{"id":257,"date":"2013-10-24T16:08:33","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T21:08:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hagermanartblog.com\/?p=257"},"modified":"2025-06-24T12:52:29","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T17:52:29","slug":"negative-shape-painting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hagermanart.com\/blog\/negative-shape-painting\/","title":{"rendered":"Negative Shape Painting"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Often when you think of something being negative, it\u2019s not a good thing. However, in painting it is when it refers to negative shape painting. This was the subject of an art demo that I did for the Palette Club in Midland, TX.<\/p>\n<p>Exactly what is a negative shape or space? It\u2019s the space between and around a subject and not the subject itself. In simplistic terms it\u2019s the silhouette of an object.<\/p>\n<p>To illustrate the concept I used a black gessoed canvas and sculpted out the silhouette of a tree by painting the inner and outer unoccupied spaces. I did not paint tree limbs, but gave the impression of limbs by painting the spaces in and around them as the following photos illustrate. Thank you to G. Hutson for taking the photographs at the demo.<\/p>\n<p>I started by painting the outer spaces leaving what appears to be a solid black silhouette of a tree.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Negative Shape painting demo by William Hagerman\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hagermanart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/hagerman_demo_negativespace1.jpg?resize=350%2C467\" alt=\"William Hagerman negative shape painting demo\" width=\"350\" height=\"467\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Next I move into the interior negative shapes.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Negative Shape painting demo by William Hagerman\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hagermanart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/hagerman_demo_negativespace3.jpg?resize=350%2C467\" alt=\"William Hagerman negative shape painting demo\" width=\"350\" height=\"467\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I continue with the interior and exterior negative shape painting, chiseling out and refining the shapes until I&#8217;m satisfied with the result.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Negative Shape painting demo by William Hagerman\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hagermanart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/hagerman_demo_negativespace4.jpg?resize=350%2C467\" alt=\"William Hagerman negative shape painting demo\" width=\"350\" height=\"467\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I employ this technique of negative shape painting quite often, especially with trees.<br \/>\nBelow is a detail section from my painting titled: &#8220;An Open Door.&#8221; All the &#8220;sky holes&#8221; within the tree were painted using this method of negative shape painting.The pluses of this technique is that it strengthens your visual perceptions and enhances your painting for if the negative shapes are interesting, likely your subject will also be just as interesting. Practice this in your own painting and see how much your work will improve! To see the full image of &#8220;An Open Door&#8221;, check out the following <a href=\"https:\/\/hagermanart.com\/blog\/old-stone-farmhouse-story\/\">post.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Detail of an Open Door showing negative shape painting within a tree by William Hagerman copyright 2013\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hagermanart.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/open_door_detail_tree.jpg?resize=400%2C220\" alt=\"Detail section of an oil painting by William Hagerman copyright 2013\" width=\"400\" height=\"220\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Often when you think of something being negative, it\u2019s not a good thing. However, in painting it is when it refers to negative shape painting. This was the subject of an art demo that I did for the Palette Club in Midland, TX. Exactly what is a negative shape or space? It\u2019s the space between [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,6],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-instruction","category-art-tips","tag-art-tips-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Negative Shape Painting - Hagerman Art Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How negative shape painting is a positive thing. 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