Drawing and Painting the Landscape - The Notan

Parkmill Pond
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Ink
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 15.25cm (8.5" x 6")

Lesson 13 of Drawing and Painting the Landscape by Philip Tyler is about notan – the word derives from a Japanese term meaning light dark harmony. Artists use notan studies to explore the arrangement of the light and dark shapes in a composition. It is common to see 2 value notans (black and white), but greys can be introduced to create 3 or more value notans.

Trent Towards Radcliffe on Trent
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Ink
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 15.25cm (8.5" x 6")

The lesson initially employs brush and ink to create black and white studies – I used a Pentel Brush pen. I’ve got a couple. The older one can't keep a fine point. I used it for these exercises because it is good for painting bigger shapes when a bit of unpredictability in the edges is unimportant and maybe a good thing.

Sunshine After Hail
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Ink
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 15.25cm (8.5" x 6")

Philip recommends training your eye to see values by manipulating the tonal range of digital images to remove all grey values.

I worked mostly from photographs but did a couple of drawings outside. It is a challenge to decide what is black and white without the help of a photo editor. In Lesson 11 (Drawing and Painting the Landscape - Grey Scales) Phillip recommends squinting your eyes and looking through your eyelashes as a technique to blur details and more accurately perceive values. This sounds easy enough, but is going to take practice to perfect.

River Otter
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Compressed Charcoal
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 30.55cm (8.5" x 12")

After a few pen and ink drawings, the lesson switches to compressed charcoal - mixing it with water to create subtle washes for 3 or 4 value notans. Phillips advises being physical and gestural in your mark making with the charcoal and not to worry whether the marks are in the right place.

Moor Close Plantation
Notan - Drawing and Painting the Landscape
Compressed Charcoal
Stillman & Birn Alpha Series Sketchbook
21.5cm x 30.55cm (8.5" x 12")

I was going to put the study of Moor Close Plantation at the top of the post, but Elaine is not sure whether she likes it. She suspects if she looks at it for too long, she will see sinister figures emerging from the trees.