Master the basics of negative painting in watercolor – negative painting is the bread and butter of any watercolor painter. Since we are working from light to dark we constantly thinking and working in negative space. In this tutorial I’ll show you how I paint a watercolor study that demonstrates the principles of negative painting.
What is negative space?
The concept of negative space is extremely important for any painter and especially one working in watercolor. But what is negative space?
Negative space is the space around an object. Amateurs or people without art education think of negative space as “nothingness”, but as artists we know just how real it is.
But what is it? Imagine scissors. Look at the handle where you put your fingers. The opening for your fingers is negative space. Imagine a capital letter D. The space inside the letter is a negative space. The letter D itself is a positive shape, the space inside is the negative space. If you paint a square around the letter D, the space around the letter would become negative space too.
Master the basics of negative painting in watercolor
In this video you can see how I work with the concept of negative space. I work with wet on dry throughout the painting, which simply means that I dry the paper completely before approaching it with a new layer.
I build structure of the painting through building up tonal value. I use darker and darker value with each layer.
Notice that each layer’s purpose is to leave behind a negative shape or shapes. If you can shift your perspective and notice these spaces that are left behind, you’ll master the art of negative painting.
But why is negative painting so important? Negative painting leads to better, higher quality shapes, resulting in more refined, stronger, better paintings.
