleyfineart.com) and Drawspace Publishing (http://www.drawspace.com). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any


3.3.R4: Understanding Negative Drawing

You can’t guess the shape it contains, or draw what you think is there, because there are no recognizable outlines.

You almost always end up with a more accurate drawing.

Figure 1

3




What Is Negative Space? Negative space is often defined as “the spaces between and surrounding an object or group of objects. Anything that is not part of an object is a negative space”. However, it goes beyond that definition.

A negative space can exist anywhere, both outside and within any object, depending on how the “object” is defined. For example, an eye is an object, but the pupil (the black center), if considered as an object in its own right, is surrounded by the negative space created by the iris (the colored part of the eye), which in turn is surrounded by its own negative space – the white of the eye.

There are two types of negative space:Type A: The negative space in a study that contains secondary objects, supporting space or objects, or background matter, which helps to balance the primary subject matter in the composition.Type B: The negative space that exists within the subject matter.

Negative Space in UseMany years ago, when I was in art college, I took a class in figure painting. In one particular class, as I was doing my best to draw all the details of a female model, I was having great difficulty getting the length and width of her legs right.

My tutor made me stand up and move further away from the model and asked me what I saw. Not understanding, I began to list the parts of the model. When I had finished, my tutor asked “What else?” Perplexed, I told him I saw the box she was sitting on and a lot of empty space.

“Correct!” my tutor said. He explained to me that I was only focussing on the model and not the space that surrounded her. One cannot not exist without the other. You must focus on both. My tutor also explained that by standing back, I was less distracted by the smaller details and was able to better consider the overall composition.

That evening, as I walked home, a thick fog rolled in. The fog hid the background from view and seemed to sit just behind the nearest two trees, removing all detail from them and turning them into ghostly silhouettes.

I could clearly see and appreciate the negative spaces of the holes through the foliage. Everything my tutor had been saying hit home with crystal clarity.

Then the fog became so thick that I could barely see my hand in front of my face, but I never forgot the lesson I learned that day.

Positive shapes and negative spaces are inseparably intertwined.

Space within Space within SpaceNegative space is not necessarily empty. It is any portion of a scene that is not directly a part of the subject under consideration. As your focus shifts to an area previously regarded as negative space, you may find that the space contains negative spaces of its own.

When working with many, or complex, negative spaces, I often break down a drawing into planes. For example, I might outline a foreground element (often the main subject) so I can concentrate purely on drawing the background behind it.

4 3.3.R4: Understanding Negative Drawing

Figure 3

Challenge!

Examine the many subjects in Figure 3. Choose a specific subject in the very front. Identify a few objects behind and/or adjacent to this subject. These objects are now considered negative space. Obviously these negative spaces are far from empty!Visually work your way back from the foreground toward distant space while identifying new subjects (positive spaces). Objects that are not part of each subject you choose are considered negative spaces.

The study in Figure 4 on the next page (Three Worlds), rendered by a favourite artist of mine, Maurits Cornelis Escher, depicts three “worlds” on three different planes.

Imagine the leaves being outlined and ignored as the water, and its enclosed objects, are drawn. The water forms the negative space between the leaves, as well as between the branches of the reflected trees.

There are “Three Worlds” and three principle planes, but, there are four main elements: trees, water, the fish, and the leaves.

If I could pretend to be Escher for a moment, I would approach this drawing by first dividing the study into the four elements.

Then, I can concentrate on one element at a time, beginning with the darkest to determine the darkest tone at the outset.



Water: Just the water – not the fish. By outlining the leaves and fish in a value that equals (but, never darker than) the expected background value at that point, the outlines will disappear as I work, and provide a narrow safety margin – a buffer to shade up to without fear of entering forbidden territory.

Fish: When I’m satisfied with the overall tonal value of the water, I draw the fish. Surrounded by completed water, I now have full control over its visual dominance, or lack of it, at any point.

Leaves: Finally, I complete the leaves that float on the topmost plane. My mind is clear of all other elements and can concentrate fully on depicting leaves.


Figure 4: Three Worlds by M.C. Escher

All intermediate tones should fall naturally into place. I also like to work from the background to the foreground. Why? Because, that way, each element has an environment in which it can exist – a surrounding reference. I would proceed in this order:

Trees: The darkest tones and also within the background plane. Leaving the spaces between the branches pristine white, helps to achieve a good positive shape to negative space balance.



The Benefits of Negative DrawingWorking from dark to light helps to establish the relationship between the darkest and lightest tones (the white of your paper).

Combining Negative Space and Negative DrawingIn Figure 5, a tree branch is drawn using a kneaded eraser (Blu-Tack) by removing black shading. The branch is an important foreground element that requires detail, form, and texture, and it has to be perfectly balanced in relation to everything around it.


Figure 5

Figure 6

There are two distinct elements – the dark background and the branch itself. How would you tackle this?

The temptation is to draw the branch first. Because the branch is the main element and the focus of the drawing, there is a natural inclination to give that priority.

But consider this: how light or dark should it be? Where is the light source positioned, and what sources of reflected light are present? Should it emerge or disappear into the shade?

When you think about it, you realize that none of these questions can be fully answered without knowing something about the environment that the branch is a part of.

It is most often logical to draw the background first. This presents two benefits: you have an established setting in which your main subject can exist, so it will possess a unity; and you have full control over the dominance of the subject (the way it stands out from, or blends into, the background – much like Escher’s fish).



The black is then extended and diluted as required to form the mid-tones, drawn around any highlights and features. When the black or dark areas are completed, all your lighter tones will be flat white spaces.

Now, with the full understanding of the tones surrounding them, drawing can begin within the positive spaces to give them the tonal values and shaping that they require.

Examine a small section of a drawing (Figure 7) where the left-hand side of the dog’s head and ear meet with the background. If the dog is drawn first, how would you know how dark or light to draw the hairs?


Figure 7: Section from The Barn Patrol © Mike SibleyDraw the background first (drawing around those hairs to leave them white), and you have all the control you need.

When the background is drawn, tone and form can gently be added to those hairs, with the background to refer to at all times.

Following are the four major benefits of using negative drawing:• offers greater control by separating background, mid-ground and foreground elements• eliminates guess-work • protects the pure white of the paper until the required values are determined• breaks down any project into manageable sections

To draw effectively, you must fully understand the area you are working on. You must be able to experience it in three-dimensions, to feel its texture, and to know how it relates to surrounding areas. You are creating your own world in which all elements must co-exist.

If you have first established the background – the environment – then you have a world in which you can create your main subject.



Drawing from Line to Lifeby Mike Sibley

• Foreword by renowned Artist David Shepherd

• Over 280 pages of pencil drawing tips, tutorials, demonstrations and much more...

• More than 625 illustrations

• Tools, techniques, methods

• Step-by-step instructions

• For the Novice and Advanced student

• From pure line drawing through to near-reality

Based on Mike’s experience of over 30 years as a professional artist and graphite pencil specialist.

www.SibleyFineArt.com/pencil-drawing-book.htm

This assists your understanding of the subject as an integral element. If you run into a problem area, leave it until you’ve drawn the other areas around it. This gives you more information to reference and work with, and the problem often solves itself. This way, you won’t have to deal with trial and error and risk muddying up the area by erasing and damaging the fi bers of the paper

Let logic rule and employ your inner sense of natural balance and realism. The more you draw, the more you will study the world around you, and the more you study, the greater will be your mental store of visual knowledge. It becomes easier with time – believe me!

Happy Drawing...


ISBN: 978-1-77193-255-4Copyright © 2016 Mike Sibley (http://www.sibleyfi neart.com) and Drawspace Publishing (http://www.drawspace.com). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transferred, or transmitted in any form or by any


Documents

Level: Intermediate Drawspace Curriculum 3.3.R4 - 8 Pages ... · means, including electronic, digital, mechanical, recording, photographing, photocopying, or otherwise, without the