Space

For this unit, we focused a lot on negative space and different ways to use space. Negative space is the area around or between an object/objects. For the zen tangle, we had to create a pattern and make the lines denser and denser. The left of my zentangle was "lighter" and took up less space. The right side was "denser" and took up a lot of space to the point where the square almost looked black. For the negative space leaf piece that we did, we had to make a larger scale of some leaves that we arranged and color in the negative space how we wanted. For the negative space hand drawing, we had to have our hand in any position we wanted. We had to draw the outline of our hand focusing on making the negative space show and not the positive (no details). These projects relate to my life because sometimes when things get complicated you need to not be so focused on the tiny details and just focus on the bigger picture similar to how we used the negative space.

For my zentangle we used a 10x2 in. section of a piece of paper which I used a ruler and HB pencil to draw the 10x2 square. Afterward, we used the ruler again to then divide the square into 10 equal sections. I then used the HB again to draw my designs and a pen to go over the pencil. I erased the pencil lines after going over them with a pen completing my zentangle. For my negative space leaf drawing, I used an HB pencil to draw the leaves and the negative space. I then used black paint to color in the leaves and purple watercolor paint for the negative space. I did all of this on a 9x12 in piece of watercolor paper. For my negative space hand drawing, I used an HB pencil to draw my hand (not in detail). I also used a 12x9 in piece of paper to draw my hand on.

For my zentangle I had to plan ahead how dense the lines should be in each on the sections. I didn't want some of the boxes to look exactly the same so I had to find other ways of making the lines to that it was still clear that they were lines and not just a black blob. Towards the denser squares, it was harder to make them different looking especially because the pens can smudge. If I were to do this project again my next steps could be using a different more fine point type pen to go over the lines with. This would most likely make my project look neater and more put together. For my negative space hand drawing, I started by finding a good position to put my hand in then thought about how I was going to draw it. I thought about how I would draw it without including the positive space and focusing on the negative space. This was hard however because of the difficult position I decided to but my hand in. I needed to draw negative spaces towards the middle of my hand drawing because I had made my fingers overlap. To do this successfully, I had to draw the positive space in some areas and then erase it to make sure my spacing of the negative space was correct. If I were to do this project again I would try and get the spacing right of my negative space in the middle of my hand drawing without drawing the positive space. Lastly, for my negative space leaf piece, we had to experiment with a few different techniques to get to our final product. For example, we started by going outside and gathering some leaves that we found on the ground. We then took the leaves and arranged them on a piece of paper with a border on it. After that, we took a thin plastic type rectangle, placed it on top of the leaves, and traced the leaves with a black marker focusing on just the negative space. We proceeded to make a larger scale of the traced picture which we then turned into our final copies. I colored the leaves in black and the area around it purple to complete my project. If I were to do this project again, I would make sure that I pay closer attention to the shapes of the leaves and their placement. I would also try to add more details into the negative space such as patterns and a variety of colors.