Drawing will become easier.

You will be able to manoeuvre around complicated drawing concepts by employing this technique including things like perspective or foreshortening. Employing negative space supports you see the object in a different way and strangely flattens the page and tricks the brain to approach a drawing differently.

Your perception skills improve immensely.

Your brain will start to see objects in different ways. You will start to carve out shapes around your object that are just important as the object itself. As an artist we are all drawn to finding the easiest way in which to draw an object. Adding this technique to our arsenal and employing it regularly means how we view objects and convey them onto paper becomes easier.

Being “true” to your drawing.

Capturing negative space means that your drawing will look better and you will produce drawings that are composed well.  Think of negative space as a skeleton that underpins the rest of your drawing.  The double benefit in approaching drawing from this angle is that you also create interest around the object you are drawing itself.  The negative spaces in themselves become interesting. Getting your negative space right can also accentuate the 3D element of your drawing.

Watch the tutorial video: 

As you work make sure to consider:

1. Sketch in a Picture Plane Box

2. Draw a Profile Appropriate for your Sill Level

3. Use Sightlines

4. Use a Line of Symmetry

5. Draw Lightly (Hold your pencil in the middle or at the back)

6. Compare Space (measuring) 

7. When "shading" don't scribble, keep it controlled

8. Look at the Space and Shapes Between Things, Not Just the Edge Lines

The video tutorial below is not edited for time. You may start the video and follow along with each step, but when I begin shading you may scrub through to see how it evolves, or let it play as you shade.