This week we learned about negative space by drawing a cool black&white T-Rex! Grrrrrr! Negative space is a technique in which you use the spaces between and around elements in a drawing as part of the drawing. Often negative space is used in clever or tricky ways. One of the most well-known examples of negative space is this image of a vase/two faces:
Since negative space was a new concept for our young artists, we started simple and just drew a box around the T-Rex, and played with black and white contrast. The T-Rex itself was also a complicated image to draw, so we warmed up by drawing the outline of the T-Rex and then moved on to the real drawing.
Let’s be honest: black and white aren’t the most fun colors, especially for younger children. So I brought along some colored markers as well and let them use multiple colors. The drawings still turned out great! And a surprising number of kids still went with the black&white.
Some dinosaurs ended up with clothes, hats, bows…the kids’ imaginations were free to roam!
