How To Create A Notan With Photoshop 2018

Notan is a Japanese term which literally means "lite night harmony". Artists use "notan studies" to explore unlike arrangements of light and dark elements in a painting, without having the lark of other elements like color, texture and finer details.

In practice, this involves painting the darks with blackness and the lights with white (known every bit a 2 value notan). Sometimes, gray is also used every bit an intermediate value (3 or 4 value notans). A notan with more than 4 values is pretty much just a value study.

Below is an case of a 2 value notan study of James Whistler's painting:

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Whistler's Female parent, 1871

Discover how simple the notan is? The detail is simplified dramatically and all that is left is this the light and dark elements.

A mistake many artists make with notan studies is using likewise much item, but that is missing the whole point of the notan study in my stance.

How To Utilise Notan In Painting

Every painting has some kind of residue between calorie-free and nighttime elements. Sometimes in that location is a strong disharmonism between lights and darks (similar in the Renaissance paintings), and sometimes it is more subtle (like in the Impressionist paintings).

Even so, the rest of light and dark elements in a painting is non always apparent on first glance, every bit there are many other elements competing for your attention like color and brushwork.

A notan is used to filter out all these other elements and then that the rest of calorie-free and nighttime elements is revealed. In a sense, a notan represents the most basic abstract design of a painting.

For case, take the following painting past Ilya Repin:

Ilya Repin, Girl With Flowers, Daughter Of The Artist, 1878

My simple 2 value notan eliminates all the "noise" in the painting and reveals what would appear to be a stiff composition of lights and darks.

In some paintings, the notan design will be a dominant feature, with a strong arrangement of light and dark elements. In other paintings, the notan design will be less influential and other elements will be the focus. This is apparent in many of the loftier-cardinal paintings by the Impressionists which do not have potent underlying notan designs.

Claude Monet, The Archway To Giverny Under The Snow, 1885

If I do a two value notan of this painting by Claude Monet, this is what I get. This is what I would phone call a weak notan design, as there is no rest between the light and dark elements or an interesting blueprint.

This brings me to the point that whilst you can build a painting around a strong notan design, it is not essential to practice so by any means. You could create a beautiful painting without whatever regard for the notan design, but you lot would just need to rely more on the other visual elements like color saturation, brushwork and composition.

What Makes A Strong Notan Pattern?

Here are some fundamental features of paintings which I consider to have strong notan designs:

• Strong value groups (lights grouped together and darks grouped together). This is the opposite of having values scattered all over the place. The painting by Sir Arthur Streeton beneath is a perfect instance of value groups.
• Lights counterbalanced confronting darks.
• An organic design.
• An interesting blueprint created by the lights and darks.

Arthur Streeton, Golden Summer, Eaglemont, 1889

How To Create Your Own Notan Studies

The purpose of a notan study in fine art is not to testify off your dexterity with a brush. It is just a composition tool to help you blueprint your paintings. Then it does not really matter how y'all do your notan studies.

Here are some of the different means you can do a notan report:

• On your reckoner by simplifying the values and posterizing the prototype (y'all tin can practice this in nigh editing programs).
• With white and black pigment (the medium does non affair - oil, acrylic or watercolor would exist fine).
• With pencils (however I suggest you use a dark course of pencil).
• With thick, black markers.

The notans in this post were created either past using the posterize technique on the estimator or with paint on sheet boards.

(You might also be interested in my Painting University course. Information technology goes into much more detail on the fundamentals of fine art.)

2 Value Notan

When creating a ii value notan study, I employ white for any areas which are hit past some kind of direct light and black for any areas which are not hit by direct light. The usual exceptions to this are objects which have white or black local colors (like a white dress or black suit). But even then, a white dress in shadow can announceddarker than a black suit under direct light.

The other method I utilize is merely to split the painting into two value groups - values which are above the half-way point in the painting, and values which are beneath.

I too note that the apply of white and black are simply symbolic. It does non mean the lightest light and darkest dark are actually white and black. White is only symbolic of low-cal, and black is symbolic of dark.

A 2 value notan study is perfect for subjects which have a simple value structure and big shapes, like the painting below by Claude Monet:

Claude Monet, Etretat, Cliff Of D'Aval, Sunset, 1885

Y'all can ever tell if a painting has a potent value composition if yous can identify the bailiwick through a 2 value notan. Accept for example the intricate portrait below past Giovanni Boldini.

With only a 2 value notan youshould be able to make out what the subject field is. It provides a significant amount of data almost the subject with but white and blackness. This is considering Giovanni Boldini skillfully grouped the lights and darks and then that there is this strong foundation congenital on value. This may not be apparent on starting time glance.

Giovanni Boldini, Girl With Blackness Cat, 1885

three Value Notan

About of the time a 2 value notan will be sufficient, but sometimes a painting volition have a distinct mid-tone element which is overlooked when just using white and black. A 3 value notan is useful for paintings with a more sophisticated value structure. Information technology provides more information about the subject, but the primal notan design tends to exist less obvious.

The painting below by John Vocalizer Sargent, whilst it is non the best instance of a notan design, has a distinct low-cal, mid-tone and dark element. In this case, a 3rd value is useful to capture those mid-tones.

John Singer Sargent, Morning Walk, 1888

4 Value Notan

For subjects which have iv or more than distinct value groups, yous could use a 4 value notan. For this you would use white, light grayness, dark grey, blackness.

As mentioned at the start of this post, if you lot utilise any more than 4 values so you are substantially doing a value study, not a notan written report. Whilst a notan study and a value study are similar, a notan written report is more focused on the abstract shapes and pattern created past the residuum between light and dark. A value report is more than realistic and captures the full range of values.

For the painting beneath by Ilya Repin, I provide two, three and 4 value notans to demonstrate the differences between them. The 4 value notan seems to exist useful in this instance to capture some of the subtleties of the painting.

Ilya Repin, Portrait Of Composer And Announcer Pavel Ivanovich Blaramberg, 1884

The 2 value notan provides the to the lowest degree information and ignores the mid-tones of the painting.

The three value notan captures the mid-tones, only I call back we could exercise better with the addition of another value.

The 4 value notan accounts for light and dark mid-tone elements, which appears to exist suitable for this painting.

Summary

• Notan refers to the balance betwixt lite and nighttime elements.
• You can employ notan studies to explore the dissimilar arrangements or patterns of light and dark elements.
• Depending on how diverse the values are in your subject, you could use either a two, three or 4 value notan written report. Nearly of the time, a 2 value notan is all that is needed.

Source: https://drawpaintacademy.com/notan/

Posted by: mayfieldivii2001.blogspot.com

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