The definition and meaning of drawing, which is a principle and basis of art,
have been expanding. Therefore, drawing is no longer a mean of assistance but
rather a genre in art. In arts education, drawing lessons must apply effective
methods which ca...
The definition and meaning of drawing, which is a principle and basis of art,
have been expanding. Therefore, drawing is no longer a mean of assistance but
rather a genre in art. In arts education, drawing lessons must apply effective
methods which can help students improve their creativity and imagination. Most
students have experienced Positive Drawing, which is a conventional method of
drawing that focuses only on an object itself. In Positive Drawing, students feel
pressured to describe an object as precisely as possible, which has led them to
become less interested in art classes.
This study suggests Negative Drawing as a method to change the perspective
that students need to draw an object as precisely as possible. Even if Negative
Drawing may not be popular, it is widely used in all education levels in the
western society since Negative Drawing is considered as one of the important
parts in arts education. In Korea, Negative Drawing was used only once in
Doosandonga Middle School Art Textbook(published to be used for the 2009
Revision Curriculum). However, Negative Drawing no longer exists in 2015 Revision
Curriculum, which has been applied since the beginning of 2018. Therefore,
Negative Drawing must be developed in a more diverse and detailed manner
since it is no longer used in textbooks.
Negative Drawing not only improves visual perception but teaches how to
understand the interaction between an object and its surroundings. While Positive
Drawing focuses only on the object itself, Negative Drawing helps students
perceive the surroundings, such as blank spaces, of an object along with the object in order to express the image as a whole.
This study was designated for 115 ninth graders(two female classes and two
male classes) in Daehyun Middle School in Ulsan, Korea. A survey was conducted
before the very first class to see whether the students had experienced Negative
Drawing; and all the students responded that they had “not experienced” Negative
Drawing. Negative Drawing was applied in arts classes by using the concepts of
“Understanding Negative and Positive Spaces(Preview-Theory),” “Application of
Negative and Positive Spaces(Expression Lesson-Practice),” and “Utilization of
Negative and Positive Spaces(Expression Lesson-Practice).” Followings are the
results of this study.
Firstly, students escaped from the pressure to reproduce an object as precisely
as possible, which allowed them to improve perception ability by recognizing the
relationship between an object and its surroundings. Secondly, students could
produce products of high quality by voluntarily participating in Negative Drawing,
which had never been used in their classrooms. The students learned the
meanings of responsibility and satisfaction through active engagement in classes
as well. Thirdly, students experienced changes in their ways of thinking by
balancing the use of left and right hemispheres of their brains. Fourthly, Negative
Drawing classes provided students with an opportunity to improve their creativity
by allowing them to reconstruct spaces.
This study was meant to examine the value of Negative Drawing and its use in
arts education and to survey the development of Negative Drawing in arts
education.