Thirty Days hath September - Day Fourteen - Negative Space

If you are reading this as a non-painter, you may well be expecting a diatribe on the pitfalls of the Mars Explorer (Negative Space - get it? - never mind) but what today's challenge was all about was thinking about the space that objects occupy in a painting.

Today I got to inflict it on one of my classes, a prospect they were all thrilled with and kept me demonstrating as long as possible because it is one of those techniques that we know we should understand, but don't necessarily know what to do with.

The finished painting below may not seem like a big deal but it took a great deal of thought and is so wholly not how I usually paint, as it requires planning and precision. We worked from our lightest areas to our darkest but instead of working from the back to the front, we stated with the yellow leaves and gradually tucked others in behind them to give a layered effect.

I'm not sure that this style of painting is for me but like all things learnt in a lesson, it adds to the general knowledge base of how painting works and how you can manipulate certain techniques to suit your own style.

Tomorrow will be the start of the 'wedding' portion of Thirty Days as we have some very special celebrations on the farm this weekend. Join me tomorrow to hear more about our artistic contributions to the proceedings.