wooden chair without seat
negative space drawing of the chair
student drawings of group of bottles
Because this exercise applies to different classes that I teach, this information applies to my Intro to Art class, my 2D Design class, and my Drawing I class.
I brought in my old wooden chair, removed the seat, and had students draw all the negative space within- the spaces between the wood. A student example is seen above. You can make this up by doing a drawing from a similar chair, or another complex subject, such as the bare branches of a tree. Spend about an hour on it.
The second exercise was drawing from a still life set up of several wine bottles. The bottles were arranged in a loose grouping, and students were asked to draw the bottles, while being mindful of the negative spaces between them, using the negative space to help find the bottle shapes and the distances between them. (see the student examples above) This can be made up by arranging a group of 6 similar sized bottles and doing a pencil line drawing, paying attention to the individual shapes and proportions of individual bottles, as well as the relationships between bottles. Students spent about 45 minutes on this exercise.
