Massing Dark and Light: Notan as the Ground of Composition: High School: Art I, teacher version

Overview

Art I is often a student’s first high school art course, and notan gives it a foundation. Arthur Wesley Dow’s Composition (1899) taught American students to see a picture as a few masses of dark and light, before its details and before its color. The same habit is behind a logo that reads at an inch, a poster that reads across a hallway and a print cut in wood. This unit asks students to work as Dow’s students did: from master works, through a sequence of small studies, to a finished design.

Students build the final notan in the studio, where every cut can be refolded or undone, then commit it to india ink, gouache and cut paper, where nothing can. Along the way they settle whose image they may trace, adapt the design for a real use, compare careers built on dark and light, write a critique that justifies their decisions, and file a portfolio entry. The unit builds on the middle school level’s figure, ground and nested cut; students who missed it can catch up with Two Values, Then Three.

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	Reduce a historical work and a contemporary design to two-value and three-value notan studies, and compare in writing how each artist masses dark and light and what their styles share.	The sketchbook holds four marker studies without outlines, two per work, each limited to its stated number of values, and a written comparison of at least three sentences naming each work’s dominant mass, where each places its lightest light, one thing their styles share and one difference.	§117.302(c)(3)(A) §117.302(c)(1)(B)
2	Generate eight or more notan studies of one subject from direct observation, varying the share and placement of dark and light, and justify the one chosen for development with a principle of design.	The study sheet has at least eight numbered 2-inch studies of one subject using at least three distinct massing strategies (dark dominant, light dominant, nearly even), one starred, with a two- or three-sentence justification naming a principle such as subordination, emphasis or balance.	§117.302(c)(1)(A) §117.302(c)(2)(A) §117.302(c)(1)(C)
3	Document the source of any image traced or appropriated and decide whether it may be used, distinguishing a student’s own photograph, a public-domain work and a copyrighted image that needs permission.	Every student completes a source note before exporting: who made the source image, where it came from and its status (own work, public domain, or permission with credit), or “drawn from observation”; on the same note every student sorts the three sample images from session 3 as own work, public domain or needing permission; no traced design rests on a photograph the student cannot account for.	§117.302(c)(2)(C)
4	Translate the final studio design into cut paper with india ink and a gouache gray mixed to the middle of a value scale, keeping three distinct values, clean cuts and every piece mirrored across its edge.	The mounted paper notan matches the studio export in its cuts and fold edges; the gray sits visibly halfway between the black and the white on the student’s test strip; cut edges are smooth, with no torn fibers or glue marks, and every piece lines up with its hole.	§117.302(c)(2)(F)
5	Adapt the final notan to one real use, a logo, a poster or a book page, testing it at the size that use demands and revising any part that no longer reads.	The student shows the application beside the original (the logo viewed or printed 1 inch wide, or the poster or page laid out with its text as a gray mass) and names at least one change made so it still reads, such as a sliver removed or a gap widened.	§117.302(c)(2)(B)
6	Compare two careers built on massing dark and light, such as logo designer and printmaker, by their tools, their training and the way their work reaches an audience.	A paragraph of at least five sentences, written in pairs, that names two careers, one tool and one training path for each, one example of notan in each (such as the FedEx logotype or a Vallotton woodcut), and one difference in how the work reaches people.	§117.302(c)(3)(D)
7	Critique one’s own notan and a peer’s in writing by describing, analyzing, interpreting and evaluating, and justify each artistic decision with a located area of the work and a named principle.	Two written critiques, self and peer, with a paragraph for each step; every evaluation points to a located area (such as “the large dark mass at the upper left”) and a principle, the interpretation states the work’s message or metaphor, and the artist defends one decision aloud when a partner questions it.	§117.302(c)(4)(A) §117.302(c)(4)(B) §117.302(c)(1)(D)
8	Construct a portfolio entry that traces the design from first study to finished paper notan and evaluates, in an artist statement, one decision that changed along the way.	The entry, physical or electronic, holds the master studies, the numbered study sheet, the studio export, a straight-on photograph of the paper notan, the application and the source note, with a 150 to 250 word statement naming one change between study and final and why it was made.	§117.302(c)(4)(C)

Before you teach

What learners should already know

Name the elements of art and the principles of design, especially value, shape, space, balance and emphasis.
Make a basic notan by cutting a shape from the edge of a square and flipping it over that edge, on paper or in the studio.
Tell figure from ground, and cut accurately along a drawn line with scissors.

Vocabulary

Notan: Japanese for dark-light. Dow used it for the arrangement of dark and light masses in a composition, as distinct from the light and shadow on a lit object.
Mass: A large shape of one value, made by grouping many small darks or lights into one.
Middle value: A gray halfway between black and white, judged by eye. It is the third value in a three-value notan.
Subordination: Dow’s principle that one dominant part organizes the smaller parts around it, as a trunk organizes its branches.
Study: A small, quick work made to test one idea before the final piece.
Appropriation: Taking an existing image into a new artwork. Artists do it openly, and it always raises the question of whose image it is.
Copyright: A creator’s legal right to control copies and adaptations of a work. In the United States it begins the moment the work is fixed, as when a photograph is taken.
Public domain: Works that anyone may use because their copyright has expired or never existed. Hokusai’s prints and Dow’s Composition are old enough to be in it.
Fair use: A part of United States law that allows limited use of copyrighted work without permission for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching or research. Courts decide it case by case, so this unit does not rely on it.
Portfolio: A selected, organized collection of an artist’s work, physical or electronic, that shows both finished pieces and the process behind them.

Materials

Computers or tablets with Studio Notan open, and a printer that can print at 100 percent, actual size
Images to project: pages from Dow’s Composition, Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa, Vallotton’s woodcut Money (L’Argent), the FedEx logotype, and Shepard Fairey’s Hope poster beside the photograph it was based on
Sketchbooks or drawing paper, pencils, black chisel-tip markers and a middle-gray marker
Objects to draw from observation: a potted plant, a bicycle wheel, a stack of chairs, or a view through a window
6-inch squares of smooth 100 lb bristol board, one per student plus spares
Waterproof black india ink, 1-inch flat brushes, water jars and paper towels
Black and white gouache, palettes and scrap strips for testing the middle value
11 by 14 inch sheets of smooth bristol board for the ground, or middle-gray paper if time is short
Scissors for every student, including adaptive scissors
Craft knives with fresh blades, self-healing cutting mats and cork-backed metal rulers, for students who have watched the demonstration, and a sharps container
White colored pencils, low-tack tape and glue sticks
Aprons, newspaper and a flat place for work to dry
Portfolio folders or the school’s electronic portfolio, and a phone or camera to photograph work
The Level 3 three-value worksheet and the teacher rubric kit, printed

Read first in the guide

Hub activities to draw on

Two Values, Then Three Value · Developing
The Cut That Breaks the Rule Emphasis · Developing
The Measure of the Sheet Proportion and scale · Advanced
A Family of Cuts Unity and harmony · Developing

Worksheets

Unit plan

Session 1: Masses before lines: reading like Dow

50 minutes · Paper and paint

Dow’s idea, 10 minutes. Introduce Arthur Wesley Dow and his textbook Composition (1899). Dow built art study on three elements, line, notan and color, and took the Japanese word notan, dark-light, because English had no single word for the harmony of dark and light masses. In Boston he studied Japanese art with the scholar Ernest Fenollosa, curator of Japanese art at the Museum of Fine Arts, and in 1893 became an assistant curator there; from 1904 he directed fine arts at Teachers College, Columbia University, where Georgia O’Keeffe was among his students. Share, in your own words, his warning that darkening parts of a design with black ink is easy, and that not every two-value arrangement is a good one.
Squint at the sources, 10 minutes. Project Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa (about 1830 to 1832) and Félix Vallotton’s woodcut Money (L’Argent, 1898, from the series Intimités), then a contemporary mark: the FedEx logotype, designed by Lindon Leader at Landor Associates in 1994, with an arrow hidden in the space between the E and the x. Everyone squints. Ask: “Where is the largest dark mass? Where is the lightest light? Which part dominates, and which parts are subordinate to it?”
Two values, then three, 20 minutes. In sketchbooks, students draw four small rectangles, each in the proportions of its source. For one historical work and one contemporary design, they make a two-value study with the black marker only, then a three-value study adding the gray marker. The rule is Dow’s: masses, no outlines. Circulate and ask, “What did you have to decide was dark?”
Compare in writing, 10 minutes. At least three sentences: each work’s dominant mass, where each puts its lightest light, one thing the two works share and one difference between the historical and the contemporary way of massing. Keep the page for the portfolio.

Session 2: A sequence of studies

50 minutes · Paper and paint

Choose a subject, 5 minutes. Set out subjects to draw from observation: a potted plant, a bicycle wheel, a stack of chairs, the view through a window. Each student chooses one. Share Dow’s advice from Composition: make many small preliminary sketches before attempting a large drawing.
Eight studies, 20 minutes. Students draw eight 2-inch squares and fill each with a two-value notan of the same subject, each arranged differently: dark dominant, light dominant, nearly even, the subject cropped by an edge, one large mass with small accents (Dow’s subordination), the subject small in a wide field, and two of their own. Number them. Masses only, no outlines.
Pick and justify, 10 minutes. Pin the sheets up and have students step to the far side of the room and squint. Each stars one study and writes two or three sentences naming the principle that makes it strongest. A partner asks one hard question about the choice, and the answer goes in the margin.
Ink and gouache, 15 minutes. Cover the tables and open windows or run the ventilation. Each student brushes india ink over one face of a 6-inch bristol square, edge to edge, and leaves the back white. Then each mixes black and white gouache toward a gray halfway between them, testing it on a scrap strip between a black swatch and a white one (Dow’s students, too, had to mix the middle tone and decide by eye when it was right), and paints an 11 by 14 inch bristol sheet with it for the ground. Dry flat, cap the ink and wash brushes.

Session 3: Whose image? The notan in the studio

50 minutes · In the studio

Whose photo is it, 10 minutes. Before anyone traces, ask, “If you trace a photograph, whose picture is it?” Explain that in the United States a photograph is protected by copyright from the moment it is taken, and usually belongs to the photographer or the photographer’s employer. Show Shepard Fairey’s 2008 Hope poster of Barack Obama beside the Associated Press photograph by Mannie Garcia that it was based on; the dispute over it went to court and was settled in 2011, with no ruling on whether the poster was fair use. Give three safe sources: a photo you took, a public-domain work (a Hokusai print from a museum’s open-access collection, for example), or an image you have permission to use, credited. Show three sample images, a photo a student took, an open-access Hokusai print and a news photograph, and have everyone sort them on the source note. Every student fills in a source note, even those drawing from observation.
Sheet and colors, 5 minutes. Open the studio. A new design starts 4 by 5.5 inches, so in the Paper section of the Controls tab set the width and the height both to 6 inches, the size of the bristol square. On the Color tab (see Colors) leave the Front black, type FFFFFF into the Back card and a middle gray such as 808080 into the Ground card, so the screen shows the same three values as the ink, the white back and the gouache ground.
Build, 20 minutes. Most students redraw their starred study with the Pen, Draw and shape tools, flipping each cut over the edge its piece should cross. Students working from a photograph choose ‘Trace a photo…’ in the File menu (see Trace a photo), set the Threshold while watching the Two-tone preview, press Trace, and flip the shapes that wait on the sheet. Every design needs at least one nested cut: a small shape drawn inside a hole, then returned as an island with ‘Put back’ or sent to another edge with an arrow.
Revise, 10 minutes. Everyone squints from the back of the room: is one mass clearly dominant? Undo, pressed straight after a flip, reopens the chooser to try another edge; Move slides and resizes a cut. Press Replay to watch every flip again in order and check that the design builds toward its dominant mass.
Export, 5 minutes. From the File menu, export Artwork as a PNG and as an SVG, export Cut lines, and choose ‘Save project’. The traced photo appears in none of these files and in no share link, yet the shapes still came from it, so the source note travels with the design. Before the next session, print each student’s Cut lines file at 100 percent; it is drawn at the sheet’s real size.

Session 4: Ink, gouache and the knife

90 minutes (one block) · Paper and paint

Safety demonstration, 10 minutes. Demonstrate the craft knife: a fresh blade, a self-healing mat, a cork-backed metal ruler for straight cuts, the blade moving away from the body and the other hand behind the ruler, several light passes rather than one hard one, and the blade retracted or capped whenever it is put down. Only students who watched receive a knife; scissors remain a full option for every cut. Count knives out.
Template, 15 minutes. The Cut lines file leaves out the sheet’s own edge, so each student first rules the sheet’s outline on the printout, lining it up with the lines that stop at an edge. Knife users tape the printed cut lines face up over the inked face of the bristol square with low-tack tape, corners matched, and cut through both layers along the lines. Scissors users cut the shapes out of the printout first, then trace around them with white colored pencil on the ink.
Cut and flip, 30 minutes. Cut every shape and keep every piece. Turn each piece over its fold edge, white side up, onto the gray ground, checking the studio export for which edge. For the nested cut, cut the small shape from its flipped piece, turn it back over, ink side up, and set it into the hole where it came from.
Dry-fit, 15 minutes. Lay everything loose beside the screen showing the studio export. Stand back and squint. Where does the paper read differently from the screen: a sliver that vanished, an edge that wavers, a gray that sits too close to the black? Each student records one difference for the portfolio statement and fixes what can be fixed.
Glue and photograph, 15 minutes. Glue the sheet down first, then each piece, straight edges aligned with their holes, and press under a board. Photograph the finished notan straight on, in even light, for the portfolio.
Clean up, 5 minutes. Cap the ink, wash brushes, drop used blades in the sharps container, count knives back in, and wipe tables; india ink stains permanently.

Session 5: Notan at work: logo, poster, page and print

50 minutes · Studio, then paper and paint

Dow’s applications, 8 minutes. In later editions of Composition, Dow wrote that the uses of two values are countless, and listed seals, initial letters, posters and textiles among them. He treated the illustrated book page as a composition in three values: white paper, gray type, dark picture. Show the FedEx logotype again and a Hokusai print: each is notan put to work.
Choose an application, 20 minutes. A logo: print the PNG 3 inches wide, which makes the sheet at its center 1 inch wide (the PNG frames the design three sheets wide), or for a quick look zoom out as far as the Zoom control goes, 25 percent; remove or enlarge any cut that disappears, and save the revised design as a separate project. A poster or a book page: on 11 by 17 inch paper, place a print of the notan as the dark picture and letter or rule a block of text as the gray, leaving the paper white, and adjust until the page holds together.
Careers, 15 minutes. Put three careers on the board. A graphic designer creates logos and brand identities, as Lindon Leader did for FedEx. A printmaker cuts and prints blocks: a Hokusai print was the work of a team, the designer, a block carver, a printer and a publisher, while Vallotton cut his own woodblocks. A fabricator or sign maker cuts from files like the studio’s Cut lines on a laser cutter or cutting plotter. Pairs write a paragraph comparing two of them: the tools each uses, the training it takes, and how the work reaches its audience.
Share, 7 minutes. Three students show an application beside the original and say what they changed so it would still read at its new size.

Session 6: Critique and the portfolio

50 minutes · Looking and talking

Exhibit, 5 minutes. Hang each paper notan with its studio export and its starred study, so the path from idea to finished work is visible.
Written critique, 20 minutes. Each student critiques their own notan and one assigned peer’s in the four parts the standards name: describe the work, analyze how it is organized, interpret the artist’s intention, evaluate its success. Every evaluation must point to a located area (“the large dark mass at the upper left”) and name a principle; the interpretation says what the work communicates, its message or its metaphor.
Defend a decision, 10 minutes. In pairs, the peer asks one question about a choice: why that edge, why that gray, why that dominant mass. The artist answers with a reason drawn from the studies.
Portfolio entry, 15 minutes. Students assemble the entry, on paper or in the school’s electronic portfolio: the master studies, the numbered study sheet, the studio export, the photograph of the paper notan, the application, the source note, and a 150 to 250 word artist statement evaluating one decision that changed between study and final.

Differentiation

Support

For emergent bilingual students, provide a glossary of the unit words (notan, mass, value, subordination, copyright, public domain) with a sketch or an example beside each, sentence frames for the comparison, the critique and the artist statement, and permission to draft in the home language before writing in English.
For students with disabilities, offer adaptive scissors, a cut-line template taped down in advance, an 8-inch sheet for larger pieces (with the studio sheet set to match), extra time, and speech-to-text for written work. The studio’s flip chooser works from the keyboard (arrow keys choose an edge, Tab moves, Enter confirms), and Interface size on the Controls tab enlarges the panels and buttons.
For students new to art, reduce the sequence to six studies, provide the subject, and model the first study aloud before they begin.

Extension

Carve the final notan into a linoleum or soft-cut block and print it, as Vallotton cut his own woodblocks. Remember that the print comes out reversed, and use a bench hook, always cutting away from the hand that holds the block.
Send the Cut lines file to the school’s laser cutter or cutting plotter, then compare the machine cut with the hand cut: where does each one win?
Look at Georgia O’Keeffe’s abstract charcoal drawings of 1915, made soon after she studied with Dow, and write a paragraph on how his massing of dark and light shows in them.
Take Dow’s next step, more than three values: add a fourth value in paper with a second gouache gray, and decide whether it helps or muddies the design.

Common misconceptions

If an image is online, or if I change it enough, I may trace it freely.: Being online does not put an image in the public domain, and fair use is decided by courts case by case, weighing several factors, and no amount of change guarantees it. Point to the Hope poster dispute, then to the three safe sources: your own photo, a public-domain work, or permission with credit.
Notan means shading, the light and shadow on an object.: Dow separated the two: light and shadow are facts of nature, while notan is the arrangement of dark and light masses that an artist chooses. A notan may put dark where no shadow falls.
More cuts make a stronger design.: Test it at logo size. Small cuts vanish first, and a design with one dominant mass and a few subordinate ones survives the shrink. Dow’s subordination is not about how many parts there are: it relates every part, however many, to one that dominates.
The paper version will look exactly like the screen.: A knife cannot cut a hairline sliver cleanly, ink has a sheen, and a mixed gray rarely matches a hex code. The dry-fit comparison turns these differences into decisions to record in the statement.

Assessment

Checks along the way

Session 1 comparison: at least three sentences naming each work’s dominant mass and its lightest light.
Session 2 study sheet: eight numbered studies, at least three massing strategies, one starred with a justification.
Session 3 gate: a completed source note before any export.
Session 4 dry-fit conference: one difference between the screen and the paper, recorded for the statement.

Rubric

Criterion	Beginning	Developing	Meeting	Exceeding
Massing and composition	Scattered shapes with no dominant mass; outlines stand in for masses.	A dominant mass is present but competes with others of similar weight.	One mass clearly dominates and the others are subordinate; three values read from across the room.	Dominance, subordination and three values work together, and the design reads at logo size and at poster size.
Process from study to final	Fewer than five studies, or the final does not come from them.	Eight studies, but most repeat one arrangement.	Eight studies using at least three strategies, one starred and justified with a principle.	Studies show deliberate variation, and the justification weighs the chosen study against a named rival.
Media and craft	Torn edges, streaked ink or pieces not mirrored across their edges.	Mostly clean, with a few ragged cuts or a gray too close to black or white.	Clean cuts, opaque ink, a true middle gray, and every piece aligned with its hole.	Crisp cuts even on small shapes, flat mounting with no glue marks, and a nested cut handled cleanly.
Sources and application	No source note, or an image that cannot be accounted for.	Source note incomplete, or an application attempted but not tested at size.	Complete source note, and an application tested at size with one named revision.	Source decisions explained with reasons, and the application revised until it reads at its size.
Critique and portfolio	Critique describes only; portfolio entry missing parts.	All four parts of the critique, but judgments are not located in the work.	Every judgment points to an area and a principle; the entry is complete with a statement of 150 to 250 words.	The critique links decisions to Dow or another artist from the unit, and the statement evaluates a change with evidence from the studies.

Safety

Craft knives are for students who have watched the teacher’s demonstration: fresh blades, a self-healing cutting mat, a cork-backed metal ruler, the blade moving away from the body and the other hand behind the ruler, blades retracted or capped when put down, knives counted out and back in, used blades in a sharps container, and the teacher supervising. Scissors remain an option for every cut. India ink is permanent and stains skin and clothing, so wear aprons, cover the tables, keep bottles capped and away from the computers, and ventilate the room while ink and gouache are open. Choose inks and paints labeled nontoxic, with the ACMI AP seal where available, never point a brush with the lips, and wash hands after painting. For the linoleum extension, cutters are used only with a bench hook, cutting away from the holding hand.

Standards cited

TEKS §117.302 (Art, Level I). Quoted word for word from the official text.

Art, Level I

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:

§117.302(c)(1)(A): consider concepts and ideas from direct observation, original sources, experiences, and imagination for original artwork; Source
§117.302(c)(1)(B): identify and understand the elements of art, including line, shape, color, texture, form, space, and value, as the fundamentals of art in personal artwork; Source
§117.302(c)(1)(C): identify and understand the principles of design, including emphasis, repetition/pattern, movement/rhythm, contrast/variety, balance, proportion, and unity, in personal artwork; and Source
§117.302(c)(1)(D): make judgments about the expressive properties such as content, meaning, message, and metaphor of artwork using art vocabulary accurately. 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:

§117.302(c)(2)(A): use visual solutions to create original artwork by problem solving through direct observation, original sources, experiences, narrations, and imagination; Source
§117.302(c)(2)(B): communicate a variety of applications for design solutions; Source
§117.302(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
§117.302(c)(2)(F): demonstrate effective use of art media and tools in drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, fiber art, design, and digital art and media. 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:

§117.302(c)(3)(A): compare and contrast historical and contemporary styles while identifying general themes and trends; Source
§117.302(c)(3)(D): compare and contrast career and avocational opportunities in art. 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:

§117.302(c)(4)(A): interpret, evaluate, and justify artistic decisions in artwork by self, peers, and other artists such as that in museums, local galleries, art exhibits, and websites; Source
§117.302(c)(4)(B): evaluate and analyze artwork using a verbal or written 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
§117.302(c)(4)(C): construct a physical or electronic portfolio by evaluating and analyzing personal original artwork to provide evidence of learning; and Source