Reduce a subject to 3 or 4 pure values, designing pure light-and-dark pattern. The discipline of designing composition before any painting begins.
Notan develops the painter's ability to see and design the value pattern of a composition independently of subject, color, and detail. The discipline forces the painter to decide where the light masses are, where the dark masses are, what dominates, and what subordinates — before any paint goes on the larger canvas. A strong notan thumbnail predicts a strong painting. A weak notan predicts a weak painting no matter how skillful the rendering. The exercise is fast and low-cost, which is exactly why it should be done routinely before serious paintings.
Small paper, no larger than 5x7 inches — most notans are 3x4 or 4x5. Small forces design over detail. Black ink, black gouache, or black paint thinned to flow. A brush (medium round) or a fude pen/brush marker. A subject. Could be a photo reference, plein air motif, arranged still life, or imagined scene. A timer (optional but useful for a series).
Black ink or paint (sumi ink, india ink, black gouache, or any opaque black), white paper (or pre-toned mid-gray paper), small thumbnail size (3x4 inches to 5x7 inches), brush or marker.
1. Squint hard at the subject. Identify the major light masses and the major dark masses. 2. On the paper, paint the dark masses as pure black. Leave the light masses as untouched white paper. 3. Use no intermediate values, no detail, no edge softness. This is pure 2-value notan: black and white only. 4. Hold the result at arm's length or photograph it and shrink to postage-stamp size. Does the design read at this distance? Is there a clear focal area? Do the shapes have intentional dominance? 5. For 3-value notan: add a mid-gray, painting the middle-value masses as a third tone. The painting now has black, white, and one gray. 6. For 4-value notan: add either a near-black or a near-white as a fourth tone, expanding the pattern's range. 7. Run a series: 5–10 notans of the same subject from different angles, different focal-point placements, different croppings. Compare which designs work and which don't. 8. Choose the strongest notan. That becomes the foundation for the painting that follows.
- Pure 2-value notan: black and white only. The basic discipline. Best for beginners or for rapid plein air planning. - 3-value notan: black, mid-gray, white. More nuance, still simple. Standard pre-painting planning tool. - 4-value notan: black, dark gray, light gray, white. More refined but still a thumbnail. For studio paintings where extra value information is useful. - Series (5–10 notans): same subject, different compositions. The design study. Pairs with master copy or plein air planning.
A two-value (or three-value, or four-value) abstraction of the scene that reads as a strong design at thumbnail size. The exercise's value is in the decisions made (what to merge, what to separate, where the focal mass sits), not in the finish of any individual notan.
- Design recognizable as a thumbnail or even a postage-stamp. - Clear light/dark dominance, not equal masses. - Compositional structure visible without color or detail. - Focal area read at a glance. - If a series: clear sense of which composition works best and why.
- Adding too many values, defeating the simplification. - Failing to squint hard enough during observation. - Treating notan as detail-reduction rather than design. - Settling for the first attempt instead of running a series. - Working too large — notan is a thumbnail discipline; larger sizes lose the design clarity. - Including detail inside the dark masses (a face, a window, etc.); the discipline is the silhouette.
Pairs with: value_scale_study (notan applies value judgment to composition). Foundational for: every painting that follows. The notan is the bridge between perceiving a subject and designing a picture. Before alla_prima_still_life, plein_air_half_hour, or any sustained painting work, do a notan first.
The arrangement of shapes and the design of the picture plane — the structure on which everything else hangs. Successful composition leads the eye in, holds it at the focal point, and prevents it from escaping the frame.
The Japanese-rooted concept of designing pure light-and-dark pattern, independent of subject. A specialized framework for value composition: reduce the painting to 3–4 masses and check whether the design works.
The lightness or darkness of tones, independent of color — the structural backbone of any painting that reads at a distance. Often called the single most important principle in painting.