Blog

16 september 2008
20:13:17

I recently came across the concept called 'notan'. The word is of Japanese origin, and means "dark/light". The concept is about the distribution of light and dark over the surface of the picture, but also of the placement of lines. In the Westernized version, it is a way to plan, or map out, a painting using normally two to four values (sometimes more), in thumbnail sizes.

I like the idea very much, as it is very easy to keep in my head, even if it is not so easy to do the notans well. It is really great to be able to try out different ideas in 'maps' of light and dark that only takes 30 seconds each to do.

It is a learning process, for sure.

Today I completed one such effort, as I parttook in an event on WetCanvas. The reference photo is taken by Tressa Hommel.



After testing several ideas, I chose a close crop. Below I show the process in thumbnail size:



The notan is no larger than showed here. Had I chosen design looking for colour, the blooming bush would have been my focus. As I was looking for interesting plays of dark and light, the pillar became the area of interest, and the architectural elements.

And here is a larger image of the completed sketch:



The sketch can be viewed in the Works section on my website.

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Fascinated by the play of light on the objects in the yellow/orange/brown family, I decided to have a "colour-feast". After doing the 'skeleton' drawing on ArtSpectrum's Colourfix paper (Australian Grey), I blocked in the masses of light and dark. The background would be loosely abstract, in order to not draw attention from the objects.



Colours are very bright and pure, and the total effect is rather garish. There is an idea behind this "madness" -- a bright start will help create a very clear sense of light and shadow. Only warm colours in the lights, and only cool colours in the shadows.

In the next phase, I try to make the initial colour-statements more 'correct'. In the image below I've started to add any colour necessary in order to approach 'correct' colour.



The tabletop is already starting to look much more like brown-washed pine.

I worked on, refined the colours, and the finished result looks like this:


Not so garish anymore, but still gives a clear sense of sunlight. It is much easier to tone down and neutralize a bright colour, than to brighten and lighten. The dark shadows between the planks still show through the layers on top of them, but they are much more muted -- but the layers didn't manage to cover and hide them.

I call myself a "colour-junkie", and this dose will last me several days. :-)