In working with children in trying to teach them some rudimentary drawing or-pre-drawing activities, you may think that negative space is too difficult for little kids to grasp.
For those of you who are not sure what negative space is I will discuss it a bit.
When you see a tree with its branches splayed out across a blue sky the branches, the leaves, and the tree trunk is the positive space and that is the way most of us attempt to draw. (and why so many of us fail because we think the only way to draw is by drawing the positive space)
Betty Edwards the author of Drawing on The Right Side of the Brain spends lots of time talking about negative space. The negative space is what you see between those branches. The problem is we are not used to seeing that way and we need to spend a good deal of time looking at the object until the negative spaces jump into focus as shapes themselves.
In her book Ms. Edwards discusses the phenomenon of how when adults learn to SEE negative space and draw a picture concentrating on those shapes that they see as negative space then their drawing skills take a monumental leap.
In researching for this drawing series I came cross a really simple activity in one of Mary Ann F. Kohl’s wonderful books on art for children, to to help young children understand what negative space is
This activity may make some children a bit queasy as they may not like painting on a whole paper with holes, but it will start teaching even young children the concept of negative space.
Basically all that you do is take a piece of newsprint or any paper that your child was going to paint on. Either you or the child depending on their age) can cut a hole or any shape in the paper and have them paint on the paper USING the hole as part of the picture.
This does take a bit of imagination and creativity and if you use the words negative space when discussing their picture, they will really start to understand it as part of the painting or drawing process.
This activity should not be done until the children have had enough time painting on whole sheets of paper before painting on a paper with a hole.
This is really just an initial first experience with negative space and we will be doing more activities with it in the future.
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