There is something beautiful about art and its various techniques and methodologies. With so many different ways and perspectives in creating art, there is much to unfold and comprehend in each masterpiece. A German artist, Melvin (@me_melke1), has been leaving people baffled with his unique technique of “negative painting,” also known as “inverted painting.” He recently shared a video revealing the mind-boggling process and it has us jaw-dropped. Negative art follows a different process compared to regular painting techniques. When a negative filter is applied to a work of art or any object, the darker portion gets inverted and becomes lighter and vice-versa, per Niek Travels.
The process of negative filtering is commonly used in photography, but artists have also been using the method to achieve unique results in their paintings. The basic idea is to paint using shades and hues of one or two colors on a white canvas to paint the negative effect of the picture and then invert it to color using a filter. It’s similar to using the negative filter on the original color but in reverse to yield the opposite results. Melvin has been practicing this authentic process. In his video, Melvin can be seen painting lips and a tongue on a canvas with a negative effect. All the colors are shades of blues, blacks, grays and whites to give the depth and illuminating effect.
He goes on to add detail to the object and the background till it transforms from a white canvas to a negative painting. The artist is seen painting in natural light and manually adding the negative effect. The result is a magnificent painting of the lips and the tongue in black and blue hues. However, at the end of his video, he manages to add color to it. Without touching the canvas, he simply switched his camera’s lighting to negative and the canvas changed.
From regular lighting, the room went to negative lighting. The walls, equipment, and other materials turned into a blue tint. The entire room was inverted from color to negative effect. What was left to see was the canvas change. Melvin had already painted his piece in negative, so when the filter was applied, it inverted to a colorful piece. With bright shades of red, pink and peach, the painting became visible in multiple colors. How he mastered this inverted challenging technique is still a surprise to us! “I don’t really understand it but it was fun,” he wrote in his caption.
The video has garnered over a million views and people have jumped to the comment section to show their astonishment. @helene_thie said, “How cool, especially when you inverted it back at the end.” @heart.light.color added, “This is so cool!! Couldn’t wait for the reverse version.” @zap_1989 exclaimed, “This is by far the most impressive thing I have seen in a long time.” @sorayatdz added, “I am overwhelmed just by looking.” @liniscooler remarked, “I’m always surprised how awesome it looks in the end wow.”
You can follow Melvin (@me_melke1) on Instagram for more art content.
