Nice! We've heard of a variation on this method where everything in direct light is rendered as white, and everything in shadow is painted black, ignoring reflected light. We agree, it's a great exercise and a good way to warm up before starting full palette!
Fabulous! At the beginning, looking at that reference photo, I thought .... whoa... too much stuff. Watching you narrowing it down to two values and then adjusting / painting with fat paint was fascinating. Intriguing result. Thank you for this lesson. I had never heard the term notan before.
I am just looking into Notan studies and yours is one of the first full videos that I have found... and it is very very helpful! I want to get into plein air painting, and this will be soo helpful to practise before I get fully into it. Thank you for making this video :)
This is very helpful. At this point I've only done notans using graphite, but for me I think doing them in paint, which is how I'll end up doing the images anyway, would be much more valuable. Thanks for this demo!
Christina- this was a great tutorial! I have focused on detail my whole life and this is a great exercise to break that habit and work in more contrasting values and basic shapes first. Love your paintings!
@christinakentart I am a watercolor painter, but I immediately saw the value of your Notan exercise. Really, a BRILLIANT demo clearly showing and explaining using Notans to improve composition. Sooo glad I found your channel!
Christina, this looks great! I’ve done Notans in my atelier program and they’re very helpful. I’m very curious-if you were to now make this study into a full-sized painting, would you look again at your reference photo or would you base the painting entirely off of your study? And would you then add more detail?
Thanks Erika! For the studio painting, I would use the reference photo to get information about color and detail. I think of the notan as a prototype of the final painting, to see if the overall design will work. If the notan feels strong, then I can be pretty sure the final painting will be strong as well :)
I did notans just a few times in a drawing course, but I usually do tonal studies for difficult subjects or to check composition. Should try notan again, thank you!
@@christinakentart yes, pretty much the same. I tried both limiting yourself to 3-5 tones (especially for composition, or not to forget some ideas) or going wild and achieving the b&w effect with as many tones as my paper could hold as a preparation for a painting. The latter really helped me to understand depth. Still hard to follow through but at least now I see it.
That’s great! I know what you mean. I’ve done variations of those as well. I think the one I do most is the 4-value study. Still very simple but you get some depth as well :)
Christina, thanks for your video. First, I admit I did not know these black & white value studies were called 'notan paintings'. I understand their aim is to help focusing on composition and shapes at a very early stage. My question: what link do you then make between the notan study and your painting? Do you actually start your painting from your notan study iself ? That is, do you replicate the shapes of the notan study on your painting while moving away from the reference photograph ? What are all the benefits you see in doing notan paintings before starting your artworks ? For example, do you think it helps you make more stylized paintings overall (more original shapes, shapes with more 'personality')? I know this was more than one question: please forgive me if I've already reached the quota!
Thank you! Happy to answer your questions :) Sometimes I just do these studies for practice and don't develop them into final paintings. But if I'm going to make a larger painting from it, then I'll usually refer to both the notan and the reference photo. At the beginning, when I'm establishing the large shapes of the painting, I refer more to the notan, and towards the end, when I am adding some detail and nuance, I refer more to the reference. As for the benefits of notans, yes, I think they help me make more stylized paintings with simplified shapes. Doing these studies helps me to identify shapes in the world around me and learn about the compositions that I find compelling. It also keeps my focus on the overall design of the painting, the big relationships between larger shapes, rather than the small details.
Nice! We've heard of a variation on this method where everything in direct light is rendered as white, and everything in shadow is painted black, ignoring reflected light. We agree, it's a great exercise and a good way to warm up before starting full palette!
That’s a great variation and I do that myself sometimes, especially when working with strong, direct light :)
Fabulous! At the beginning, looking at that reference photo, I thought .... whoa... too much stuff. Watching you narrowing it down to two values and then adjusting / painting with fat paint was fascinating. Intriguing result. Thank you for this lesson. I had never heard the term notan before.
I know, right? Sometimes the best compositions come from simplifying!
I am just looking into Notan studies and yours is one of the first full videos that I have found... and it is very very helpful! I want to get into plein air painting, and this will be soo helpful to practise before I get fully into it. Thank you for making this video :)
I'm so glad it was helpful! Happy painting :)
This is very helpful. At this point I've only done notans using graphite, but for me I think doing them in paint, which is how I'll end up doing the images anyway, would be much more valuable. Thanks for this demo!
Awesome, glad you found it helpful! Happy painting :)
Christina- this was a great tutorial! I have focused on detail my whole life and this is a great exercise to break that habit and work in more contrasting values and basic shapes first. Love your paintings!
Thanks, glad it was helpful! Happy painting :)
thanks for the interesting demo Christina, I enjoy your channel
Thank you! Glad you liked it :)
Just a great idea to practice simplifying an image (and practice at values!). Thanks as always for another great video
Thank you! Glad you found it helpful :)
Excellent. First time I’ve heard about this technique.
Thanks! I hope you find it useful :)
This is a brilliant demo of doing a Notan! Thank you!!!
Thanks! So glad you liked it :)
@christinakentart I am a watercolor painter, but I immediately saw the value of your Notan exercise. Really, a BRILLIANT demo clearly showing and explaining using Notans to improve composition. Sooo glad I found your channel!
Thank you! The end result looks awesome! I’m looking forward to trying!
Thanks! Glad to hear it, happy painting 😊
This was great! Thank you!
For sure! Glad you liked it :)
Christina, this looks great! I’ve done Notans in my atelier program and they’re very helpful. I’m very curious-if you were to now make this study into a full-sized painting, would you look again at your reference photo or would you base the painting entirely off of your study? And would you then add more detail?
Thanks Erika! For the studio painting, I would use the reference photo to get information about color and detail. I think of the notan as a prototype of the final painting, to see if the overall design will work. If the notan feels strong, then I can be pretty sure the final painting will be strong as well :)
I did notans just a few times in a drawing course, but I usually do tonal studies for difficult subjects or to check composition. Should try notan again, thank you!
Oh nice! Is a tonal study the same as a value study (where you depict the image in 3-5 gray tones?)
@@christinakentart yes, pretty much the same. I tried both limiting yourself to 3-5 tones (especially for composition, or not to forget some ideas) or going wild and achieving the b&w effect with as many tones as my paper could hold as a preparation for a painting. The latter really helped me to understand depth. Still hard to follow through but at least now I see it.
That’s great! I know what you mean. I’ve done variations of those as well. I think the one I do most is the 4-value study. Still very simple but you get some depth as well :)
Christina, thanks for your video. First, I admit I did not know these black & white value studies were called 'notan paintings'. I understand their aim is to help focusing on composition and shapes at a very early stage.
My question: what link do you then make between the notan study and your painting? Do you actually start your painting from your notan study iself ? That is, do you replicate the shapes of the notan study on your painting while moving away from the reference photograph ?
What are all the benefits you see in doing notan paintings before starting your artworks ? For example, do you think it helps you make more stylized paintings overall (more original shapes, shapes with more 'personality')?
I know this was more than one question: please forgive me if I've already reached the quota!
Thank you! Happy to answer your questions :)
Sometimes I just do these studies for practice and don't develop them into final paintings. But if I'm going to make a larger painting from it, then I'll usually refer to both the notan and the reference photo. At the beginning, when I'm establishing the large shapes of the painting, I refer more to the notan, and towards the end, when I am adding some detail and nuance, I refer more to the reference.
As for the benefits of notans, yes, I think they help me make more stylized paintings with simplified shapes. Doing these studies helps me to identify shapes in the world around me and learn about the compositions that I find compelling. It also keeps my focus on the overall design of the painting, the big relationships between larger shapes, rather than the small details.
@@christinakentart Very clear and helpful, thanks!
This looks like it would be a bit easier digitally but I think I will try a mix of traditional and digital to see how it feels.
Yes! Personally I'm super partial to traditional media, but digital is great for an exercise like this!
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