Studio Notan LEARNING HUB
Launch Studio
Student version · High School: Art I

Massing Dark and Light

More than a century ago, Arthur Wesley Dow taught American art students to see a picture as a few masses of dark and light, and he borrowed a Japanese word for it: notan. In this unit you will work the way his students did, from studies of master works, through a sequence of small studies, to a finished notan in the studio and in ink and cut paper. Then you will put it to work as a logo, a poster or a page, decide whose images you may use, critique it, and add it to your portfolio.

Nine small circles fold up over the top edge. The tenth, identical in size and shape, folds out to the right instead, and its lone piece becomes the focal point.

the sheet’s front a flipped piece, showing the back the ground

Open Studio Notan

I can

  • reduce an artwork to two and then three values, and compare how two artists massed dark and light
  • make eight studies of one subject and justify the one I develop
  • say where every image I use came from and whether I may use it
  • turn my studio design into cut paper with india ink and a gouache gray
  • adapt my notan for a logo, a poster or a book page and test it at that size
  • critique my work and a classmate’s, and defend my decisions with evidence

Words to know

Notan
Japanese for dark-light: the arrangement of dark and light masses in a design.
Mass
A large shape of one value.
Subordination
One dominant part, with smaller parts organized around it.
Study
A small, quick work that tests one idea.
Copyright
The creator’s legal right over copies of a work, from the moment it is made.
Public domain
Work anyone may use because its copyright has ended or never existed.
Portfolio
A selected collection of your work that shows your process and progress.

What to do

  1. Make two-value and then three-value marker studies of a historical work and a contemporary design. Write how each artist massed dark and light.
  2. Make eight numbered studies of one subject from observation, each with a different arrangement of dark and light. Star one and justify it with a principle of design.
  3. Fill in your source note. If you trace a photo, it must be one you took, one in the public domain, or one you have permission to use and credit.
  4. In the studio, set the sheet to 6 by 6 inches in the Paper section and the colors to black, white and gray on the Color tab. Build your starred study with at least one nested cut, then export it and its cut lines.
  5. Cut it in paper: ink on the front, white on the back, a gouache gray for the ground. Use your printed cut lines as a template, and dry-fit before you glue.
  6. Adapt your notan for a logo, a poster or a book page, and test it at that size.
  7. Write a critique of your work and a classmate’s, then build your portfolio entry with a 150 to 250 word artist statement.

Challenge

Make one design work both at 1 inch wide as a logo and at 11 by 17 inches as a poster, changing as little as you can.

Check your work

  • My studies show at least three different ways of massing dark and light.
  • My source note says where every image came from.
  • My final notan has one dominant mass, three values and at least one nested cut.
  • My paper pieces are cleanly cut and line up with their holes.
  • Every judgment in my critique points to a specific area of the work.
  • My portfolio entry shows the path from first study to finished notan.

Think about it

  • What did the gray do that black and white alone could not?
  • Which study surprised you, and why did you not choose it?
  • What changed when your design moved from screen to paper, and from paper to logo size?
  • Where would you draw the line between borrowing an image and taking one?

Teacher version of this unit