Notan: an aid for composition

[Brenda Y]

I'm taking a class and we are discussing and doing exercises using notan. I've had so many questions in the past regarding composition, I know the "basic" compositional rules, but have wondered about the how and why of composition. I can't post here what my teacher's lesson plan says about notan, but I found a good article on a blog about it here.

One of our exercises was to take one of our paintings and using photo editing software change it to grayscale and then to notan (pure black and white). Here's my exercise:





To put this into practice to help with composition, the process is reversed: draw and paint with black ink the notan, do several notans (as you would thumbnails) in order to determine the best composition. Then do a grayscale and then paint your composition.

Has anyone done this? If so, have you had good results?

[seejay]

Never done much with notan myself, but it looks interesting. I have done two tone thumbnails of master artist paintings, never played around with my own. Sounds like a great class you are taking. I do remember some threads on wc discussing notan, it may be worth a search if you want to find out what others have done with notan.

Also, a book called 'Composition' by Arthur Wesley Dow may be of use to you (he discusses notan) - it a can be downloaded in a number of different ebook formats from www.archive.org -

here is the link if you want. It's a great price too, free.

Cheers

[HarvestMoon]

What a great discussion Brenda and Chris! I can see where this would be very valuable. And you can do the little Notan sketches before you start and spend hours on a composition that you later find out just doesn't work!!

Well done and I will add this to the library!

[Faafil]

Great stuff - thanks for sharing!

[Brenda Y]

Chris,
Thanks for the information! I will do a search here in WC to see if I can find more. The class I'm taking is in oils, but the notan technique for choosing composition would apply to all media I think.
I'll take a look at that book, thanks for the link!!

[Brenda Y]

Wow - that was slick, it's already on my Kindle! And you can't beat FREE!

[b123]

Hi Brenda,
Here are some examples from my sketch books you might find helpful to look at as an example of how notan in used in practice. I use it frequently to plan my paintings, and find it very useful in helping my students learn how to structure a painting. One of my students, Kim Lordier, has done some very nice studies and posted them somewhere here on Wetcanvas.

There is a video of me doing a notan design in Venice where I used to have a studio a couple of years ago on my blog posting here (just scroll down the page a bit until you see the video screen).

Also on Wetcanvas I posted a couple of advance tips relating to notan on using dominant values and how to divide the space on your canvas, and also one on how to explore transitions here.

Another resource you might find useful is an art terms glossary I put together (glossary of art terms). If you download it, and look at the glossary entry for notan, you will see the types of pens I recommend to my students. It is important to get the right pens so that you can clearly distinguish the values in your notan sketch.

best regards,
Barry

[Brenda Y]

Barry,
Thank you for this information! When I clicked on the first link and saw your sketchbook I was thinking, "this sure looks familiar." Then I clicked on the video and realized you are the teacher on Virtual Art Academy! Your work on VAA is the first place I looked after I heard about notan from the teacher I'm taking an oils class from right now! Small world and WetCanvas sure makes it smaller!
My teacher, Nel Jansen, also had us do a variety of black and white notans for each scene and then do a grayscale and then a color notan. . .possibly she got her information from you.
My class sparked my interest, but your work and video REALLY made some light bulbs go off in my head. I'm actually looking at local landscapes with a "black and white" eye now. Thank You!!!

[b123]

Hi Brenda,
You are welcome! I don't know about Nel, but there are quite a few people now who have taken the notan course I wrote about eight years ago (around a couple of thousand I think). I know quite a few of them are now in turn teaching it to their students. I'm in the process of working on a new edition of the course now.

Let me know if you have any more detailed questions, I'd be happy to help. I'm not often on this forum because of lack of time, but you can always track me down through my website.

I'm writing an analysis of one of Joaquin Sorolla paintings at the moment for a new painting magazine, and have discovered that he has some great examples of notan design. Sargent is another good painter for notan, as well as a couple of my favorite California impressionists, William Ritschel and Edgar Payne. You might find it instructive to look at their work. Just do a few quick notan sketches of their work and you'll learn a lot.

They certainly are a lot of fun to do!
Kind regards,
Barry

Originally Posted by Brenda Y

Barry,
Thank you for this information! When I clicked on the first link and saw your sketchbook I was thinking, "this sure looks familiar." Then I clicked on the video and realized you are the teacher on Virtual Art Academy! Your work on VAA is the first place I looked after I heard about notan from the teacher I'm taking an oils class from right now! Small world and WetCanvas sure makes it smaller!
My teacher, Nel Jansen, also had us do a variety of black and white notans for each scene and then do a grayscale and then a color notan. . .possibly she got her information from you.
My class sparked my interest, but your work and video REALLY made some light bulbs go off in my head. I'm actually looking at local landscapes with a "black and white" eye now. Thank You!!!