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 . . . 

LESSON II - Part 2: Values 1st/ Color 2nd -- Painting a Red Apple

Here's one approach to a painting, for you to try with a red apple:

1)  Draw and paint a value painting first;

then,

2)  Paint transparent color glazes on top of the value painting.

This way, you get the 3-dimensional form first, without having to worry about the color.

Start with a simple drawing of an apple, and also indicate a cast shadow, a highlight, and the line for a tabletop . . . 

Mix a red-violet wash, using Quinacridone Magenta and French Ultramarine (or something similar).  Using that mixture, paint the apple and the tabletop, leaving the highlight and the top 1/2 of the background white . . . (this does not have to be an even wash, and you can wet the area first, to get a more uneven wash, like I did).

After that is dry, using the same mixture, paint the cast shadow and parts of the apple . . . 

Now, mix up a darker purple, and paint just a few parts of the apple, and part of the cast shadow, softening the edges with a damp brush. . . 

You now have a 3-dimensional form that should resemble an apple . . . but, it's begging for some color!

Clean the purple off your palette, and prep three warm colors -- a yellow, a warm red (Windsor Red or Cadmium Red), and a cool red (like Permanent Alizarin Crimson) . . . 

Now, do a mingling of these colors on your apple, right on top of the value painting.  Start painting the yellow on the parts of your apple that are the lightest value, then switch to the warm red, then finish with the cool red.  You can wet the apple first, and then add the colors, if that is easier.

You can see, above, how I brought some of the red into the cast shadow, for reflected light.

When this is dry, you may want to glaze over the apple again with a red wash, since red tends to lose its brightness somewhat, as it dries . . . 

I'm sad that I covered up all the nice warm yellow in the middle.  So, if you can keep from doing the same thing, you will probably like it better.

To finish your apple, mix a dark purple again, and hit just a few spots on the apple and stem, as well as a small sliver (not an outline, just a small dark shape), under the apple.  Be careful that your cast shadow isn't a solid dark color; otherwise, it will look like a hole that your apple is about to fall into. . . 

LESSON II - Part 1: Painting Values with Layered Washes

In this simple project, we will be LAYERING gray washes to build up VALUES, from light to dark.  We will also learn how to achieve ATMOSPHERIC PERSPECTIVE, through these value changes . . .

Atmospheric perspective refers to the effect the atmosphere has on the appearance of objects (in this case, mountains), as they are viewed from a distance.  This effect tends to make the mountains, or hills, take on a lighter and lighter value as their distance increases.

With watercolor, we can achieve this effect by layering washes, in order to build up to the dark values gradually.

Start out by drawing two rectangles (freehand) on your watercolor paper.  The skinny rectangle down the right-hand side of the paper will become a value scale . . . 

Now, mix a GRAY, using French Ultramarine and Burnt Sienna.  I like to mix my grays instead of using a gray from a tube, because the result is much more interesting.  Once you have the gray color you like, add enough water to it to make a very light version of it.  Make sure you have enough to cover the entire big rectangle and most of the skinny one. . .

With this light gray wash, paint all of the skinny rectangle, except for the top square . . . 

Before proceeding, make sure you have a tissue handy.  No, I'm not going to make you cry -- we're going to create clouds with it.

Now, paint the entire big rectangle with this light wash.  When painting a wash onto dry paper, it's helpful to have your paper/board at a slight tilt.

While this is still wet, lay your board flat, take a piece of the tissue, and roll it across the top of the paper . . . you can do this more than once . . . 

Let this wash dry completely . . . 

Now, draw the furthest mountain ridge with pencil.  Using the same wash mixture, first paint the value scale, starting with the 3rd box from the top -- all the way to the bottom.  Next, paint this light gray wash, from the pencil line (the mountain ridge) down -- to the bottom of the rectangle.  Remember to have your board tilted, so that gravity helps you keep a "bead" at the bottom of your wash.  Each time you pick up more paint on your brush and come back to the paper, you will only touch this bead of paint, while you work your way down to the bottom.  Don't go back in to what you've already painted. 

Let this layer dry completely.  If necessary, you can use a hair dryer after each layer. . . . 

At this point, you'll need to mix some more gray, using the same two colors.  You can make this wash a little darker -- a medium value gray.  With this mixture, paint the value scale, starting with the 4th box down, and paint all the way to the bottom.  Then, draw another pencil line, depicting a closer mountain range.  Paint this wash from the pencil line down to the bottom of the paper . . . 

Now, make your wash stronger by adding more pigment.  Add another pencil line, for tree-lined hills.  No details -- just indicate by the edge that these are trees.  Then, paint the bottom two squares of the value scale with this stronger wash, and then paint from the pencil line down to the bottom of the paper.  If, after painting this, you feel that you haven't made the wash a dark enough value -- dry your paper with a hair dryer, and paint it again with the same wash. . . 

Add enough pigment to your wash to make your darkest dark -- almost black.  Paint your last box black.  Draw the top of a hill in the foreground, and paint it this black. . . 

 . . . and you're finished!  You can see how we have succeeded, through the use of a full range of values -- from light to dark -- to get a sense of depth in our painting.

LESSON II: VALUES

In this lesson, we'll be learning about and practicing painting VALUES.


VALUE is a design element that is much underestimated.  Value refers to the lightness or darkness of a color.  In most paintings or drawings, a minimum of three values are used -- light, medium, and dark.

VALUE is also the main means of creating dimension on a flat piece of paper.  Value changes establish an object's form and can also suggest the direction of light in a painting.



This lesson will be divided into 4 parts:


1.  Mini-Workshop -- Painting Values with Layered Washes

2.  Mini-Workshop -- Value First/ Colors 2nd -- Painting a Red Apple

3.  Sketchbook Assignment --    Do a few, or all . . . 

4.  Painting Challenge --

Let's get started . . hopefully, this lesson will be of VALUE to you!