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LBHS Notan Drawing eBook

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Laguna Beach High School's Notan Drawing eBook created by the LBHS Art Department

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About Notan Drawing

Notan is a Japanese word meaning dark-light. The principle of Notan is the

interaction between positive (light) and negative (dark) shape.

The idea of this interaction in Notan is embodied in the ancient Eastern

symbol of the Yin and the Yang, which consists of mirror images, one white and one

black, revolving around a point of equilibrium. Here the positive and negative areas

together make a whole created through a unity of opposites that have equal and

inseparable reality. In the Yin and the Yang symbol, as in Notan, opposites

complement, they do not conflict. Neither seeks to negate or dominate the other,

only to relate in harmony. It is the interaction of the light and the dark, therefore

that is the most essential component of Notan drawing. The Notan concept is to

develop positive white designs into black shapes and then reverse the artistic

process. Ideally, the finished artistic work should be 50% light and 50% dark

creating equilibrium and balance. The Western culture thinks in terms of opposed

dualities and attaches the moral values of good to the positive of bad to the negative.

Or we seize upon the positive as the only reality and dismiss the negative as invisible

and nonexistent.

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We put thirty spokes together and call it a wheel;

But it is on the space where there is nothing that

the utility of the wheel depends.

We turn clay to make a vessel;

But it is on the space where there is nothing that

the utility of the vessel depends.

We pierce doors and windows to make a house;

and it is on these spaces where there is nothing that

the utility of the house depends.

Therefore, just as we take advantage of what is, we should

recognize the utility of what is not.

-Lao Tse 600 B.C.

To understand Notan, therefore, requires a special effort on our part; it

demands a totally new orientation to seeing. Nevertheless, the effort is well worth

the while if it enables us to see Notan -the basis of all good design -as it exists all

around us.

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About the Series

The following pen and ink drawings were produced

in Mr. Tiner’s Art 1 program At Laguna Beach High

School. The art students developed these drawings with

a design emphasis on the interaction between positive

and negative shapes. We studied design aesthetics from

Japanese woodblock Notan studies of the eighteenth

century and 8th - 9th century Cambodian Khmer design.

The class took a nature walk around the high

school and selected plants and leaves to use in a life

drawing Study. Contrasting organic with geometric

shapes, they drew white plant designs into a Negative

black background and then reversed the tonal scheme.

The students incorporated lessons of design techniques

including static, dynamic shapes, and A-symmetry

placement of shapes. Infusing art history and design

principles together makes a great lesson in art, culture,

and design.

List of Student Artists

Aaron Fusco Mariana Mesa Acevedo

Natasha Cook Hana Link

Clara Ross Carly Savage

Kendall Cornell Katharine Barton

Sadie Drucker Zach Burkey

Melissa Lenker Thea-Marie Sauca

Lucas Lacy Celestina DeLeon

Jackson Yamasaki Katelyn Walsh

Tiffany Lupu Bryn Valaika

Sarah Sampson Katrina Carras

Peter Tiner, Teacher

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