How to Use Space in Art: 3 Applications of Space in Art

Space is one of key elements of art that refers to the distance around and between the subjects and aspects of a composition. There are three types of space that are involved in art composition: positive space (which is the area of the work occupied by the subject or subjects), negative space (which is the area around the subject or subjects), and three-dimensional space (a series of techniques that allows an artist to transform a two-dimensional space into a three-dimensional one). When they work together, positive and negative space can draw your viewer’s eye to points of interest. Three-dimensional space creates an optical illusion that makes your painting look more realistic.

There are three types of space for artists to consider when outlining a composition on your picture plane, or the plane that exists in the world of your picture.

1. 1. Positive Space: Positive space refers to the space around the subject or subjects in a picture. For instance, if you’re drawing a still life, a bowl of fruit might be your positive space.
2. 2. Negative Space: Negative space refers to the empty spaces surrounding or in between the subject or subjects in a work of art.
3. 3. Three-dimensional Space: Renaissance Artists mastered the technique of creating the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface. They did so by utilizing linear perspective, diminishing scale, and atmospheric perspective. Linear perspective refers to the use of geometric tools, like a vanishing point, to create the appearance of depth. Diminishing scale dictates that the farther you are from an object, the smaller it appears. Atmospheric perspective refers to the object becoming light color as you move away from it in space.

Here are three examples of how positive, negative, and three-dimensional space are used in three works of art.

1. 1. Positive space in Dance (I) by Henri Mattise (1909): In Dance (I), Matisse created a composition that features five large, nude figures who are dancing in a circle holding hands, creating a dynamic and sprawling sense of positive space within the painting.
2. 2. Negative space in The Star: Dancer on Pointe by Edgar Degas (1878–80): Edgar Degas became interested in exploring negative space in his painting. His work The Star: Dancer on Pointe depicts a ballet dancer entering a stage from the left side of the composition, with a vast area of empty stage on the right side of the composition. The use of negative space in the composition draws the viewer’s attention back towards the ballerina and the dance she is performing.
3. 3. Three-dimensional space in The Last Supper by Leonardo DaVinci (1495–1498): Leonardo da Vinci utilized three-dimensional space in The Last Supper by playing with shape in the long room in his biblical scene. He painted rectangular recesses on both sides of the walls and in the ceiling that converge in a vanishing point at the center of the composition. The windows at the back of the long room, which can be seen behind the figures of Christ and his disciples, display a lush landscape that recedes farther into the background.

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