How to Use Notan

Why it helps and how to do it.

Many of you already know about the concept of notan, but for those who not heard of it, it is a word and concept borrowed from Japanese.

Edward Simmons Old Woman Peeling an Orange. Simmons connects the woman's dark shawl to the door and the wall behind her, giving her head and hands more importance.

What is Notan?

The term refers to the balance and interplay of light and dark elements within a composition, emphasizing harmony and the interconnectedness of opposites.

The basic concept is also sometimes called “massing,” “shape welding” or “value massing” in Western art culture.

Frank Brangwyn Sunday.

Putting it into practice

To put the concept of notan into practice, I recommend doing a preliminary sketch using black ink or gouache on smooth board or watercolor paper, interpreting everything in terms of light shapes and dark shapes. It usually helps to choose a subject that is unevenly lit with direct light. Use a big brush and limit yourself to a minute or two. Try not to get bogged down in details.

The lighter parts of the scene can be assigned to the light mass, while the darker elements become part of the dark mass. The parts that you want the viewer to notice are highly contrasting. You can limit detail and soften edges within the darks.

Frank Brangwyn

How notan can help your compositions

The reason I find such an exercise useful is that a simple tonal design has much more impact. You can tell at a glance what's going on, and it reads from across the room or when it’s reduced to a tiny size.

If I don't do it I tend to put the full range of values in the each area, or worse yet, rendering each section of the picture in middle values.

I mentioned notan in the earlier Substack posts about Grouping Values and Painting a Film-Noir Streetscape.