Second graders learned that the shapes one notices first are the positive shapes, while the shapes one notices later are the negative shapes, such as in a background. They also discovered that negative shapes can be planned to be just as visually important as positives shapes.
Students looked at works by various artists, including M.C. Escher, which depicted this careful use of both positive and negative shapes. To help reinforce this concept, students cut their own positive shapes from complimentary colored papers, and then reconstructed the positive and their negative counterparts on the opposite side of the paper, achieving a “mirror twin” in which both shapes are of equal importance.
