My last prompt, so I had to deviate. No ‘s’ today, but NOTAN. And don’t feel bad, I also hadn’t heard of this Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark as they are placed next to the other in art and imagery (definition from Wikipedia). Not until someone mentioned this book about it.
Another friend (Hi Lori!) bought it and decided to do some of the exercises with her aspiring-artist daughter. Which inspired me to get it from my library – and I am fascinated! It strongly reminds me of my training in composition during my first year studying advertising design at FIT (we were not all fashion freaks there!). I had a wonderful teacher whose name sadly eludes me. She worked us hard, and I believe it paid off. But with this book I feel like I’m taking a refresher course, and I wanted to share it with the doodlers. For those in the know, yeah, it’s all about positive and negative space – the bare essentials. I won’t attempt to explain more (watch video below!), but I’ll list a bunch of links at the bottom, in case you’ve been ‘ignited’!
Virtual Art Academy Notan Painting Lessons
I’d like to thank Alison Hertz again, for helping me get back to doodling, and all the members on our facebook page, who inspire and encourage each other every day!
Love Notan! I even created a Pinterest Board of them! Thanks for sharing this, Julie. I’m hooked. http://pinterest.com/alisonhertz/notan/
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So glad you like it too!
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Thanks for sharing notans Julie. I am so inspired by all the doodlers. Can’t wait to see what they come up with.
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Me too!
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I sort of get this, and sort of don’t… Maybe I’m just brain dead right now. :} I’ll try and do something for this. Thank you for making me learn something new! I’d never heard of the term before.
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When I was finished writing the post my daughter came over and said, “Ugh. Notan. That’s all my last art teacher ever talked about.” News to me!
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Teresa, go to youtube or my pinterest Notan page and watch the video on how to do them. I also posted the short video on my blog this morning. Make a square, draw a shape in the square that is the mirror image on the outside of the square or cut out a shape and flip it over to the outside (if that helps you see it better).
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Wasn’t familiar with a Notan until I read your posts. Very interesting. I enjoyed learning something new! 🙂
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Glad!
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Julie!!!!,
Thanks for tagging me in your post! I’ve been doing some value film studies and the abstract compositions are mind blowing! Keep up the great work soul sister!
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I’d love to hear more about what you’re doing, Lori!
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Cool post–my drawings are so linear, it is good to remember the power of black and white! Thanks for posting!
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Glad you like this too!
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