If you are just starting art and design, it is easy to assume that your work is to fill up the blank page but in truth, you need to work with the blank page. An artwork/design is a combination of both positive and negative spaces on the page.

2. Understanding Composition

Asides from helping you with the compositional elements of your drawing, paying attention to negative spaces can ensure that everything fits together with the page. A major mistake every beginner makes is to start a drawing without due consideration of the page, only to realize towards the end that the drawing is going off page at one point and too tiny at the other.

3. Unity in Drawing

The ability to discern and draw negative space comes with the following key benefits:Drawing what you seeUnderstanding CompositionUnity in Drawing

Why is learning Negative Space Important

Negative space is the area around and between a subject. It is most evident when the space around a subject forms an interesting or artistically relevant shape. A popular example of this is seen in Rubin’s vase

How Negative Space Can Improve Your Drawing

A recurring message in art classes and tutorials is that as a beginning student, you should: “draw what you see not what you know”, this can be easily done by drawing with negative space. You have no previous knowledge of the negative space unlike the object itself, therefore you would have to draw by focusing on what is in front of you. Drawing with negative space makes it easy to abide by the laws of perspective and foreshortening.

1. Drawing what you see

These ideas show how negative space is important in drawing

Negative spaces are present in all art and design even though they usually go unnoticed. Picture this: while watching Tom and Jerry, every time one of our favorite frenemies gets punched or pulled through a door leaving their shape in it, the principle of Negative space is at play. The form you see is only…

3. Unity in Drawing

Similar ideas to 3. Unity in Drawing

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