Hello Steemers!!
Welcome to the first week of ‘Art School’.
The doors have opened and everyone is welcome!
But first let me tell you a little bit more about this initiative!
In the Steemit Art School we will follow a weekly schedule.
We will tackle 1 or more subjects per week which will include a few ‘Homework’ exercises.
-You can join in on ANY week!
-You can choose to skip a lesson if you aren’t able to do any homework that week and in the future you will be able to pick up on any older lesson.
-You can choose to do the homework any way you want ( in terms of medium ) digital/sketchbook/painting.. whatever!
TAG YOUR WORK WITH 'ARTSCHOOL' SO WE CAN FIND IT!
This week we will start with NEGATIVE SPACE! One of the most important skills to train when becoming a better artist.. It will help you in ways you aren’t even understanding yet!
Here is a quick video on DTUBE about Negative Space – https://steemit.com/dtube/@beekart/n2e6s7to
But to try and explain…What is negative space:
Negative space is all of the space surrounding a certain subject/object. The best way to show this is through a picture.
All the WHITE in this image is negative space.. The tree is reduced to a shape.. 'the shape of a tree' since we are always eager to see things in shapes.. it is how our mind works. But if try to overcome that urge we see just a shape.
If we would want to replicate this image we can approach it in 2 ways..
Either we paint the black parts where 'Tree' is.. OR we outline the shape of where the tree ISNT .. you follow? .. You have the same result but 2 very different ways of looking at the image.
This concept is for a lot of people very hard to grasp and especially execute when doing a study.
But what do you gain from knowing / practicing this..
You train you mind to see things in a 3d space.. reduce it to a 2d shape and see it in relation to other shapes.
Which mean you are simplifying what you see in front of you and it allows you to become more accurate as you are focussing on 1 shape at the time.
It will help you get better at spotting values as you try to look for shapes in the same value range.. bundle them together and make them fit in relation to the other shapes..
What ends up happening is almost a categorization of shapes building a whole.. whatever that eventually is.. a face.. and environment or a still life study.. it doesn't matter. Eventually you can do this just by looking at what you trying to create/paint.
That is the skill you are training, it eventually will be unconsciously with you as you try to paint that portrait or find the right composition for that landscape painting you are making.
But it doesn't end there.. Because you look at shapes in relation to other shapes you also start to notice when things aren't quite right.. when proportions are off or when a form/shape doesn't seem to hold up to what it should be in your mind. ( This sounds super abstract I KNOW!) This is especially true when looking at anatomy studies or character drawings/designs.
To practice this you can try drawing figure drawings in a negative space
As you can see you don't actually need any of the 'information' of the figure it self to make out the pose.
Our brain is trained in shapes and silhouettes we can recognize almost anything instantly and this becomes even easier when we see something in relation to its environment.
HOMEWORK FOR WEEK 1 -
DRAW THE FOLLOWING IMAGE IN NEGATIVE SPACE ( meaning you just draw where the object isn't.. )
Do ATLEAST 2 of these 'Blind Contours'
( you can find more on www.posemaniacs.com / or google search 'posemaniacs' )
Draw your hand from life in negative space in atleast 3 different poses! (see video for example.)
TAG YOUR WORK WITH 'ARTSCHOOL' SO WE CAN FIND IT!
I know it is a bit different than most 'contest' posts.. but it isn't a contest!
But if you do your best we will reward you by upvoting and the best of the class get a reward in 'SBD/STEEM'!
Thank you! Good luck!
Cheers!
Rogier / 
