Watercolour Lesson - Combining Positive and Negative Painting

Sunflowers painted positively. The object, here the sunflowers is identified with an outline and the object is painted inside those lines. Note the lines make up several shapes.

The same sunflowers are identified by painting around them. This is called negative painting.

The page has been divided into 4 equal quadrants and the sunflowers are outlined lightly. The upper left and lower right quadrants are painted negatively (around the object) and the upper right corner and lower left corner were painted positively, within the shapes that were created with drawing the sunflowers. Although the shift from positively painting and negatively painting the sunflowers is quite abrupt here in the demo, isn't it much more lively than either of the two above?

The same exercise as above with the addition of colour. The variety can add interest. Of course in a painting, the shifts from positively painting and object to negatively painting it, need not use the four quadrants specifically, but this is a great exercise and I must give credit to an instructor I learnt it from Tony O'Regan during my time at Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design