Good composition isn’t an accident, but the result of deliberate decisions about the structure of the painting. We have to consider the picture window that surrounds the subject and then how the parts of the subject we include relate to one another. The best time to consider these options is at the outset, when the painting is in its most formative stage. Just as a map is an invaluable aid to the explorer heading into unfamiliar territory, so too is a compositional study a way for painters to explore their options before they begin.
Shapes are the building blocks of composition, so any type of compositional study must also be shape-oriented. And no type of study is more shape-oriented than notan. In this chapter, we explore the contemporary approach to notan, which positions it as a tool for identifying shapes and patterns. This will be followed by exercises that show you how to use notan studies in your own work.
DEFINING NOTAN
The notan is a bit mysterious. It has an exotic name and is often misinterpreted as a value study—which it is not. Notan is a Japanese word that translates as “light-dark balance.” It is a design principle that suggests that strength and balance in composition are found through a harmonious relationship between light and dark shapes.
Most descriptions of notan are just like the one above. It is defined in terms of “light and dark”—which to painters is the same thing as “values” or “tones.” In my own work with notan, both inside and outside the classroom, I have found that seeing the notan simply as a value study can prevent us from fully appreciating its broader application as a means of defining shapes and patterns, which are the building blocks of composition.
HOW THE NOTAN WORKS
The landscape is a busy place, with elements of all shapes and sizes, innumerable gradations of value and color, and endless detail. All this has bearing on the final painting, but it can also obscure the underlying shapes and patterns that we need to identify at the outset.
In chapter 1, we learned that when we limit ourselves to five values, shapes become more clearly differentiated. With notan, we push the exercise one step further. By using just two or three values, the foundational shapes become even more clearly defined. And the more clearly defined our shapes are, the more we will be able to see aspects of composition such as variation, movement, and negative space. The notan is like a perceptual lens that allows us to explore the composition in its most basic, irreducible shape-terms. It is the most direct method of accessing the underlying energies that animate a composition.
NOTAN IN ACTION
Whenever a student is wrestling with a compositional problem, I do a quick notan study. With a soft pencil, a marker, or a brush, I do a small study with a simplified arrangement of light and dark shapes. Whenever I demonstrate this for the first time, I hear “ah-ha” as they see the basic structure of the composition in a way they could not before. In this scene, the mass of trees on the left is quite busy, with many small shapes and values. My goal isn’t to capture every bit of it, but to reduce it to its most fundamental shape-terms. This means I have to make compromises. The many midvalues will have to be pushed to either white or black, and I have to simplify in the extreme, eliminating nearly all detail.
SHAPE AND PATTERN DEFINITION, NOT VALUE
When most artists are first exposed to notan, they assume it is simply a high-contrast value study, a map of the patterns of light and shadow. This is an easy assumption to make. After all, notan is always defined in terms of “light and dark,” which for painters is synonymous with “values.” In subjects with strong patterns of light and shadow (think: bright sunny days), the black and white of the notan will neatly correspond to the patterns of light and shadow. But most subjects don’t present their values in binary fashion. There are intermediate values that must be considered.
How can a notan study, with just black and white and possibly a middle gray, ever hope to convey all the values in any given subject? It can’t. This is why the notan is not a value study in the traditional sense.
With its ultra-simplified visual shorthand, the notan is more effective at defining the basic shapes and patterns of a composition than it is at articulating a full range of values.
If a composition has a soul, then the notan is the doorway to that soul.
PROGRESSION: FROM NOTAN TO VALUE STUDY
STRICT AND LIBERAL FORMS OF NOTAN
BUILDING A BETTER STUDY: NOTAN TECHNIQUE
In my workshops, I always ask students to do a compositional study before beginning a painting. In the absence of any previous instruction in notan or thumbnails, most will simply do a line drawing. Lines are wonderful . . . but they are not so effective at building masses.
Shapes are the building blocks of composition, so any type of compositional study must also be shape- and mass-oriented.
The two most important goals of a compositional study are that it adequately describes the composition in the simplest terms possible and that it is readable, meaning that your compositional intent is clear to anyone looking at it.
NOTAN APPS
If you like using the computer to support your creative explorations, then you’ll be happy to know that most image editing apps have a feature that can “notanize” your photos. These apps are particularly handy when working in the field beacuse they allow you to easily test different notan designs on the fly.
REVIEW QUESTIONS: NOTAN AND THE COMPOSITIONAL STUDY
Is your notan study simple?
A notan design is never complex; it conveys the most salient aspects of the composition in the simplest terms possible.
Is your notan study readable?
Clarity and comprehension are the most essential requirements of a compositional study. Can your intent be understood in an instant? Or is the study so busy and disorganized that a viewer would have difficulty understanding what’s going on?
How many shapes does the notan have?
Counting shapes is a quick way to check the simplicity of your design. Can the composition be defined with five or seven shapes? With ten? The fewer shapes there are, the more elegant the solution.
Does squinting help you see the notan design?
When you squint, midvalues tend to group with either the light or dark ends of the value range, producing a simplified light-dark view of the subject.
Are you handling the notan in a mass-oriented way?
Is your notan too linear, made up of lots of thin lines? If so, use tools that more easily establish solid masses such as a soft pencil, marker, or brush.
Are you only defining light and shadow in your notan study or shapes and patterns as well?
The lights and darks of notan sometimes correspond to light and shadow—but not always. The notan is ultimately a shape and pattern defining tool. Its lights and darks can correspond to any shape that is integral to the composition.
Does this subject lend itself to a “strict” black and white notan, or is the addition of a third value necessary?
In some subjects, certain areas cannot be resolved with just black and white. The introduction of a third value is necessary.
Are the lights and darks used in the same proportion?
A tenet of good design is that lights and darks should not be used in equal proportion. For greater variation and interest, there should be more of one than the other.
Are white negative spaces just as interesting as black or gray positive areas?
White spaces are an integral part of the design; never think of them as empty or blank.
Do you have a notan app loaded on your mobile device?
When working outdoors, a notan app can help you create digital notan studies on the fly.
EXERCISE: ORIENTING TO NOTAN
OVERVIEW: This first exercise will orient you to “thinking in notan,” defining a composition with just two or three values. By tracing the patterns of light and dark, you will reverse engineer the painting to reveal the underlying notan design. There’s more to this exercise than simply tracing. Most subjects (and paintings) have many intermediary values, and determining whether to assign them to white or black requires judgement. Consider doing a few different notan interpretations of the same painting. You’ll see how changing the balance between light and dark or adding a midvalue affects the composition. Small changes can affect the outcome in noticeable ways.
Place a sheet of tracing paper over the reproduction. Using a marker, as shown here, or a soft pencil, begin tracing. The mountains on the left and the foreground mountains on the right are quite dark and easily interpreted as black. But the clouds and parts of the mountain closest to the sunset are midvalues. Should these passages be assigned to white or black? The goal is to find a balance that indicates the essential character of the subject. There is more than one solution. I’ll do two studies in strict notan and one in liberal notan.
EXERCISE: NOTAN FROM OBSERVATION
OVERVIEW: In this exercise, you’ll learn how to do notan thumbnails from direct observation, which is essential when working in the field. This is more challenging than cropping or tracing a photo because you have to draw and position the elements within an existing window in your sketchbook. To make this easier, I recommend a placement exercise that considers options based on where the major shapes fall within a simple grid.
MATERIALS: Sketchbook | Drawing tools (bold marker, soft pencil, or brush) | Plastic or cardboard viewfinder