Studio Notan LEARNING HUB
Launch Studio
Student version · Middle School

Which One Is the Figure?

Look at a drawing that is a vase one moment and two faces the next. Your eye keeps choosing one shape as the figure and letting the rest become ground. In this unit you will use that choice to make a notan that balances without matching: one big cut answered by smaller ones. You will build it in the studio and in painted paper, add a third value, cut a shape out of a piece you already flipped, and critique a classmate’s work the way artists do.

A small notan with a moon folded up, a range of hills folded down and a peak folded left. The sheet shows the front, the holes and margins show the ground, and each piece shows the paper’s back: give the back a gray of its own and the design has three values.

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

Open Studio Notan

I can

  • point out the figure and the ground in an artwork and say what makes the figure stand out
  • balance one big cut with several smaller ones so my notan does not lean
  • cut a small shape out of a flipped piece and put it back as an island
  • add a third value to my design and explain what it changed
  • explain how history and politics can shape an artwork that reuses an older form
  • critique a classmate’s notan in four steps: describe, analyze, interpret, judge

Words to know

Figure
The shape you see as the thing.
Ground
Everything around and behind the figure.
Asymmetrical balance
Balance from parts that are different but pull equally.
Nested cut
A small shape cut out of a piece you already flipped.
Value
How light or dark something is.
Thumbnail
A small, quick plan drawing.
Critique
A careful talk or piece of writing about an artwork, in steps.

What to do

  1. Look at Rubin’s vase and a Japanese family crest. Decide which part is the figure, and write why: size, enclosure, value or position.
  2. Draw six thumbnail plans. In each, put one big cut on one edge and answer it with at least three smaller cuts on other edges. Star your best two.
  3. In the studio, set the width and the height both to 5 inches in the Paper section of the Controls tab, so your sheet is square. Draw your big cut and flip it over its edge with an arrow. Add the smaller cuts, then step back and squint. Does it lean?
  4. Make a nested cut: draw a small shape inside the hole your big piece left, then press ‘Put back’ for an island. Try a second one and send it to another side with an arrow.
  5. Export your two-value design. Then, on the Color tab, make the Back white and the Ground gray, and export again. Which areas became figure?
  6. In paper, draw your cuts on the black face with a white pencil, cut them, and flip each piece over its edge. Try your pieces on white, black and gray grounds before you glue.
  7. Critique a classmate’s notan in four steps: describe, analyze, interpret, judge.

Challenge

Make a notan in which a viewer cannot decide which part is figure and which is ground, just as in Rubin’s vase.

Check your work

  • My big cut is balanced by at least three smaller cuts on other edges.
  • My notan does not lean when I squint at it from across the room.
  • I made one nested cut in the studio and one in paper.
  • I have a two-value and a three-value version, and I can say what changed.
  • Every paper piece lines up with the edge of its hole.
  • My critique has all four steps, with a reason for my judgment.

Think about it

  • Which part of your notan did your eye read as the figure first? Was that your plan?
  • What balanced your big cut: number, size, value or distance from the center?
  • How did the third value change your design?
  • Why might the makers of kamon, or Kara Walker, choose flat shapes in just two values?

Teacher version of this unit