Negative Space

Class this week with Danny Gregory was another adventure for me. My favorite part, as always, was when he shared photographs of his pages. This time, pages from several travel journals he made while on vacation. Right up my alley. Having been to some of the places he journaled about (Italy and Mexico), it was quite interesting for me to see how his journals were completely different from mine.

Our "lesson" for the day was to focus on negative space..."the space that isn't anything." You can use the negative space as an element to draw. In doing so, you erase any preconceived notion of what you are drawing, making the process much more about observation. N'est-ce pas? We completed several exercises to better understand this concept.

As always, Danny provided a lot of inspiration and many random thoughts that struck a chord. When asked about writing in one's journal, he said that you can write the way you draw...just let it flow and don't over think it. When asked about dealing with self-judgment and being too focused on the outcome, he highlighted the importance of the process of drawing and said you need "a willingness to step off the cliff." And when asked about the importance of training and technique, he said the best way to learn to draw is just to draw a lot!


Homework