Negative Space, Notan and Abington Art Center

Elements of Art are always handy to pull out when your mind and page are blank. A couple of Saturdays ago, I taught a Negative Space class at Abington Art Center and am sharing here some of what we did.

Notan is a Japanese concept of creating beautifully balanced black and white compositions.

Notan (go here for images) is a great exercise for exploring positive and negative space.

Here's a video tutorial and blogpost from a while back on Notan.

In this workshop, we used masking stencils to set up the negative space. Here is one example using a StencilGirl stencil with birch trees. We used cosmetic sponges to daub acrylic paint onto stencils and set up the initial contrast of dark and light. After the original dark/light composition was set, students worked further into the dark areas to make the positive (in this case, birch trees) POP!

My students were surprised to see me without watercolors! I hadn't expected that :)

Andy flipped things around and used these Joggles stencils instead of the masks that are included with the stencils. He used Gelatos for the color. Take a look and you'll begin to see the white shapes. It's kind of a Jedi mind trick to see these negative shapes as positive shapes. Andy's may be a little difficult to pick up on. I enjoyed the stretch!

We talked about the book, Notan, available here on Amazon.

Another concept we talked about was to take a photo and change it into gray scale or black and white. This could be a really fun way to practice Notan or Negative Space painting. You could also turn the photo into a "negative" (at least I think you can?). Print the photo out and work right on top of it.

The painter Jean-Michel Basquiat came up, just coincidentally and having nothing to do with Negative Space painting. Go here for images and go here to Amazon for a stunning movie about this American painter.

Sorry this is late! I over-promised. Whoops!

Here are some affiliate links for you. I get a commission on sales with no cost to you. If you click on the link, it will take you to the page and item. I included the detail scissors from Joggles (at the end of this list). The Joggles mask/stencils have a tiny "bridge" of plastic holding the mask in place and the bridges need to be clipped. These detail scissors are fantastic for that. They are out of stock at Joggles (3/9/18) but you can click on Notify Me. Amazon carries them too, here.