5th Grade Positive and Negative Space Bikes

5th Graders learned about positive and negative space.  

Positive Space: the subjects or object being represented

Negative Space: the space around and in between an object or an image


One of the most popular images used when discussing positive and negative space is this image:

Is it a face or is it a vase?

This image shows the importance of how positive space and negative space can effect how you view an image.

Another great subject to help explore the concept of positive and negative space is the bicycle, which we used for our subject in this project.  Students picked an image of a bike they liked and cropped it in an interesting way.  They that the option to then make their bike black or leave it white.

After students were done drawing they were to paint the background using a color triad.

3 Primary Colors- Yellow, Red, Blue

3 Secondary Colors- Orange, Violet, Green

3 Tertiary Colors- Yellow-Orange, Red-Violet, Blue-Green

3 Tertiary Colors- Yellow-Green, Red-Orange, Blue-Violet