Using Negative Space to Believe What You See ( & Scaling Up)
By Paula Briggs
At the AccessArt Art Club for ages 7, 8 and 9, we followed on from our exploration of perspective through drawing Lego with a “Believing What You See” Challenge! When we draw, we often assume we know what something looks like. When we really look at an object it’s often hard to really believe in the shapes we see (should that leg really be so high up and small??), and our mind often tries to trick us into drawing what we think it SHOULD look like.
In this exercise, children used their knowledge of negative and positive spaces, and the grid method, to create scaled up drawings of dog silhouettes. The shapes in the silhouettes are often “strange” or “unlikely” and yet the end result to the eye says “dog”. Through this exercises children learnt to trust what they see, and to appreciate the relationship of “part” to “whole”.
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Sheila, AccessArt
January 29, 2015 @ 3:35 pm
Amazing! Did you do all of that in an hour long session? What accomplished results!
Sheila, AccessArt
January 29, 2015 @ 3:36 pm
I’m particularly impressed with how comfortable the children seemed to be drawing big – often a real challenge for little ones?
Hannah C
September 10, 2023 @ 10:27 am
Love this! How big are your small square templates?
Rachel
September 11, 2023 @ 11:17 am
Hi Hannah, the small square templates used for the first part of this activity are used on A4 paper. Most children covered their images in a grid 3 x 4 squares so you can make the templates somewhere between 6cm and 7cm across. It doesn’t have to be too exact – you just want enough squares drawn over the page to enable the children to learn the principles of the grid method. I hope this helps!
Hannah C
October 10, 2023 @ 8:07 pm
Thank you that does help! How big is the ‘large card’?
Paula
October 11, 2023 @ 9:39 am
Hi the size is up to you – basically just remember that if say your small squares are 5 cm across, and your large squares are 20 cm across, then the finished drawing will be fours times as big. So it depends really on how big sheets of card you wnat to work on for your final piece…