Drawing Lessons: Negative Drawing with Brian Duey

Drawing Lessons: Negative Drawing

When negative drawing, you shouldn’t focus on the shape of the object itself, you should focus on the shape of the space around the object. When all the space around the object is shaded, the object will be defined by the positive, undrawn form. In the image with the black and white dots, there are two circles. The white circle is formed by the black around it. The white circle was drawn negatively. The black circle was drawn positively because it’s defining itself. Think of negative drawing as drawing white on black. I use negative drawing quite often when I am picking out fly away hairs with an eraser. The image of the guitar player might look familiar to you. It’s the small Neil Young drawing from my “Mr. Soul” portrait. Most of this drawing was done negatively because it is defined by the shading around it. The guitar, his face, and hands were all drawn negatively. They were all left white. Click Here to check out Brian Duey’s ‘Featured Artist’ page.

If you want to see more drawing lessons, including more drawing lessons from Brian Duey, check out the “Drawing Lessons” section of Studio 602.