You need to know this drawing trick

The drawing technique that helps me draw more accurately every time.

Are zebras black with white stripes, or white with black stripes?

I don’t know!

But this past week, my family and I went to Disney World. 

We were on the Kilimanjaro Safaris when a ✨dazzle✨ (yeah, I learned that term on the safari lol) of zebras was walking by. It was then that my mom reminded us all about an important drawing lesson...

“Draw the stripes, and the zebra will appear.”

My mom is an artist too, and growing up she was always sharing little art lessons like this with me. And this one stuck. It honestly changed how I saw drawing forever.

Because what it really means is this:

Don't draw the zebra... don't draw what you think a zebra looks like.

Instead, draw the abstract shapes you've never seen before.

In this case, the stripes!

Another way to think of this in drawing terms is drawing the negative space.

Learning to see the negative space was one of the biggest game changers when I first learned to draw.

So, what is negative space? 

Negative space is the space around objects. 

You can also think of it as negative shapes.

Take a look at this mug-

• The mug is the positive space.

• This shape outlined in red highlights one of the negative spaces in the image.

So if we were to draw the negative shapes in this image…(basically, the abstract shapes around the main subjects) we’d likely draw it more accurately. ✔️

You see...

Because we've never seen this exact shape before, our brains don't have any preconceived ideas for how it should look.

Whereas on the flip side, for some things we see all the time, our brains have programmed how it thinks they should look...

For example, an eye, a tree, or a house- people would probably draw these symbolic images similarly when asked to draw them from their imagination.

But when we observe abstract, negative shapes, because we've never seen these exact shapes before, our brains don't have any preconceived ideas for how they should look and will therefore give it more attention!

And that bump in attention helps us find its exactness.

If this is a new idea to you, I have a video that will help you see this in action!

▶️ Watch it here >>

Put these ideas into practice and you’ll see immediate improvement in your accuracy when drawing from a photo reference!

💬Have you tried drawing the negative space? Leave a comment here and let me know! :)