Best examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing

Everyday examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing

Let’s start with the fun part: real, specific examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing that you can try right away. No fancy studio, no perfect supplies—just a pen, some paper, and whatever’s around you.

Think of negative space as the silhouette of the air around your subject. You’re still doing contour drawing, but instead of chasing the edge of the object, you’re tracing the edges of the emptiness that surrounds it.

Here are some everyday setups that work beautifully:

Folding chair: classic example of sculpted empty space

A metal or wooden folding chair is one of the best examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing. The chair itself is simple, but the spaces inside it are wonderfully complex.

Set the chair at an angle. Instead of drawing the chair’s legs and backrest, look for the strange, angular shapes between them:

The tall rectangle between the front and back legs.
The triangle under the seat.
The narrow slivers between the metal bars.

As you slowly trace those shapes with a continuous contour line, the chair will appear almost by accident. This is a great example of how negative space can correct proportion. If the gap under the seat is too short, you’ll see instantly that something is off.

Houseplants: tangled leaves, clear gaps

Houseplants—especially ones with long stems or big, separated leaves—are perfect examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing. A pothos, monstera, or spider plant works beautifully.

Instead of drawing the leaves, hunt for the spaces between them:

The irregular holes between overlapping leaves.
The long, winding shapes between stems.
The curved pockets of space between a leaf and the pot.

Follow those shapes slowly with your contour line. You’ll notice your brain stops saying, “That’s a leaf,” and starts saying, “That’s a weird bean-shaped space that leans to the right.” That mental switch is exactly what you want.

Kitchen utensils in a jar: overlapping silhouettes

Grab a mug or jar and stuff it with spoons, spatulas, and whisks. This setup gives you one of the best examples of complex negative space in a small footprint.

Don’t outline the tools. Look for:

The sharp wedges of space between overlapping handles.
The curved notch between the rim of the jar and a spoon.
The oval gap inside a whisk.

When you trace only the negative shapes in contour, the drawing often looks more accurate than when you try to outline each utensil directly. You’re forced to see relationships instead of symbols.

Window blinds and a view: strips of sky as negative space

If you have horizontal blinds, you’ve got a ready-made example of exploring negative space in contour drawing.

Sit where you can see the blinds with a bit of the outside world (trees, buildings, or sky) showing through. Focus on:

The repeating horizontal strips of sky.
The little trapezoids of light where the blinds tilt.
The vertical gaps where two blinds don’t quite meet.

Draw only the shapes of the light, not the blinds themselves. The blinds will appear as the leftover white shapes on your page. This is a powerful way to practice seeing negative space as a pattern.

Hands and fingers: spaces between, not the fingers themselves

Hands are notoriously frustrating… unless you cheat by using negative space.

Hold one hand up in front of you with fingers slightly spread. In contour drawing, treat this as one of your best examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing:

Trace the shapes between your fingers instead of the fingers.
Notice whether the spaces are more triangular, rectangular, or curved.
Pay attention to how those spaces change when you bend a finger.

Draw a contour of those gaps, and you’ll get a surprisingly accurate hand silhouette. This is a great warm-up before more advanced figure drawing.

Chair and table legs: a forest of verticals

Look under a dining table or desk where multiple legs overlap. You’ll see a tangle of verticals that can quickly become confusing—perfect for negative space work.

Instead of drawing each leg, focus on:

The tall, irregular strips of space between legs.
The boxy shapes between crossbars and floor.
The wedge-shaped spaces where a leg meets the underside of the table.

Use a slow, continuous contour to outline just those gaps. This example of negative space contour drawing teaches you to simplify a busy scene into clear, interlocking shapes.

City skyline: sky shapes around buildings

If you can see a row of buildings, rooftops, or even just chimneys against the sky, you’ve got another strong example of exploring negative space in contour drawing.

Instead of drawing the buildings, draw the sky. Literally:

Start at one side of your page and trace the edge of the sky as it zigzags around roofs, antennas, and chimneys.
Notice how the sky dips between buildings and rises above them.
Let your contour line describe every small notch and bump.

When you’re done, the buildings will be defined entirely by the negative shape of the sky you’ve drawn.

How negative space transforms your contour drawing skills

All these examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing are doing more than giving you quirky exercises—they’re rewiring how you see.

When you focus on negative space, a few powerful things happen:

You stop drawing symbols (the idea of a chair, hand, or plant) and start drawing what’s actually there.
Your proportions become more accurate because you’re comparing shapes against each other, not guessing.
Your line quality improves because contour drawing forces you to move slowly and stay present.

This approach lines up with how many art schools teach observation and drawing. For instance, the classic text Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (often used in college programs) emphasizes negative space exercises to break old habits of symbolic drawing. Many university studio courses echo this strategy in their foundation drawing classes.

If you’re curious about how observational training fits into broader art education, you can browse syllabi and resources from programs like the MIT OpenCourseWare visual arts courses or drawing foundations at schools such as Harvard’s arts and humanities offerings. While they may use different terms, the core skill—learning to see relationships and shapes—is the same.

Step-by-step ways to practice with real examples

Let’s turn these ideas into a few simple routines. You can rotate through them during the week.

Pick any of the setups above: folding chair, plant, utensils in a jar, or hands.

Plant your eyes on the negative space only—the gaps and holes.
Put your pen on the paper and don’t look down.
Slowly trace the edges of those spaces with a single, unbroken line.

This feels awkward, but it’s one of the purest examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing because you’re forced to trust your eyes more than your memory. The drawing might look wild, but your observation skills will jump.

Modified contour: checking in, correcting shapes

Now allow yourself to glance at the paper occasionally.

Focus first on one type of negative shape: maybe just the spaces between fingers or the triangles under a chair.
Draw those shapes in contour.
Look down every 5–10 seconds to check alignment.

This is especially helpful with complex scenes, like the city skyline or a cluster of chair and table legs. It’s one of the best examples of using negative space to control proportion without getting stiff.

Inverting focus: positive vs. negative passes

Choose a subject and make two quick contour drawings side by side:

On the left, draw only the object’s outer contour (positive space).
On the right, draw only the negative space shapes.

Compare the two. Very often, the negative-space drawing feels more solid and believable. This side-by-side example of exploring negative space in contour drawing shows you, in real time, which approach gives you better results.

Using negative space with figure drawing and portraits

Negative space isn’t just for chairs and plants. Some of the most powerful examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing show up in figure drawing and portrait work.

Figure poses: spaces between limbs

When drawing a standing or seated figure, look at:

The triangular spaces between the arm and torso.
The curved shapes between bent knees.
The gap between the neck and shoulder.

Trace those shapes in contour first, before you ever outline the body. This helps you:

Capture gesture more accurately.
Avoid common proportion mistakes, like arms that are too short or legs that don’t quite connect.

Life drawing studios and college figure-drawing classes often encourage students to squint at these in-between shapes; it’s a time-tested way to build observational accuracy.

Portraits: spaces around the head and features

Even in a simple head-and-shoulders portrait, negative space is everywhere:

The shape of the background around the hair.
The small triangles beside the nose where it meets the cheek.
The dark shapes between lips when the mouth is slightly open.

Try a contour drawing where you only draw the background shape around a person’s head and shoulders. The resulting silhouette can feel surprisingly lifelike.

If you’re interested in how observational and perceptual skills like this connect to brain function, institutions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) publish research on visual processing and perception. While it’s not “how to draw” content, it reinforces why training your eye with negative space exercises actually changes how your brain interprets visual information.

2024–2025 ways artists are using negative space in contour work

If you scroll through current sketchbook tours or drawing challenges online, you’ll see a lot of artists returning to classic contour and negative space exercises—but with updated twists.

Some current trends and real examples include:

Daily micro-sketches: Artists setting a 5-minute timer to draw only the negative space of something on their desk—coffee mug handles, headphone cords, or keyboard gaps.
Urban sketching with sky shapes: People documenting city walks by tracing only the contour of the sky around buildings, trees, and power lines.
Digital contour on tablets: Using drawing apps to do continuous-line negative space drawings, then layering color underneath to emphasize those shapes.
Gesture + negative space hybrids: Combining quick figure gestures with a second pass that only traces the spaces between limbs.

These are all modern examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing that still rest on the same old-school principles you’re practicing with chairs and plants. The tools change; the seeing doesn’t.

If you’d like to connect your practice with broader creativity and mental health benefits, organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts share reports and articles on how art-making supports focus, stress reduction, and well-being.

Simple tips to get more from these examples

As you work through these examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing, a few habits will make everything click faster:

Slow your eyes, not your hand. Let your pen follow your gaze. If your eyes creep along the edge of a negative shape, your line will feel more intentional.
Name the shapes. In your head, call them what they look like: “a skinny triangle,” “a fat comma,” “a lopsided rectangle.” This keeps you from slipping back into “leaf,” “finger,” or “chair leg.”
Rotate your sketchbook. If a space is confusing, turn the page. A sideways or upside-down view often makes the negative shape easier to understand.
Limit your time. Give yourself 3–10 minutes per drawing. Short sessions keep you from overworking and make it easier to practice often.

The more often you return to these real-world examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing, the more automatic this way of seeing becomes. Eventually, even when you’re not thinking about negative space, your drawings will feel more solid, balanced, and confident.

FAQ: examples of negative space in contour drawing

Q: What are some quick examples of negative space I can practice with at home?
Great examples include the spaces between chair legs, gaps between your fingers, the holes in a whisk, the sky between tree branches outside your window, and the shapes between utensils in a jar.

Q: Can you give an example of a beginner-friendly negative space exercise?
Yes. Sit in front of a simple chair. Instead of drawing the chair, draw only the shapes of the gaps under the seat and between the legs, using one continuous contour line. This single example of an exercise can dramatically improve how you judge proportion.

Q: Do I always have to ignore the object and focus only on negative space?
No. Many artists alternate: one drawing focused on positive contours, the next on negative space. Comparing the two is one of the best examples of how negative space training sharpens your overall drawing.

Q: How often should I practice these examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing?
Short, frequent sessions work best. Even 10–15 minutes a day—one plant, one chair, one hand pose—will build your skills faster than a single long session once a week.

Q: Is negative space contour drawing useful if I want to draw from imagination later?
Absolutely. The more you understand shapes and relationships in real life, the easier it becomes to invent believable forms from your head. These exercises quietly train your internal “shape library,” which you’ll lean on when you’re sketching from imagination.

Clear, creative examples of exploring negative space in contour drawing