The notan concept is getting substantial attention from painters as a reliable tool, but so much is misunderstood about it. I addressed this with our mailing list folks several years ago, but our list has
tripled in subscribers since then, so let's revisit it. As with many visual concepts, the notan originated in the eastern world. The word's nomenclature is Japanese meaning light/dark. It is pronounced with
equal emphasis on both syllables - NO-TAN. The oldest notan we know about is the yin-yang symbol, at least two thousand years old. Artist and teacher Arthur Wesley Dow was the first to recognize notan as a concept for the composition of realistic painting in his book Composition: Understanding Line,
Notan, and Color (1899). Dow emphasizes darks and lights as structural elements for maintaining harmonic relationships but does not address darks specifically as shadows. ADAPTED TO WESTERN REALISTIC PAINTING
Because in painting, our darks are interpretations of shadows, in Western realistic painting, the notan concept refers to the unity of light and
shadow rather than negative and positive space, as was used in ancient times. We can study any scene or subject by looking for where light rays are hitting and where light rays are passing over areas or being blocked by another shape. We can plot that into a design to show the light and shadow pattern, but we do that without value variations or details, and that pattern becomes our notan. Some artists in the modern era refer to finding that
pattern as shadow mapping. To locate those areas, the questions we ask are: What's in shadow? What's not in shadow?
Creating a notan pattern based on answers to those two questions can guide us to putting those values in our painting where they
belong.
Notice how the darks of the notan are placed in the same location as the shadows in the reference photo, and how the lights and within them locate
where the light rays are hitting.
TRANSLATED INTO A PAINTING
Here is how I placed those values in shadow and values in light into a painting.
Here I have overlaid the notan on my painting. You see now that a notan is not a value study, but a pattern that locates shadow fields. It is not a replacement for a value study,
either. Rather, it can be used to guide a value study.
SHIFTING THE MIND'S ATTENTION
Creating a notan requires a mind-shift: forget the values and shift your attention to what's in shadow and what's not in
shadow. During this time, light and shadow actually become the subject of the notan where all that's in shadow leads you to create it's pattern with a single value. It says to you only one thing: in shadow/not in shadow.
Notans can be little studies done quickly. In my sketchbook, most of my notan studies are no larger than 1½ x 2 inches.
(On these sketchbook pages, next to several notans, I have completed a watercolor study of the scene. This is a common practice for me.) Once you have found those shadow/not-in-shadow areas, THEN it's time to switch that attention back to values. You will know then to look for a value range within
those areas in shadow found on the dark side of the value scale, and you find in those values not in shadow on the light side.
- Look out a window. Create a small notan (no larger than 1½ x 2 inches) of what you see.
- Wait two hours. Do another notan of the same scene.
- Wait another two hours and do another notan. Continue this process throughout the day.
- In each of these studies, use only one value for locating shadow.
- Next morning, look out a different window and do another notan.
- Next to THIS notan, do a value drawing that limits the values in the shadow areas to any values between 6 and 10, and limit the values that go in the not-in-shadow areas to between 1 and 5. Put in this study only the values you see. (Sometimes, all the values might not be there, or
might not be needed.)
- Repeat this process in two-hour intervals throughout the day, and you will discover how it is the light that creates the value.
May your weekend be filled with moments of enlightenment!
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Happy Painting,
Dianne
dianne@diannemize.com
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