Line and negative space and negative drawing

NEGATIVE DRAWING I often hear the phrases ‘negative drawing’ and ‘negative space’ used as if they are synonymous. They aren’t. Negative space is employed as a brain-fooling method of seeing shapes with clarity. Negative Drawing is a conscious method of working that isolates and protects areas of your paper. These areas can be entire elements that are often completed later; smaller areas where the intention is to leave them as virgin highlights or white shapes against a darker background; or minute areas that, for example, form white hairs between their cast shadows. To further dispel confusion, Negative Drawing does not involve any form of erasing. Applying graphite and cutting into it with an eraser could be described as ‘drawing in negative’, but it is the exact opposite of true Negative Drawing, which primarily exists to isolate and protect virgin areas of paper. Think of it as defining the boundaries of a shape using only the tone that surrounds it. In other words, you aren’t drawing the object but simply giving the illusion of the object by drawing around it. NEGATIVE SPACE Negative Drawing involves the conscious creation of negative space so let’s study that first. The brain would seem by all accounts to store memory in the form of images, and these images, or symbols, are the mainstay of the it’s defence mechanism. Matching to stored, standard symbols offers a very speedy classification system. However, as artists, this facility works against us, because our brains automatically overlay the images we see with a range of symbols. This effectively disables the ability to produce realistic drawing because the information gathered is so basic – and often inaccurate if the brain’s ‘guess’ was incorrect. Fortunately, there are many ways of fooling the brain into letting go of the desire to match symbols, to classify, during the act of drawing. For example, working faster than you can think serves to disable the argumentative side of your brain, which struggles to keep up and then loses interest. To learn to see what is really there and not what you think is there, you need to take your brain’s automatic reaction out of the equation. Believe me, learning to see correctly really is a hard lesson to learn but the best way involves fooling your brain into not recognising the troublesome features. Fortunately, we have Negative Space as a supreme tool. http://www.artinstructionblog.com/an-introduction-to-negative-drawing-with-mike-sibley

http://www.mmwindowtoart.com/drawing/scratch.html
OPEN” LINE: NOT CONNECTED       PARALLEL        GESTURE            VARIETY
Line, the basic element of all design has unlimited forms. It is not only a “container”, but an entity in itself. OPEN line can overlap itself and not create a shape. In the left example, one form IS a shape. Can you find it? PARALLEL line emphasizes a textural or pattern aspect. GESTURE line is quick,continuous movement in which value is increased by closeness and pressure of overlaps. See the 3 values in the 3rd example? Line VARIETY is rich with thick, thin, emphatic, broken and invented marks delineated from other tools. If not the most dominant feature of a composition, line is always its beginning.

Scratchboard, Simple Etching With Strong Contrasts

Amateur or professional, scratchboard offer a medium that can have many personal or commercial purposes. Scratchboard material can be purchased already inked or ready to be inked. Then there’s the homemade variety —which is what we always used. Starting with railroad board or any other smooth, medium weight paper, we rubbed a heavy coating of beeswax or white candle wax on a board- usually 9″X12″ or 12″X18″ with 1″ borders. A teaspoon of plaster of paris was placed on top of the waxed surface and spread around,completely covering the wax and tapping the excess away. Then the entire board was painted with a medium thick black poster paint and left to dry. We would also make a few 4″X12″ practise strips for each student as well. It’s a good idea to develop a set of scratchboard “textures” and this was a requirement before beginning the actual work. Below are several student ideas that were developed from line designs, natural objects, geometric shapes and free forms. These offer many ways of interpreting a drawing naturally as well as texturally. Enjoy making a 9″X12″ practice sheet of your own. Some of these may inspire you.

Obstacle line is simplistic in concept but complex in pattern. Like Line As Movement, the work is constantly being created and changed with each new parallel grouping. Many fine detailed line patterns can also be created by NOT connecting them in areas too small for a closed shape.

LINE AS MOVEMENT

Simple single lines amassed in intriguing movements across a page can be a very rich drawing, full of intricate rivelets of various sizes and curvilinear swings which surprise and please the eye.

This is an excellent drawing scheme to develop line drawing control. Here are a few rules to follow:

The first line begins from any edge and moves in a flowing manner to exit at another side. Additional lines are added from a new side or from an existing curve. The third rule is most important as this achieves the soft, gliding movements of ebb and flow as line movement begins and merges away. All beginning and ending lines must MERGE with each other, just as cars merge from ramps to the expressway. No right angles allowed! Beginning lines start behind the area from where it will eventually emerge, and continue to blend with the line a few millimeteres after it is joined. This guarantees a curvilinear blend. Last, a variety of small, intricate movements are not only a challenge but effect the surprise element of compact design in a sea of long, overflowing lines with varied open spaces.