A Series and a Voice: Chromatic Notan from Your Own Photographs: High School: Art II to IV, teacher version

Overview

Students in Art II, III and IV already know how a notan works: a shape cut from the sheet and flipped over an edge, so the piece mirrors its hole. What they are ready for now is what advanced courses ask of them: a body of work rather than a single piece, a personal source, and a voice they can explain. In this unit each student photographs a theme of their own, turns three to five of the photographs into notans in Studio Notan with the trace tools, holds the series together with a three-value palette built from the studio’s color harmonies, and makes one piece by hand in painted or colored paper. Along the way they research a designer or artist who works in dark and light, write an artist statement, and curate a portfolio section with a written self-evaluation.

Differentiate by course. An Art II student completes three pieces and uses the research as a model; Art III students justify each design decision and revise from critique; Art IV students frame the series as a self-directed investigation with a written question. That framing connects to the Sustained Investigation in the College Board’s AP 2-D Art and Design portfolio, which asks for an inquiry pursued through practice, experimentation and revision. This unit is not written or endorsed by the College Board, so check the current AP course description before counting any of it toward a portfolio. The sessions are written as 90-minute blocks; on a 50-minute schedule, each block becomes two periods.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the unit, learners can do each of these. The middle column is what you will see or hear that shows it; the last column links to the standards it meets, quoted in full at the end of the page.

#	By the end, learners can	What you will see	Standards
1	Produce a series of three to five notans from the student’s own photographs that share a stated constant, such as a theme, palette or kind of cut, and vary on purpose.	The portfolio section holds three to five exported notans with their source photographs attached, and the student names in one sentence what stays the same across the series and points to where it changes in each piece.	§117.305(c)(2)(A) §117.304(c)(2)(A)
2	Translate a photograph the student took, or a documented public-domain image, into a two-value notan by setting the threshold and Detail deliberately, and explain which middle grays went dark.	The process page shows two Two-tone previews of one photo at different thresholds, a written note naming the area that changed sides and why the chosen split keeps the subject readable, and a source line saying who took the photo.	§117.304(c)(1)(A) §117.303(c)(2)(C)
3	Compare at least two harmony-based palettes for the series, then adjust brightness until a grayscale check shows front, back and ground as three distinct values.	The palette record lists three hex codes and the harmony used for each palette tried, a grayscale version sits beside each final piece with three clearly separate grays, and the student says which role is darkest, middle and lightest.	§117.304(c)(1)(B) §117.305(c)(1)(B)
4	Select paint or paper suited to one piece of the series and realize it by hand, cutting with a craft knife or scissors, flipping each piece over its edge and mounting it cleanly.	One mounted paper notan whose three papers keep the studio version’s value order in a side-by-side squint check, with no torn edges or overcuts, every piece in its mirrored place across its edge, and a two-sentence note on how paper changed the design.	§117.304(c)(2)(F) §117.305(c)(2)(F)
5	Research a designer or artist who works in dark and light, report how one dated work uses silhouette, value or figure-ground in its cultural context, and connect one strategy to the series.	A one-page note or three-minute talk names the artist, the work, its date and place, describes two specific dark-light strategies in it, and points to a piece in the series where the student borrowed or rejected one.	§117.305(c)(3)(A) §117.303(c)(3)(B)
6	Write an artist statement for the series that names its intent, its source photographs, the elements and principles it relies on, one influence and what makes it the student’s own.	A statement of 150 to 250 words that a partner can check off against six parts: the theme, the source photographs, the palette rule, at least two elements or principles each tied to a named piece, one influence from the research, and a claim of what is unique.	§117.304(c)(4)(C) §117.305(c)(4)(C)
7	Curate a portfolio section or small exhibition by choosing, ordering and titling the works, and write a self-evaluation that describes, analyzes, interprets and evaluates the series and sets a next step from critique.	A sequenced, titled set of three to five works including a photograph of the paper piece, and a self-evaluation with the four critique moves labeled that quotes one peer comment and names the change it led to or will lead to.	§117.305(c)(4)(E) §117.304(c)(4)(D) §117.303(c)(4)(B)

Before you teach

What learners should already know

Make a basic notan: cut a shape from a sheet and flip it over an edge so the piece mirrors its hole, in paper or in the studio.
Name and apply the elements of art and principles of design, as in Art I.
Move a photograph from a phone to a computer or tablet.
Take part in a structured critique that separates describing from judging.

Vocabulary

series: A group of related artworks that share a theme, format or method and differ in planned ways, made to be seen together.
body of work: A collection of an artist’s works that together show a sustained line of thought or investigation.
chromatic notan: A notan in colors rather than black and white, which still depends on clear differences of value between front, back and ground.
value: The lightness or darkness of a color. In a three-value notan the sheet, the flipped pieces and the ground each hold one step.
threshold: In the studio’s Trace tab, the brightness level that divides a photo into two: pixels at or below it become front.
color harmony: A rule for choosing colors by their places on a color wheel, such as complementary, analogous or triadic.
silhouette: A subject shown as one flat dark or light shape without interior detail, readable by its outline alone.
public domain: Creative work that copyright no longer protects, or never did, which anyone may use. Work under copyright needs permission.
artist statement: A short text in which the artist explains the intent, sources, choices and influences behind a body of work.
curate: To select, order and present works for an exhibition or portfolio so that they communicate as a group.

Materials

Computers or tablets with Studio Notan open at /studio, one per student
Students’ own digital photographs on a chosen theme, at least eight each; a phone camera is enough
Process pages or a sketchbook for source notes, screenshots, palette records and drafts
Projected images, previewed by the teacher: pages from Arthur Wesley Dow’s Composition, Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Tonhalle posters, Saul Bass’s poster for The Man with the Golden Arm and selected works by Kara Walker
A dozen colored paper scraps per pair for the value sort
Student-grade gouache in the series palette plus black and white, flat brushes, palettes and water cups
Heavy drawing paper or bristol board for painted sheets, or pads of colored paper such as Canson Mi-Teintes or Color-aid
India ink and round brushes, for students who make their dark sheet in ink
Craft knives with #11 blades, self-healing cutting mats, cork-backed metal rulers and a sharps container; scissors for anyone who prefers them
Glue sticks or acid-free PVA glue, scrap paper for gluing, and a heavy book for pressing
Mat board or foam board, 11 by 14 inches or larger, with room for the sheet and every folded-out piece, for mounting
A printer for exports and templates, grayscale where possible

Read first in the guide

Hub activities to draw on

Two Values, Then Three Value · Developing
One Design, Four Palettes Color · Advanced
A Family of Cuts Unity and harmony · Developing
Difference by Degrees Variety · Developing

Worksheets

Worksheet 3: Chromatic notan and three values

Unit plan

Session 1: Dark and light as a voice

90 minutes · Looking and talking

Project four images large, in grayscale: a page of exercises from Arthur Wesley Dow’s Composition (1899), the book that brought the Japanese term notan into American art teaching; Josef Müller-Brockmann’s Beethoven concert poster for the Tonhalle in Zürich (1955); Saul Bass’s poster for the film The Man with the Golden Arm (1955); and a view of Kara Walker’s cut-paper wall installation Gone (1994), chosen and introduced as the next step describes. Give two minutes of silent looking, then ask: “Where is the figure, where is the ground, and what has each artist left out?”
Give each context in a few sentences. Dow learned Japanese design working with Ernest Fenollosa at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and taught that a picture is built from line, notan and color. Müller-Brockmann and other Swiss designers of the 1950s often built posters from a few flat shapes and type on a grid. Bass reduced a whole film to one jagged arm made of flat shapes, used on the poster and in the animated opening titles. Walker, a Black American artist, took up the silhouette, a polite portrait form of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, to confront the history of slavery and racism in the United States. Gone, first shown at The Drawing Center in New York in 1994 and now in the Museum of Modern Art, takes its first word from Margaret Mitchell’s novel Gone with the Wind; its full title, which parodies the romance novel, uses a racial slur and sexual language, so read it on the museum’s collection page before you decide whether to say it in class. Its figures are deliberate racist caricatures in violent and sexual scenes. Preview her images before class, choose views that suit your students and district policy, and give this context before students look, not after.
Introduce the series. Say: “A series is three to five works that share something and differ in something. You decide both.” Show several of Müller-Brockmann’s Tonhalle posters side by side and have pairs list one constant and one variable. Each student then chooses a theme they can photograph this week: a place, objects at home, shadows at one time of day, or a person who agrees to be photographed.
Talk about sources. A photograph the student took is theirs to transform. An image by someone else must be public domain or openly licensed, with its source written down; a famous photograph traced into a notan is still someone else’s picture. Each student starts a process page listing the theme, the photographs to take and where each will come from.
Assign the research, due in Session 5: one designer or artist who works in dark and light, from the four above or another you approve, such as Henri Matisse’s cut-outs (1940s to 1954), a Chinese jianzhi papercutter or Mexican papel picado. The student prepares a one-page note or a three-minute talk: one work, its date and place, two dark-light strategies in it, and one they might borrow.

Session 2: From photograph to two values, then three

90 minutes · In the studio

Students open the studio and set one sheet size for the whole series in the Paper section of the Controls tab, such as 5 by 5 or 6 by 8 inches, since a series shares a format; a new design starts at 4 by 5.5 inches. Then they choose Trace a photo… from the File menu. Point out that the photo stays in the browser: it is never part of an export or a shared link. See Trace a photo.
Demonstrate the split. Leave Separate by on Brightness, set Preview to Two-tone, and drag the Threshold slowly. Say: “Watch the middle grays change sides. Auto picks the split that makes the two most different groups of pixels, not the one that tells your story. You decide.” Students screenshot two Two-tone previews at different thresholds for the process page and write which area changed sides.
Clean the shapes before tracing: lower Detail from its starting 100 to drop specks and fill pinholes, and try Invert to see whether the light areas make the stronger shape. Press Trace. The shapes wait, filled in cyan, until they are flipped; before choosing an arrow, ask where the mirrored dark should land to strengthen the image. Undo takes a whole traced flip back in one step if the edge was wrong.
Make it three values. On the Color tab, type a middle gray such as #777777 into the Back card’s hex code. The flipped pieces now separate from the sheet as a layer of their own. Export each study from the File menu as Artwork, PNG, and choose Save project so it can be recolored later. See File.
Repeat with at least two more photographs. Circulate and ask each student: “Which grays did you send to the dark side, and what would the picture lose if you had not?” Note each answer on a class checklist. By the end of the block, each student has three saved studies with source lines on the process page.

Session 3: A palette for the series

90 minutes · In the studio

Warm up with a value sort, ten minutes. Pairs line up a dozen colored paper scraps from light to dark without talking, then check the row with a phone camera’s black-and-white filter. Ask which color fooled them, and why a strong yellow or a bright red so often lands in the wrong place.
Demonstrate a harmony with a lock. Open one study and give the Front a real color by typing a hex code such as #2952A3, since a locked black, white or gray has no hue for a harmony to build on. Click the padlock on the Front card and press Triad under Harmonies. With a color locked, a triad carries it around the wheel at the same saturation and lightness, so the palette is planned in hue, not in value, and two colors may read as nearly the same gray. Say: “Hue is not value. Adjust brightness until the design reads in three steps again.” Then show Mono, which steps one hue darker and lighter.
Each student compares at least two harmonies, then chooses one palette rule for the series: the same palette on every piece, or a palette that shifts step by step across it while the value order holds. They record three hex codes per piece, export a PNG of each, and check every export in grayscale beside its gray version from Session 2. Students who want more practice can try One Design, Four Palettes.
Mid-point critique, 25 minutes, in groups of three. Critics speak in four moves, in order: describe what is there, analyze how it is organized, interpret what it seems to be about, and evaluate what works. The maker only listens and writes down one comment to act on.
Students revise one piece in response and write on the process page what they changed and why. Collect the process pages to check the palette records and grayscale checks before Session 4.

Session 4: One piece by hand

90 minutes · Paper and paint

Demonstrate the craft knife before anyone holds one: cut on the mat, blade moving away from the body, the free hand flat behind a cork-backed metal ruler, several light passes rather than one hard one, cap on whenever the knife is set down, used blades into the sharps container. Offer scissors to anyone who prefers them.
Each student chooses one piece of the series and makes its three papers: gouache brushed flat on heavy paper and mixed to match the studio palette, or three colored papers chosen from a pad. Painted sheets dry quickly when the gouache is brushed thin. The front and back colors must be the two sides of one sheet, so paint both sides, or glue the back paper to the reverse of the front paper and press it flat. Before cutting, students photograph the three swatches in black and white and check the value order against the studio version.
Make templates. Print the Cut lines SVG from the File menu at actual size, since it is written at the sheet’s real size, and keep a printed PNG beside it as a guide to where each piece lands. Number each piece lightly in pencil on its front face, which lies face down once it is flipped, with the edge it folds over. Traced shapes can be intricate: allow students to merge tiny islands when cutting by hand, and have them note what they simplified.
Cut, flip and dry-fit: each piece turns over its edge into its mirrored place, laid loose on the mounting board. Everyone stands back and squints before any glue. Then glue the sheet first and each piece after, at the mirror of its hole: as far outside its edge as the hole lies inside, measured with the ruler, and flush with the edge where the hole meets it. Press under a heavy book.
Clean up with five minutes to spare: knives counted back in, brushes washed, paint sealed. Students write two sentences on the process page naming two ways the paper changed the design compared with the screen.

Session 5: Curate, write and critique

90 minutes · Looking and talking

Research share. Each student gives a three-minute talk, or posts the one-page note beside their work: artist, work, date and place, two dark-light strategies, and one they borrowed or rejected in the series.
Artist statement workshop. Show a specific statement beside a vague one and ask which tells a viewer more. Students draft 150 to 250 words naming the theme and source photographs, the palette rule, at least two elements or principles each tied to a named piece, one influence from the research, and what makes the series theirs. Partners check the draft against that list.
Curate. Each student chooses which three to five works go into the portfolio section or onto the wall, in what order, with titles, and with the paper piece among them. Ask: “What should a viewer see first, and what last?” Digital portfolios hold the exported PNGs; photograph the paper piece flat in even light.
Final critique in the four moves from Session 3, then a written self-evaluation: describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate the series in labeled paragraphs, quote one critique comment, and name what it changed or will change.
For Art IV and AP students, add an inquiry question that the series explores and a list of what the next works would test. Remind them that portfolio requirements come from the current AP course description, not from this unit.

Differentiation

Support

Emergent bilingual students (English learners): a word bank of the unit vocabulary in English and the home language, critique sentence stems such as “I notice…”, “This makes me think…” and “One change I would try…”, and the option to draft the artist statement in the home language first and translate it with a partner.
Students with disabilities: a partner or the teacher to draw shapes when a mouse, trackpad or touch is hard, since the studio’s flip chooser answers to the arrow keys, Tab and Enter but drawing needs a pointer; a larger sheet with fewer, larger shapes; adaptive or spring-loaded scissors in place of a knife; pre-drawn templates; extra time; speech-to-text for the statement; and a series of three rather than five.
Students who cannot photograph a theme: a teacher-prepared folder of public-domain photographs from a museum’s open-access collection, each with its source, so the copyright lesson still applies.

Extension

Add a piece that breaks the series’ rule on purpose, and write a paragraph on what the exception reveals about the rest.
Trace a photograph whose subject differs from its surroundings in hue but not in brightness, with “Separate by” set to Color, and compare it with a brightness trace of the same photo.
Design a two-color poster for a school event in the manner of the Swiss posters, with one notan as its image and type set on a grid.
Art IV and AP students: expand the series to eight or more works guided by a written inquiry question, documenting process images and revisions as they go.

Common misconceptions

A series means several copies of the same picture in different colors.: Show a set of Müller-Brockmann’s posters: the grid and the typeface stay largely constant, while the images change. Ask each student to name one constant and one variable in their own series, and to make sure the variable is more than color.
Any three different colors make a three-value notan.: Put a red, a green and a blue of similar lightness on the three cards and view the export in grayscale: the design turns to one flat gray. Hue and value are separate; the grayscale check is how to see value.
Auto finds the correct threshold.: Auto finds the split that makes two statistically distinct groups of pixels. It does not know that a face matters more than its shadow. Have the student compare Auto with two thresholds of their own and argue for one.
An artist statement explains what the picture shows.: A viewer can already see what it shows. A statement says why: the intent, the sources, the choices and what they are meant to do. Hand back any sentence that only describes and ask, “What decision is behind that?”

Assessment

Checks along the way

Session 2 exit check: three saved studies, two threshold screenshots and a source line for each photo on the process page.
Session 3: palette records with hex codes and grayscale checks, collected and returned with one comment each.
Session 4: a look at each student’s first cut edge before the final pieces are cut, with a quick redemonstration where needed.
Session 5: a two-minute conference on the artist statement draft, checked against its six parts.

Rubric

Criterion	Beginning	Developing	Meeting	Exceeding
Series: coherence and range	Fewer than three pieces, or pieces with no shared theme, palette or kind of cut.	Three pieces share a theme, but the connection is loose or the pieces are near copies of each other.	Three to five pieces share a stated constant and vary on purpose, and the student can name both.	The series builds from piece to piece so that its order carries meaning, and each work also stands alone.
Value and color control	Two or more roles read as the same gray, and palettes are not recorded.	Three values show in some pieces; palettes are recorded, but the grayscale check shows a weak step.	Every piece reads in three distinct values in grayscale, and the palette rule holds across the series.	Hue and value are both used deliberately, such as a palette that shifts across the series while the value order holds.
Craft, on screen and in paper	Traces are left full of specks; paper edges are torn, or pieces sit out of their mirrored places.	Some traces are cleaned; paper cuts are mostly clean, with a few overcuts or glue marks.	Traces are cleaned and deliberate; the paper piece has clean cuts, every piece in its mirrored place and no visible glue.	The paper piece is ready to exhibit, and the student adapted the design for paper and can explain each change.
Research and context	An artist is named without a specific work, date or place.	One work is identified with its date and place and described in general terms.	Two specific dark-light strategies are analyzed in a dated work, and one is connected to the series.	The strategies are placed in their historical and cultural context, and the student argues for borrowing or rejecting them.
Statement, curation and self-evaluation	The statement describes what the pictures show, and there is no self-evaluation.	The statement names the theme and some choices; the self-evaluation is general.	The statement has all six parts, and the self-evaluation quotes a critique comment and names a next step.	Order, titles and statement work together, and the next step grows clearly from the critique.

Safety

Craft knives are used only after a whole-class demonstration and under direct supervision: cut on a self-healing mat, blade moving away from the body, the free hand flat behind a cork-backed metal ruler, cap on whenever the knife is set down, and knives counted out and back in. Used blades go into a sharps container. Offer scissors to any student who prefers them. Choose gouache and india ink labeled nontoxic with the ACMI AP seal, cover the tables, keep the room ventilated, and wear aprons, since india ink stains permanently. Wash brushes and hands with soap and water. Use glue sticks or PVA glue, never spray adhesive, in the classroom. Students photograph people only with their consent; a photo being traced stays in the browser and is never included in an export or a shared link.

Standards cited

TEKS §117.303, §117.304 and §117.305 (Art, Levels II, III and IV). Quoted word for word from the official text.

Art, Level II

Creative expression

Creative expression. The student communicates ideas through original artworks using a variety of media with appropriate skills. The student expresses thoughts and ideas creatively while challenging the imagination, fostering reflective thinking, and developing disciplined effort and progressive problem-solving skills. The student is expected to:

§117.303(c)(2)(C): use an understanding of copyright and public domain to appropriate imagery constituting the main focal point of original artwork when working from images rather than direct observation or imagination; Source

Historical and cultural relevance

Historical and cultural relevance. The student demonstrates an understanding of art history and culture by analyzing artistic styles, historical periods, and a variety of cultures. The student develops global awareness and respect for the traditions and contributions of diverse cultures. The student is expected to:

§117.303(c)(3)(B): analyze specific characteristics in artwork from a variety of cultures; Source

Critical evaluation and response

Critical evaluation and response. The student responds to and analyzes the artworks of self and others, contributing to the development of the lifelong skills of making informed judgments and reasoned evaluations. The student is expected to:

§117.303(c)(4)(B): evaluate and analyze artwork using a method of critique such as describing the artwork, analyzing the way it is organized, interpreting the artist's intention, and evaluating the success of the artwork; Source

Art, Level III

Foundations: observation and perception

Foundations: observation and perception. The student develops and expands visual literacy skills using critical thinking, imagination, and the senses to observe and explore the world by learning about, understanding, and applying the elements of art, principles of design, and expressive qualities. The student uses what the student sees, knows, and has experienced as sources for examining, understanding, and creating original artwork. The student is expected to:

§117.304(c)(1)(A): analyze visual characteristics of sources to illustrate concepts, demonstrate flexibility in solving problems, create multiple solutions, and think imaginatively; Source
§117.304(c)(1)(B): compare and contrast the elements of art, including line, shape, color, texture, form, space, and value, as the fundamentals of art in personal artwork; Source

Creative expression

Creative expression. The student communicates ideas through original artwork using a variety of media with appropriate skills. The student expresses thoughts and ideas creatively while challenging the imagination, fostering reflective thinking, and developing disciplined effort and progressive problem-solving skills. The student is expected to:

§117.304(c)(2)(A): create original artwork using multiple solutions from direct observation, original sources, experiences, and imagination in order to expand personal themes that demonstrate artistic intent; Source
§117.304(c)(2)(F): select from a variety of art media and tools to express intent in drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, fiber art, design, digital art and media, photography, jewelry, and mixed media. Source

Critical evaluation and response

§117.304(c)(4)(C): analyze personal artwork in order to create a written response such as an artist's statement reflecting intent, inspiration, the elements of art and principles of design within the artwork, and measure of uniqueness; Source
§117.304(c)(4)(D): use responses to artwork critiques to make decisions about future directions in personal work; Source

Art, Level IV

Foundations: observation and perception

§117.305(c)(1)(B): compare and contrast the elements of art, including line, shape, color, texture, form, space, and value, as the fundamentals of art in personal artwork; Source

Creative expression

§117.305(c)(2)(A): produce an original body of artwork that integrates information from a variety of sources, including original sources, and demonstrates sustained self-directed investigations into specific themes such as a series or concentration of works; Source
§117.305(c)(2)(F): create artwork, singularly and in a series, by selecting from a variety of art materials and tools appropriate to course work in drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, fiber art, design, digital art and media, photography, jewelry, and mixed media. Source

Historical and cultural relevance

§117.305(c)(3)(A): research and report on selected historical periods, artists, general themes, trends, and styles of art; Source

Critical evaluation and response

§117.305(c)(4)(C): analyze personal artwork in order to create a written response such as an artist's statement reflecting intent, inspiration, the elements of art and principles of design within the artwork, and the measure of uniqueness; Source
§117.305(c)(4)(E): construct a physical or electronic portfolio by evaluating and analyzing personal original artwork to provide evidence of learning; and Source