Space! The final frontier, as said by a non descript sci-fi character from a non descript sci-fi show.
Sorry. I don't know how much I can say with copyright and all that. The word "space" has
a ton of meanings, whether it's outer space, free space, get out of my space, yadda yadda.
But we're not learning astrology or the art of passive-aggression, we're learning about space, the
element of art. Space tends to be the element that I find a lot of people don't give a second thought
to, but it's more important than you might think. Let's continue. Our friend Google states that space
is one of the basic elements of art. it refers to the distance between or the area around and
within shapes, forms, colours, and lines. Space can be positive or negative. It includes the background,
foreground, and middle ground. Amazing! Google practically summarized what this whole video
is going to be about! That means we can end it early, bye everyone, I'm going to take a nap.
Kidding. Google said most of what I wanted to say in this little intro blurb, but it didn't mention
that space is one of the more important elements to consider when it comes to your composition.
But before we get into that, let's learn about positive and negative space. Positive space is all
your objects and points of interest in a piece. So say you had a little frog on a lily pad surrounded
by water. That frog and lily pad are your positive space. Negative space on the other hand is the area
around your objects, or your background. If we go back to that frog on the lily pad, the negative
space would be the water that surrounds that frog and lily pad. We talked a bit about positive and
negative space in the shape video, where we showed some of those optical illusions that played with
what was the positive space and what was the negative space. Sometimes your positive and
negative space is ultra obvious like the frog and the lily pad, but other times it can be a little
tricky to spot. An example of easy to spot positive and negative space is Barking Dog by Keith Haring.
With bold black line art cutting the positive space out of the negative space for you, it's clear
that the dog in the direct center is your positive space while the red around it is your negative
space. But what if your positive and negative space isn't so simple to point out? Violin and Pitcher by
Georges Braque should do the trick. I could have been meaner, guys. I could have chosen a Piet Mondrian
painting and it would've been all over. You can kind of make out that violin and the pitcher, but in
this case, whatever part of the space sticks out to you is considered "positive space". Even though
everything feels like you're looking through a broken window, it's the focal point that can be
considered positive space. Those focal points tend to be in your foreground. But I'm getting ahead of
myself. Let's learn where the foreground is first, and then learn middle ground and background while
we're at it. The foreground in a composition is what's closest to the viewer within a scene.
The background is what's farthest from the viewer, and the middle ground is everything in between.
Say we took that frog on its lily pad again, but now it's surrounded by a little forest, water reeds, and
cattails. Yes, those corn dog looking things are called cattails, no, they're not edible, do not try
it. While our little frog is in the middle ground, these extra water reeds and cattails that are
up close are our foreground, and the trees all the way back there are our background. Just like
positive and negative space, our foreground, middle ground, and backgrounds can be pretty easy to spot.
For instance, Red House by Lawren Harris. The elements of this scene that are closest to
us are those trees and the first few snow piles, making them our foreground. The line of houses
behind the red house is part of our background, and the red house itself is in the middle ground.
But once again, what if they're not so easy to spot, or seemingly, not there at all? Composition
A by Piet Mondrian. Sorry. I guess I am that mean. But if you think there's no foreground, midground,
or background in this piece, you'd be correct! Foreground, middle ground, and backgrounds are
mainly used for scenes not necessarily quite as abstract or two-dimensional as this. Unless
you're M.C. Escher. Then foregrounds, middle grounds, backgrounds and reality itself mean nothing to
you. Even with current artists, sometimes character art is just the characters surrounded by negative
space, no background or foreground in sight. And for once, a foreground or background being
optional isn't an unpopular opinion within the art community. In fact, it's quite common! But it's still
really important to know what they are in order to create a unified composition. Ah, there's that
word again. How about we define it? Composition is, well, your art! Every piece of art you create is a
composition, and utilizes the different elements of art and principles of design to create something
truly cohesive and pleasing to the eye. Truthfully, every element of art is incredibly important
towards creating a comprehensive and beautiful composition. But I bring up space because it's one
of the more obvious ones that, like I mentioned in the beginning, seems to always get brushed to
the side. Every composition that includes a full scene needs to know what its foreground, middle
ground, and backgrounds are in order to work. Or, if those aren't present, your negative space and
positive space need to work together in order to create a clear and interesting silhouette.
A beautiful example of extremely interesting compositions are any Studio Ghibli movie,
but let's just take this screenshot from Kiki's Delivery Service to start. With tons of plants
framing the foreground, Kiki herself in the middle ground, and everything behind the window pane in
the background, you get a beautifully illustrated and complete composition. What else is nice about
this screencap is the windowpane cutting out a section of negative space and framing Kiki -- the
main point of positive space we're supposed to pay attention to. Of course there are other reasons why
she's the first thing we look at such as her red bow being emphasized in a mainly green composition,
and her being the simplest element in a highly detailed scene, but it certainly helps that we
have a rectangle of negative space that quite literally frames her. Without the foreground,
middle ground, and backgrounds, however, we'll always still have positive and negative space.
Take the screenshot from Ghibli's Ponyo for instance. You could say that the clouds and
a bit of the ground are the background, but all in all there isn't a ton of elements within the scene
that really scream a foreground, middle ground, and background. Just positive and negative space.
However, if we converted this to black and white, white being our negative space, and black being our
positive space, you can see how we still clearly see what the characters are doing. These are our
silhouettes, mentioned in the shape video, silhouettes are what make our subject matter
readable, and they rely on positive and negative space to do so. Space is another element that gets
thrown aside sometimes, mainly because it's more of an afterthought. Even though we're focused on
creating the elements, sometimes we forget where to place them in order to create the most effective
composition that we can. Understanding how you can use your foreground to frame your composition, your
midground to add emphasis to your focal point, and how you can use your background to support
your piece are important to understand, but not always necessary like I mentioned before. However,
our positive and negative space is present no matter what, so mastering how to use our space in
creative and innovative ways are key to creating great works of art! For your next piece, experiment
with how you can mess around with your space. Try drawing just the positive space as a silhouette. Or,
see if you can illustrate something by filling in the negative space first. And, since a lot of
artists seem to struggle with it, try to draw a complete scene with a foreground, middle ground
and background. Where in the composition will you place your subject? How would you use space
to emphasize your subject? If you're a teacher, we have worksheets on the topic which you can find
on our website along with other art resources for your classroom -- link down below. If you liked
what you saw be sure to leave a like on this video, comment down below to let us know what you'd like
to see us do next, and hit subscribe so you never miss an upload. Join our little art community with
the links down below, and support us on Patreon to get sneak peeks, critiques, and teaching resources.
If you enjoyed this video, here's a couple other videos you can check out next! Violin and Pitcher by
Georges Braque should do the trick. I could have been meaner, guys, I could have chosen a Piet...
No, another name I don't know how to pronounce.
But what if your positive and negative space, oh hang on... [laughter]
Sonic speed, going too fast. But I'm getting ahead of myself let's learn
what a foreground is first, and then learn middle ground, and background while we're at it.
I did it, I think that was eight takes, great!