The first piece in my eyes, is of water drops, or waves, but it's open to interpretation. On the left side the water is black, and on the right it is white. This causes your eyes to switch back and forth from one side to the next."The viewers eye can no longer distinguish which shapes are positive and which are negative" (Lauer 147). Since there is no single focus point in this drawing, the audience becomes confused. A famous example of this is the illusion where you see a vase, or two faces. Your eyes will see either the vase, or the faces first, but as you continue to look, you start to see both. Whichever one you are looking directly at is the positive space.
The second piece I drew is of two panda bears. In this drawing you can clearly see which is positive space and which is negative. The black background is the negative space, and the white shapes where your eyes focus are the positive shapes. "They also have what we call a 'pasted-on' look, since there is little back- and- forth visual movement" (Lauer 144). The black background may be easy to be overlooked, but it is a very important part of this piece. "It is important to remember that both elements have been thoughtfully designed and planned by the artist"(Lauer 142). Without it, the panda shapes would not have stood out as greatly and would be easy to overlook.
Learning about this technique, and getting to try it out was very interesting. Before I colored in the black, I didn't think it was going to look good, or turn out right. The drawings looked plain and uninteresting, but using positive and negative space really brought them to life.
In the first drawing, which side did you see first?
Which technique did you like more, and why?
Lauer, David A. Design Basics. third ed., Thomson Learning, 1990.
Bryanna, I loved the pieces that you drew. especially the 1st one. In the 1st drawing, my eyes immediately went to the black water droplets but then i looked at the white section and also saw water droplets. the 2nd picture you drew was also great. i liked how you explained in your blog about the negative and positive spaces and gave examples, which helped me understand the concept better. the technique i like better was the one you used in the 1st drawing because I like how you can see an object, in whichever way you look at it. Now knowing these new techniques, would you ever consider drawing other pieces like this?
ReplyDeleteThank you Keerat, your feedback is very helpful! I do think I might try drawing something with this technique in the future because I am really happy with the results, and I think its really interesting.
DeleteBryanna, I absolutely LOVE these drawings! They are so cute! In the first drawing, I actually saw and focused on the white droplets as the positive shape first. However, I was also able to look at the black and see that as the positive shape. I'm glad you included a thorough explanation of the difference between positive and negative, it really helped me understand what you were trying to show. In the second picture, I can only see the white spots as positive, and I think this is a really great example. Knowing that there are other examples of this technique all around us in life, how will learning about it affect how you see the world?
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Bethany! Knowing this technique may affect how I see the world because it may help me look deeper into things, since I know there are multiple ways to interpret something. I might also be able to spot certain things easier than I would have before.
DeleteBryanna, I really loved the positive and negative drawings! I noticed the black side first. I like the first technique more because as you said it causes the viewer to think and actually really focus on the picture to see both sides. Do you think this positive and negative technique will make you focus more on other pieces of art and see the 'meaning' behind the piece?
ReplyDeleteThanks Andeep! To answer your question, yes with the idea of positive and negative space in mind, I would probably try to look at other art pieces with a different perspective, and I will try to see if there are other images that aren't spotted at first glance.
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