Monday 20 June 2011

Negative space

Now this was a real challenge to me but shouldn't have been. I should explain. As a software engineer, I have to think in a binary world of true and false, hence the background for my blog. Often I have to think in a logically negative way where true is false and false is true. So, using a black pad and a white gel pen (thank you to Lisa Le Quelenec for inspiring me to get one), I attempted to sketch people and buildings in a totally different way, using a negative pencil on negative paper, white on black, a sort of latter day scraper board. Confusing to say the very least :)

Buildings were reasonably straightforward but people, especially faces were more of a challenge. This is just a single page of quick sketches but nethertheless  I thought it was an interesting 'seeing' exercise. I also thought that it would be much easier with a more painterly media that can produce variable tones such as white pastel or coloured pencil rather than a linear media such as pen. All part of the journey :)


8 comments:

  1. Wow!
    What a great exercise for stretching your mind and eye. You did a great job, Michael - it can't have been easy!

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  2. Thanks Pat and yes, you're right, it was a bit of a mind-stretching exercise! I was hesitant about posting this but glad I did now :)

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  3. Looks like a difficult exercise you did! I can understand it is a good seeing exercise! I'm glad you posted it, thanks!

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  4. Dankje Judy. I thought it was a bit unusual so I'm glad you liked it:)

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  5. What a fascinating way to sketch! I like it - it's very effective and would definitely like to try it some time - I have a white pen. I also like using black and white pen on toned paper. :0)

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  6. Thank you, Sandra. I like using mid toned paper with sanguine and white - very effective for portraits, although not in my case LOL. Typing this on the phone at the moment, out dog walking) I will try to reply to your comment on sketchbooks and summerhouses when I get back to a decent sized keyboard :)

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  7. Hi Michael, you've been busy. I've been off line for a few days and I'm just catching up on your blog. I like what you've done with the gel pen, thank you for the link :o)

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  8. Hi Lisa and thank you. Nice to see you back online again. I have been busy over the last week or so - I hope you get the chance to view some of my posts :)

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