Negative spaces are present in all art and design even though they usually go unnoticed. The principle of Negative space is at play in almost all art, design, and entertainment. Here are a few examples of negative spaces that you may not be aware of, and why they exist.
Drawing what you see
Focus on what’s in front of you, not what you know.
- Use negative space to draw with ease, and to abide by the laws of perspective and foreshortening
- Draw with negative space because you have no previous knowledge of the negative space unlike the object itself.
Drawing With Negative Space
Start with a shape of your choice (not too small and not too big) and draw this correctly sized and placed.
- This will serve as the basic unit, everything else you draw will be compared to it.
- Focus on drawing Negative spaces alone, it might be helpful to imagine that the object is not there or like it has gone through a wall
Understanding Composition
An artwork/design is a combination of both positive and negative spaces on the page
- Examples: the arrow between the ‘E’ and ‘X’ in the FED-EX logo below and also in the frozen poster after it
- You need to work with the blank page
Unity in Drawing
Pay attention to negative spaces to ensure everything on the page fits together
- Consider negative spaces before starting a drawing to avoid going off page at one point and too tiny at the other
- Unify shapes with the spaces with respect to the boundaries of the paper
