Simple watercolor exercise in negative painting to help you better understand how to reserve your whites and paint them negatively in your paintings.
An easy way to start this kind of negative painting is by painting one large continuous wash and leaving the white shapes unpainted. It’s very simple and foolproof. Since I have made several painting videos demonstrating that technique I’m going to approach this painting in a different manner.
The technique I’m demonstrating today could be titled “direct painting”. In this approach I paint my shapes pretty much in their final state. There is minimal layering.
But the most important and interesting thing about this process is my thinking process. What and how am I thinking during the painting?
I would liken my thinking process to that of a sculptor. Sculptors work with a piece of granite, marble, wood, etc. I see my sparkling white piece of paper as that piece of raw material – block of wood or marble. My idea is to carve away, slowly and carefully, piece by piece, all that doesn’t belong. If a sculptor wants to create a nose, he must think in terms of negative space – and thus he carves out everything except the nose. I do the same here, I think about what kind of white shape I want to keep and paint over everything except this white shape.
This kind of negative painting sharpens your perception and thinking. Try this, it’s a very satisfying and rewarding way to go about creating a painting.
