Negative space drawing
Art & Design · Key Stage 2 · The School
The shape that is not the object
NEGATIVE SPACE is the empty space around and between an object, not the object itself. Every drawing has both. Most people only ever look at the object and never notice the shapes of the gaps around it.
Drawing the gaps instead
Try drawing a chair, but draw ONLY the shapes of the empty space between its legs and its back. Ignore the chair entirely while you work. Odd, unfamiliar shapes appear on the page. When you stop, a recognisable chair has appeared too, almost by accident.
Why this trick actually works
Your brain has a strong, fixed idea of what a chair "should" look like, and that idea gets in the way of drawing the real one in front of you. Negative space has no such fixed idea attached to it. Drawing it honestly is far easier than drawing the familiar object honestly.
Sit facing an ordinary chair. Find the triangular gap between two of its legs. Draw only that triangle, exactly the shape and size it really appears. Find the next gap, between the seat and the floor. Draw only that shape. Keep going, gap by gap, never once naming or thinking about "the chair" itself. After ten gaps, stop and look. A convincing chair has appeared on the page, built entirely from shapes that were never the chair at all.