On Negative Spaces

I’m really bad at drawing. 

My brother on the other hand, he’s very good at it. 

Since I got to spend some time with him, I asked him for advice. I showed him how I was going about drawing a face. He stopped me. “You’re doing it all wrong”, he said, “you need to think about negative spaces”. 

Negative space is the space between and around your main subject. 

When you’re a zero in drawing like me, your first instinct is to follow the lines of the object you want to draw. But that’s wrong. If you do that, your drawing will look flat and boring at best. You must focus your attention on the shapes between and around your subject. 

In other words, in order to draw something, you must focus on nothing.  

Why is this technique so efficient? Let’s say you’re drawing a hand. Your brain has a preconceived notion of what fingers, nails and knuckles look like. This will lead you to draw based on an image that’s in your mind instead of the hand in front of you. 

This is where it gets interesting. 

Switching to drawing negative spaces is effectively the equivalent of brain hacking. You’re shutting down your “logical” brain by focusing it on abstract shapes that it doesn’t recognize and turning on your “observational” brain. 

Negative spaces are a lens that allows us to “see” the world instead of interpreting it through abstract concepts.  

(Left) I focused on the chair (Right) I focused on the spaces between the chair

But there’s more to it than just a drawing technique. 

It is a mode of thinking that invites us to consider the importance of empty spaces.

Take this passage from the Tao Te Ching: 

A jar is formed from clay, but its usefulness lie in the empty center. A room is made from four walls, but its usefulness lie in the space between. Matter is necessary to give form but the value of reality lies in its immateriality.

The more I read about negative spaces, the more I realized it is a lens that can be applied well beyond the domain of art. 

When you speak, mark a pause to give resonance to your words. 

When you go about your day, make space for stillness to give sense to your actions. 

When you write, leave room. 

Let the mind wander.

Freely.