Lost and Found ShapesA focus on Negative/Positive

Counterchange

This sequence is designed to engage Advanced and AP students in an important 2-Dimensional design concept—using counterchange between negative and positive space.

In this assignment you will record from observation and transform your sketch into a particular form of spatial design.

Look closely at the next slide.

Then, write down the first thing you see.

Look again for a little while longer…do you see another image? If so, record your observation.

Positive/Negative Figure Ground

Tell me what you think…

What is negative space in a 2 dimensional work of art?

Can it be more important that the positive space?

Does either space dominate in the previous pictures or are they equally important?

Why or why not?

Figure Ground defined:

When two fields have a common border, and one is seen as figure (a positive shape) and the other as ground (a negative shape), the immediate perceptual experience is characterized by a shaping effect which emerges from the common border of the fields and which operates only on one field or operates more strongly on one than on the other.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Who wants to take a stab at explaining what you read?

Think for a moment about the preceding pictures.

1. How do images with ½ positive and ½ negative read?

2. Do these images make you linger in the picture longer in an attempt to discern what you are seeing?

3. Have you seen many drawings that employ equal amounts of positive and negative space?

Here is an example of positive/negative design applied to advertising.

Can you figure out what this logo stands for? Hint, it is a hockey team. Look closely at the negative space and see if a letter emerges.

Hartford Whalers’

Hockey Team Logo

To increase your understanding of design and composition, the following project has been developed to:

1. Complete a black-and-white composition based on observation of a still life

2. Demonstrate the use of negative and positive counterchange (also known as figure/ground relationship)

3. Achieve detail in the use of descriptive edges.

Figure/ground exercise

Still life of coil pot, teapot, wrought iron table and leafy plants in background

Still life figure/ground project #2 is the same set up from different angle—notice how each student found a different angle

Still life figure/ground #3

Still life figure/ground still life #4—this one is beginning to look like a woodcut or linoleum block print—perhaps too many lines however, this exercise can lead to a lot of possibilities for your future linoleum prints.

Pre-Assignment Activity

Using a viewfinder, select a SIMPLE arrangement that you can draw in your sketchbook. Work as large as possible on your paper and make sure your image touches all 4 edges of the page.

While drawing, you will have to decide which shapes and details to record and which to leave out as not all details are essential to the picture.

Trial Run in Assigning Value1. Beginning in one corner, fill every other shape solid

dark and leave the remaining shapes clean white. Express objects in SHAPE only—no lines.

(The purpose of this exercise is to dispel the notion that background is always black.)

2. Use the idea of transparency or “see-through” objects to borrow an edge that cannot be seen, but known to be there.

3. Inserting a diagonal line can help if you are having difficulty seeing the negative/positive shapes in a counterchange manner.

Instructions for final image:

1. Use your viewfinder to find interesting compositions around the still-life set-ups.

2. Determine where you want the focal point as you frame your views.

3. Make 6 separate thumbnail sketches in your sketchbook ( trace 3” x 4” card) to plan your composition.

4. Before enlarging your best thumbnail, re-draw your sketch on a 5 x 7 to practice.

5. First, practice applying black and white on your thumbnail.

6. Next, enlarge your image on the large Bristol board.

7. Using VERY light pencil lines, refer back to your practice card and mark where the details and edges will be. REMEMBER: Working right up to (and off of) all 4 edges of the paper is essential to the success of this project.

8. Carefully shade the shapes you plan to darken (ink) and leave the rest blank.

9. Aim for shapes only—try to avoid lines in the final work. This may mean putting 2 black shapes adjacent to each other if the design works.

Formative Assessment Checklist for your practice thumbnail image:

1. Does your image read as a still-life composition?

2. Does your image apply a basic understanding of counterchange in using black and white shapes—few or no lines are evident in the developed image?

3. Can you identify the focal area? Examine it for detail and suitable position.

4. Compare 50% white and 50% black with black in background/foreground and white in background/foreground.

Summative Assessment for Final work on Bristol Board

1. Does the work display confident use of lost-and-found edges?

2. Is there evidence of pictorial invention and unusual visual problem solving?

3. Does your work engage a variety of sizes and shapes?4. Is detail obtained by an inventive and imaginative use of

counterchange?5. Craftsmanship: Have materials been controlled to yield

clean whites and solid blacks?6. Is there ambiguous play between foreground and

background?7. Is the final result a well orchestrated still-life design?

Applications in Printmaking

You can use your skill at Positive/Negative Counterchange in developing dynamic linoleum prints/woodcuts, etc.

Google “black and white prints, woodcuts, linoleum prints, German Expressionist woodcuts” and etc. You will find many exciting black and white images that make use of your new skills.

You may consider entering Dick’s Printmaking Contest this year.

                                                                   

Hannah Hoch (German, 1889-1978), Zwei Madchen. Original linocut, 1970.

Expressionist WoodcutsErnst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)

The Bribe Man with Parrot