Negative Drawing

If you want to draw something, generally you’ll find a piece of paper, pick up a pencil, charcoal, or other marking implement, and go at it. The white space becomes darker as you cover it with your carbon, and those lines, crosshatches, dots, and gradients become an image. A representation of something imaginary or real.

When I was in art school, I grew quite fond of a style called ‘negative drawing.’ It was a method that flipped the traditional drawing process on its head: you would cover a s...