It could be hard to grasp the right spirit of Thanksgiving in visuals, as you always have to make sure to achieve both – decency and authenticity.

However, there is one illustration style that commands both of virtues, plus somehow fits to other, less important key dates such as Black Friday.

Negative Spaces

Illustrations using negative spaces are probably the best fit, when you are trying to induce the impossible: achieve nostalgia along with sensation of something new.

Use of black shades or figures complemented with flat and vivid colours creates great mix for autumn sensation. Domagoj’s illustrations are the probably the closest thing we have, when speaking about the genius of negative spaces.

Positive Nostalgia

When using inverted shadows and other negative spaces, paradoxically, the most important is to capture the positive nostalgia. On Domagoj’s illustration above, we can see the positive nostalgia in action – two persons sitting in confident, familiar atmosphere of love and closeness.

Love, passion and warm feelings are the greatest powers of negative spaces, as they emulate the mystic of human memories: untold and yet still there.

Aim for more

The beauty of negative spaces is, that with skilled artist you can always aim for more.

On the beautiful illustration of fox (also by Domagoj), we can see how effortlessly it achieves the warm sensation with mixing of styles of watercolor and inverted shades.

Think forward

One of the great thinks about using negative spaces in your art is versatility. No matter if it is a nostalgic reminder for Thanksgiving, or radical look at Black Friday society, inverted shadows are always great fit.

Above see creative use of negative spaces in Minty’s Nikita Frasers illustrations.