Compositional problems in painting often arise due to poor visual awareness of backgrounds around objects. Often relegated to invisibility, these “negative shapes” may hold to key to a composition that has perfect balance. This can be achieved by examining how negative space (the background) relates to positive shapes (the subject matter).
Drawing Exercise for Art Class
The teacher may begin the lesson by showing students what negative space is. Students may observe the shape of the background around and between objects, such as chairs, vases and teapots. Enclosed spaces will be observed within the object shape as well as the contours on the outer edges. Visual awareness of background shapes can be enhanced by the following art lesson activities:
Encourage students to make visual estimates of their compositions regarding balance between negative space and positive shapes. Are there too many tall objects on one side of the setting creating a wedge shape to the background? Is there a big empty space in one area of the composition creating an imbalance? Students may try shifting the objects within their arrangements to find alternatives. The objective is to arrange the objects so that negative space is roughly distributed throughout the composition.
Negative Space in Art
Colouring the shape of the background as though it were the main subject matter will help students examine backgrounds in a new way. Using bright, contrasting colours serves to bring backgrounds to the foreground, as though they were the main subject matter. Differentiation for drawing abilities can be provided by using objects of varying outlines from the simple to the complex.
Enclosed negative space can be found between the slats of a chair or encircled within a cup handle. Students may try to render these shapes in isolation in order to exercise how such shapes relate to one another regarding shape, position and size.
Drawing Activity for Art
Further exploration into negative space can be supplied by looking at the shapes of shadows, reflections or shifts in tone within the background. Such features provide visual channels through which the eye may travel throughout the painting, without which the background could appear flat.
Art Class on Drawing Negative Space
Learning to draw negative space will enhance students’ visual awareness of backgrounds. Compositional problems in painting often arise due to sole concern with positive shapes of the main subject matter. Students may observe the shapes of background between the subject matter in order to examine how they are distributed throughout the composition. Looking out for an uneven distribution between negative space and positive shapes will help students problem-solve an unbalanced composition for painting.
Rachel Shirley - I have written and illustrated several art instruction books entitled Oil Paintings from your Garden and Oil Paintings from the Landscape ...
