Drawing Lessons - Negative Space

On Monday, the 6th grade classes had their first drawing lesson of the year. The first lesson was on Negative Space Drawing.

Negative Space is the space around the object you intend to draw. It forms shapes that you can use to help you make your drawing more accurate. Above is an example of negative space drawing. In class, I placed a pile of pencils and scissors onto a black paper. The object of the assignment is to draw the space AROUND the pencils and scissors... NOT the pencils and scissors!

Once you get good at seeing negative space, you can combine it with regular drawing techniques to make really accurate drawings!

It takes a bit of a mental shift to see the space around things as something you can actually focus on as shapes to draw; but once you make that shift, it is really fun to do!