With so many artists now using the notan principle for setting the structure of a painting, a number of you who've been taught the three-value method tell me you are confused. Notan and three-value studies are not competitors, rather the notan study is about locating overall shadow and light patterns whereas the three-value study
locates values within BOTH shadow and light areas.
Well, that already sounds confusing, doesn't it. Let's break it down with this pumpkin. (For the sake of this exercise, I'm looking only at the pumpkin whereas if I'm using it as a reference for a painting, we'd respond to the entire scene.)
Whether we're doing a notan or value study, our first step is to look beyond the
subject and focus on lights and darks that allow us to see it the way we do, at this particular moment in time in this particular environment. If, for example, your attention is on pumpkin, it will be a crap shoot. "Pumpkin" tells you nothing, gives you NO information.
ANATOMY OF LIGHT & SHADOW
You need not memorize this chart, but if you can learn that when we have a direct (rather than diffused) light source, there will be
areas in shadow and areas not in shadow. Within each of those areas, there will be degrees of value (think value scale) that can extend from the center light-the lightest-to the occlusion shadow-the darkest.
The terminator is the transition area where light ends and shadow begins. All from the center light to the
terminator are not in shadow, but in varying degrees of light. All from the terminator to the occlusion shadow are in varying degrees of shadow. And here is where the notan can be found. All in shadow gets designated in a single value of dark. The rest is left untouched, thus a notan.
We create a three value study by gleaning areas in dark, middle and light value WITHIN the
light/shadow patterns. Our attention gets switched from what it is to finding those three areas of value.
Here I have made a blue transparency of the notan and placed it over three-value study. You see now that some of the middle
values are in both shallow shadow and halftone areas not in shadow.
So, learning to ignore what it is and look only for what's in shadow will give you a
notan. AND to ignore what it is and look only for areas in the dark range, middle value range and light range will give you a three-value study.
You can access the archive of all my newsletters at anytime by going HERE. |
|
|
|
