Month: May 2025

Hello everyone! I just finished my third Notan today.

Today I create my third Notan but this time she made me do it with two colours.  She wanted for me to understand the work of art of highlights the interplay between light and dark spaces and seek to create some sort of balance between the two. When she introduced me to this particular task, It was mind tricking a first but I slow got on the right track.

When creating this I had unexpectedly learn about the Notan is about the power of simplified and how seemingly basic shapes can create impact compositions and how  they can reveal  hidden patterns or relationships within a scene.

Steps:

1. The first step is to get your equipment. You will need  a Pencil, glue, a large piece of white paper, scissors,  a black piece of small paper  ( also a small brown or any colour of  paper if doing two. )
2. Trace your patterns on your black piece of paper- at least five patterns.
3.  Then cut out! ( If doing a 2 colour piece, do the same thing on the other coloured paper but smaller. )
4. After cutting, we clue! ( You must glue down, but the pieces that are cut out must be mirrored to the centre piece. )
5. Finally take a picture & Blog.

Example of work.( Not mine)

Photo of my work :

While making the Notan I did intend a meaning about it, Separate light and dark areas of an artwork by visualising it in to values, black and white.

Photo of a mistake I did, when making a Notan:

4. When coming across a mistake, I learned that, Making mistakes when creating a Notan is valuable for learning about shape relationships, value distribution, and overall compositions.

5. I would probably link this learning to Wananga because in Wananga we do PBS ( pause, breath smile ) , this learning is very calming. I’m not sure what I would like to do, but I would probably want something calming.

6. I enjoyed the meaning behind a Notan, and how calming it can be.

7. A struggle that I experienced when making the Notan was simplifying a complex image into a few key shapes and values. ( I eventually got there )

8. A teacher should understand and convey a few key concepts to help students succeed and connect with the deeper purpose of the art form.

9. It’s a student-friendly but also captures the deeper educational goals a teacher should support.

Have a wonderful day!

Hello everyone, today in art I had to complete a “Notan” on a Google drawings. We would use a square for our base and then use a curve tool to create a shape. Once we created a shape we needed to make that shape’s boarder transparent, then made the mane colour white. We need to copy them pasted to make the same shape again. After that we made the colours opposite.  After that we flipped the shape Horizontally or vertically.

What is a Notan?

A Notan is a Japanese design that  the balance and interaction of light and its dark areas within a composition.