LESSON III - Part 3: Negative Painting Trees

In this project, we will be painting the negative shapes, instead of the trees themselves.  With each step, you will see the trees emerge, further and further back in space.  This is a great way to get a feeling of depth in your landscapes.

The first step is to choose three colors (a triad).  I chose Quinacridone Gold, Quinacridone Rose, and Cobalt Turquoise, but you could use any yellow, red, and blue.  Do a wet-in-wet mingling of those three colors on your paper . . . 

When there is a wet sheen on your paper, sprinkle on some salt . . . 

After the paper is totally dry, brush off all the salt . . . 

Now, do a simple drawing -- a foreground line, a tree with a few branches, and a line near the top of your paper, indicating leaves -- very stylized . . . 

You're now going to paint the negative shapes you've created.  For this, you will use the Rose and the Turquoise, but not the Gold.  Replace the Gold with Burnt Sienna or Quinacridone Burnt Orange.  With these 3 colors, do wet-in-wet mingling within each NEGATIVE SHAPE -- and sprinkle these shapes with salt . . . 

When this is totally dry, brush off the salt, and draw -- another ground line, 2 trees with some branches, and another leaf line.  Make sure the ground line is above the first ground line and the leaf line is below the first leaf line.  Also, make the tree trunks slightly narrower than the first tree . . . 

For these negative shapes, omit the Rose, and just use the Burnt Sienna (or Burnt Orange) and the Turquoise (Blue).  Once again, keep this painting very transparent; but, this time, do not use the salt . . . 

After this is dry, draw again -- another ground line, a few more trees, and another leaf line.  This time, omit the Burnt Sienna, and add a cool color to the Turquoise.  I painted these negative shapes with the Cobalt Turquoise and Undersea Green, but you could add a transparent blue to the Turquoise, like a Phthalo Blue . . . 

After allowing it to dry, draw a sloping ground line, a few more trees, and another leaf line . . . 

Now, paint the last of your negative shapes.  For this distant space, I omitted the Turquoise, and just used the Undersea Green . . . 

And, voila'!  You have a forest!

LESSON III - Part 2: Negative Painting a Radial Design

For this fun negative painting project, you can look at a multi-petaled flower, if you like (mums, dahlias, zinnias, daisies) -- just to get the shape of the individual petals.  But then, put away any references, so you don't get too hung up on making your drawing/painting look exactly like any particular flower.

To begin this painting, wet your paper, and then paint the entire area with a very light wash.  I started with Quinacridone Gold.  Make sure it is very pale for this first wash . . . 

After your paper is completely dry, draw a tiny circle, a little off center.  Now, draw an odd number of petals, radiating out from the little circle . . . 

Using the same color you used for your underpainting, in this case, Quinacridone Gold, mix up a big batch of it.  You will be painting wet-on-dry, so you'll need plenty of paint/water to cover all the negative space . . . (this should be just a little less pale than the first wash).  If it's not pale enough, add more water.

To paint your wash over the negative space, use two brushes.  Start with a small round brush, so you can easily paint around the petal shapes . . . 

Once you have successfully painted around the petals, switch to a larger brush . . . 

Keep painting this wash, until you've covered all the negative space . . . 

After the paper is totally dry, draw some more petals -- varying the shapes somewhat, as well as the spaces between the petals . . . 

Using this same wash, with additional water and more Gold pigment added, paint the negative space -- wet on dry.  Don't paint any of the petals that you've drawn.  And, remember to use your small brush to paint around the petals, and to switch to your bigger brush to paint the rest of the negative space.

After this dries, draw more petals, remembering to vary the shape and the length of each petal, as well as the spaces between the petals.  Let some petals touch, to form interesting little negative shapes . . . 

Then, paint the negative space again.  This time, add a little Quinacridone Burnt Orange, or Burnt Sienna, to your Gold Wash.  No need to go too dark, too fast.  And, don't forget to paint those little negative shapes . . . 

When that wash is dry, draw more petals . . . 

Paint the negative space, wet on dry, with a wash that is mostly Quinacridone Burnt Orange, or Burnt Sienna, now . . . 

Once again, let that layer dry completely, and then draw some more petals . . . 

And for this layer, use a wash of just Quinacridone Burnt Orange, or Burnt Sienna . . . 

Draw some more petals, taking some of them off the edge of the paper.  To your Burnt Sienna mixture, add some Quinacridone Magenta, and paint the negative shapes . . . 

Add more petals, and another layer of Quin Burnt Orange/ Quin Magenta mixture to the negative space 

You can keep adding more petals and more layers of washes, as long as you want -- until you run out of paper . . . 

Try this same negative painting approach, using blues or roses, and differently-shaped petals.  You could also draw the petals gradually bigger and wider for each layer.

LESSON III - Part 1: Sketchbook Assignment - Negative Space

Paying attention to the negative space is as important to the overall success of your compositions as the subjects.  Our job is to turn that negative space into interesting shapes.



For these drawing exercises, you'll need your sketchbook, a pen or pencil, and conte crayon or charcoal.  (Or, try using all of these.)

For a week, make drawings in your sketchbook, of negative shapes, from a variety of subjects -- chairs, a stool, an open ladder, a paned window at night, are just a few examples.

When you're drawing and painting, it's tempting to just look at the objects themselves, without thinking about the space around them.  This time, you will DRAW THE SPACES AROUND AND BETWEEN THE OBJECTS.  In fact, you are not going to draw the objects at all.  Concentrate solely on the negative shapes, and see what results . . . 

You'll need to look carefully, compare one thing with another, and draw what you see -- not as easy as it sounds!

It is helpful to check that the shapes are drawn correctly, if you fill them in with your pencil/pen/charcoal.  Draw a "frame" around it, too, so you have an edge to work with when drawing the outside negative shapes.  

Relate one shape to another.  You may find it hard at first to ignore the subjects; but, as you draw, they will begin to emerge like a ghostly cutout.  Leave them as a single abstract pattern.  Resist the temptation to develop them as recognizable objects.

These exercises will help you become more aware of the negative shapes, so you can capture the relationship between objects with greater accuracy.  See these negative areas as additional shapes -- not as wasted white background space on your paper.  

If the empty spaces are right, the whole body is alive, and the more such places there are, the less boring the whole thing becomes.  - Ch'ing master

LESSON III: NEGATIVE PAINTING

For every positive shape, there is negative space surrounding it.  In this 5-part NEGATIVE PAINTING lesson, we will be focusing on that surrounding space, and seeing the positive shapes emerge.



Part 1:  Sketchbook Assignment -- Negative Space

Part 2:  Mini-Workshop -- Negative Painting a Radial Design

Part 3:  Mini-Workshop -- Negative Painting Trees

Part 4:  Mini-Workshop -- Painting White Flowers with a Patterned Background

Part 5:  Painting Challenge

LESSON II - Part 4: Painting Challenge

For this challenge, choose one of the value studies that you did in your sketchbook, and develop it into a painting .  .   .

You'll be creating a new, separate painting for this (not like the apple, where you painted the glazes on top of the value painting).  

The color painting will also be larger than the value study.

Use the value painting as a plan, and see how you can translate that into a separate color painting.

Use your own references for this challenge.  The above examples are just here to show you how I developed my value sketches into paintings.

LESSON II - Part 3: Sketchbook Assignment - 10 Value Exercises to Try

In drawing and painting, the impression of form and light is conveyed by values.  Values are the many different shades, or tones, between white and black.

Try a few, or all, of these "values" exercises in your sketchbook.  I've included examples from my own sketchbooks . . .



1.  Do a contour drawing of a face/figure, in ink -- including some of the background shapes.  Mix up a gray wash, with either watercolor or ink, and paint in values, from very light to medium to dark.

2.  Draw some DRAPERY, or draped fabric.  Use charcoal, charcoal pencil, or a very soft drawing pencil (6B).  Try to have at least four values in your drawing -- lightest (the white of the paper), a light medium gray, a darker medium gray, and a black . . . 

3.  Bird's-Eye View -- Draw some fruit in a bowl, with pen and ink.  Add lines and cross-hatching to build up the values . . . 

4.  Draw some machinery, or a train, a bike, or a car -- in ink.  Then, mix up some ink washes -- 3 different strengths.  Just put a little India ink in a Dixie cup and add a little water.  Then, paint your values.  Leave the paper white in some places, for your lightest light.

5.  Set up a simple still life on a patterned surface.  Do a few small value sketches, rendering your values in different ways.  One, draw your sketch entirely in pencil.  Another, use pencil and ink -- the white of the paper for the lightest light, the pencil for the grays, and the ink for the black.

6.  Do a value painting of a face.  Draw the face lightly in pencil, from a photo or from life.  (If you're going to draw or paint kids from life, wait until they are sleeping -- they don't move, and they always look so sweet :)  Then, mix up a light gray on your palette (French Ultramarine mixed with Burnt Sienna makes a nice gray).  Use that mixture to paint your values, leaving the white of your paper for your lightest light . . . 

7.  Set up another still life -- this time, in your kitchen.  Do a simple pencil drawing.  Then, paint a monochromatic value painting, with Burnt Sienna washes.  Try to have 4 or 5 different values.

8.  In ink, draw a landscape with some trees, a building, and a figure.  Simplify this into two categories of shapes -- sunlit and shadow.  Just two values -- the white of the paper for all the shapes in the sunlight (plus the sky), and a middle value of cross-hatching for all the shapes in the shade.

9.  Do a monochromatic value study of an adobe or stucco building, part of a building, or church.  First, do a pencil drawing, and then paint the values (the lights and darks), with one color, like Burnt Sienna. Use watercolor, or colored pencils, and try to simplify it into 4 values -- 1) lightest value is the white of the paper, 2) light value, 3) medium value, and 4) darkest value.

10.  For the last exercise, draw a simple egg.  Not as simple as it should be.  For this drawing, use charcoal, charcoal pencil, or a soft pencil (6B).  I once had a drawing teacher who wanted us to draw a dozen eggs, and we could only use values -- we weren't allowed to draw any lines.  I'm not that hard-core . . .