Positive-negative space and notan
Seeing and designing the pattern of dark and light shapes so the image reads clearly, even when reduced to flat silhouettes or simple notan.
What it is
Positive space is what you're drawing — characters, props, buildings, trees. Negative space is the empty shape around them: the sky hole between branches, the gap between an arm and the torso, the floor between legs. In real work, you design those empty shapes as deliberately as any object.
Notan is a simplified light–dark design of a picture. You strip away detail and material and decide, in flat terms, which areas are light and which are dark. A notan might use only two values (black and white) or a few more — the point is a clear, bold division into readable value masses.
In practice you flip between three views: silhouettes (positive and negative shapes), notan (value pattern), and the full painting. Squint, zoom out, or run a two-value check layer to see if characters separate from the background, if sky gaps between objects form interesting shapes, and if your big light and dark areas support the subject.
Why it matters
When positive and negative space aren't designed, figures merge into backgrounds, limbs fuse into blobs, and actions get lost in visual noise. A mushy notan — midtones everywhere, no clear light/dark pattern — reads flat and unfocused, and no amount of rendering fixes it. Strong control here gives you crisp silhouettes, clear staging, and an image that reads instantly, even at thumbnail size or from across the room.
You can check it when
- ✓You can reduce your piece to 2–3 flat values and it still shows clearly what's happening and what the picture is about.
- ✓Your character and major props read as distinct silhouettes against the background; you can trace their outlines and they don't dissolve into it.
- ✓The gaps between objects (between limbs, between figures, between objects and frame edge) form clear, intentional shapes rather than awkward slivers or tangents.
- ✓When you flip or shrink your image down, the dark and light pattern still feels organized — large, purposeful masses instead of scattered patches.