Speaking of Art Blog

In art lingo, what is meant by the term NEGATIVE SPACE?  Does it denote something bad or negative?  No.  In fact, if an artist doesn’t give close attention to the negative space, that’s when there can be a negative result.  But by following some general guidelines in the treatment of negative space, some very positive things can occur.  Simply put, it’s that part of a drawing or painting that is NOT the center of interest.  It’s the background, if you will.  It’s that part of a 2-D piece of artwork that beginners tend to ignore, as if it’s not even there.  It’s the part they leave empty.  But it’s actually VERY important.

With my Intermediate Drawing students I give a whole lesson on defining the outer edges of some still life objects by FIRST drawing the negative space.  It’s a real eye opener for my students.  Most of them have never even entertained the thought of defining the edges of their center of interest with background.

What an artist needs to focus on is not only the colors or shades of the background, but also the shapes and sizes of various sections of background.  My latest painting of an owl, Willow, is a good illustration of what I mean.   When I first finished the pastel it looked like this:

While I was happy with my color choices of the background and the hints of strokes back there, what really bothered me was the apparent sameness of the width of the two negative spaces that I’ve indicated here with light gray brackets in the left hand image.  They were almost exactly the same width.  Not good!  In order for the background to look interesting, a good rule of thumb to follow is to vary those widths in the sections of negative space surrounding the center of interest.  As soon as two widths match up in size, the piece suddenly looks less organic or natural, too symmetrical, too static.  It’s best when the shapes, sizes, and widths of the negative spaces all vary.

So I added more breathing space above its head by half an inch, that’s all it took (right hand image).  I always cut my pastel paper larger on all sides than the size I want the finished piece to be, so adding more painting at the top was not a problem.  Ahhh, my owl now had breathing room, and there are varied widths of that negative space on the three sides of its head.  Made all the difference in the world!

Willow, pastel, 14.5 x 11", (SOLD)

This is just one small example of how focusing on the negative space in a piece of artwork can have great impact on the piece as a whole.  Moral of the story: Not forgetting about the negative space can be a very positive thing when it comes to putting the finishing touches on a stunning piece of artwork.