Negative Painting

Andy Braitman demonstrates how to paint negatively by using the background to shape the foreground objects.

1. Always remember that you don’t need to constantly look at your subject (in this case flowers), you should just use the subject as an excuse to make a painting!

2. To work negatively you will be working the background and the foreground at the same time.

a. Example 1: if you want to see a light shape in the foreground, put a dark shape down first and find a light (stem in this case) on top of it for it to show up.

b. Example 2: Instead of fighting to paint a perfect leaf on top of the background, Andy takes some of his background grey color and uses it to negatively shape the paint stroke that will become a leaf.

3. Remember, there is no such thing as a background!