Drawing Don Moen with the negative technique

I recently shared my first negative technique sketch here and this is another one of the great gospel musician Don Moen.

What is the Negative Technique?

Well, usually we draw/paint on a white or light platform by adding a darker medium; pencils or paint. The negative technique is the exact opposite, this time you are using a light medium on a dark platform, say paper or canvas. I mostly use white charcoal pencils on black paper.

Why draw with the negative technique?

Asides the fact that it is good to experiment and try new things in art every once in a while, mastering this technique may save you a lot of time while doing very dark drawings, pictures that have more shadows than lighter areas. It could take some time to get used to seeing things differently but it's worth it in the end!

The process (sorry i forgot to take progress shots)

I started by sketching out the face from the picture and then shading out the lighter areas, the paper naturally helping me with the darker areas. I then sketched out the jacket and tie, but the jacket was black! How do I make the jacket black on black paper? I opted for oil paints to shade outside the area of the jacket to leave an illusion of black. I also used oil paint for the red tie

While using the negative technique, to make a part of your drawing look dark, you need to create lighter shades around it, just like to make something look white you have to create darker shades around it while drawing the "normal" way.

Thanks for reading this post, hope it was helpful.