Lesson 35 - Positive/Negative Letters

Positive shapes are darker than the background; negative shapes are lighter than the background. A shape can also be darker than the background on one side and lighter on the other. It's an interesting problem to create shapes which go from positive to negative and to create text within these shapes which also gradate from negative to positive. Here are a few examples of what we came up with in class.

Rita created a playful market scene with text grading from positive to negative and lost and found edges of rectangle shapes.


Joanne was able to grade her letters against a loose abstract background. I like the negative cat and dog shapes she added.

Jan created a playful design of bright colored rectangles and text. The bright colors are repeated in the background and in the text and carry the eye through the painting.

Celine worked with Chinese characters. The large one is positive on the right and negative on the lower left. The edges of some of the rectangles disappear the the loose under-painting shows through.