Before you frame your latest piece of artwork, study it as if you were an art critic. Once it has passed inspection, take another look at the negative spaces. Is there something in the space that you can detect?

Negative spaces creates dimension in your painting. How you paint something in the negative spaces should be well planned. If it is too much, then it can take away from your composition and if it is vacant it loses dimensional value.

Assume that you see a table and your view is at an angle where the front legs and the back legs are visible.  Is there something in the space between the two legs?  Perhaps, they are set on a patterned carpet.  You really don’t want to ignore such a detail.

There are many good artists, especially watercolorists, that paint in the negative spaces first and then paint around them later.