Art lesson 1/20

1. Positive and Negative
Space

2. Artists talk about space in two different
ways:
1.Positive Space
2.Negative Space
Can you think of what the definitions for
positive and negative space might be?

3. Positive Space
• Positive space is the space that an object
occupies.
• On the left hand side picture, the positive space
is the area that the bottles take up.
• On the right hand side picture, the positive
space is shown as the black objects.

4. Negative Space
• Negative space is opposite of positive.
• Negative space is the space around an object.
• On the left hand side picture, the negative space
is the white area around the bottles.
• On the right hand side picture, the negative
space is shown as the black area surrounding
the bottle.

5. Does the image show positive or
Negative space??

6. Artists often use positive space and negative
space to manipulate an object.
For instance, an artist might deliberately
leave a cutout area white, which would be a
negative space. Then, they might add some
kind of pattern in that space to trick the
viewer’s eyes.

8. Pattern making in doodles
• Have you ever drawn a doodle in class?
• Artists often use doodles in all sorts of
different artworks.
• Why do you think artists think that doodles
are so important.

9. Take a look at these artists’
doodles

10. Doodles often use patterns. Take a
look at these pattern doodles.