(Get free painting tips and plein air painting techniques sent straight to your inbox or on my social media.)
The impact a painting has on the viewer often does not depend on how much detail you put in. Rather, it depends much more on how you simplify the scene in front of you using notan design. In this article I explain how I used the notan design concept to create a small, but very effective painting. Follow this idea and you too will have a lot more successful paintings.
What is notan?
In order to simplify your painting, you have to understand the basics of notan design. You do not need more than one minute to do it. You can save hours of wasted work using this technique. The quickest and easiest way is to create a mass notan painting.
A mass notan painting is a small sketch that captures the notan structure of your final painting very quickly, without needing too much detail. This two-minute sketch help to will ensure you have a good design for your painting, saving you hours of work.
All it takes is four simple steps and you can do as many of them as needed before you put paint to canvas, saving a lot of time, energy and paint!
Read on to learn how I used these steps, plus a couple of other techniques, to create this simple but effective painting.
Three-value mass notan design
I painted this small sketch in the studio of a friend of mine in China. The thing that attracted me to the scene in the first place was the play of light on the red flowers and the simple shapes around it it the room.
The design of this painting was based on some very simple ideas. The notan structure was designed in only three values. But to make the design more interesting I added a few major gradations in the background in the form of very soft edges.
Gradations in notan design
There are two major gradations in this painting. These gradations consist of very soft edges that gradually transition between two values in the painting.
The first transition is a transition from the base of the window sill to the background. The other transition however is based on the form shadow on the clay pot. This is the shadow that is formed as the light on the pot turns from the light into the shade.
Color map
Added to this three-value notan design structure with two major gradations, was a simple color plan. This plan involved a warm/cool color contrast. I painted a few warm red color spots against a background of low saturation blue violet and red violet grays. Not only was this a contrast of temperature but it was also of contrast of saturation. The cool colors were lower saturation and the warm reds a higher saturation.
The lesson to learn here is not to make your paintings too complicated, or add too much detail. Sometimes the simpler the better!
To learn more about the notan design lessons, see the details of my Virtual Art Academy® Apprentice Program
Final painting
Thank You
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you find it useful. If you would like to get free painting tips by email, please sign up for my free tips newsletter.
If you are interested in a structured approach for learning how to paint, take a look at my online painting classes.
Happy painting!
Barry John Raybould
Virtual Art Academy
What The Students Are Saying
It is wild to see how much I am learning in this course!
I retired last year, and decided I wanted to spend my time in retirement learning how to oil paint. But having never painted before, I wasn’t even sure what to look for in an online painting course. However, I did some searches for “Best Online Oil Painting Courses,” and found several references to VAA.
I signed up for VAA’s ongoing Apprentice Program last October (2023), and I am incredibly glad I did! As a beginner, I didn’t know what I didn’t know, but I didn’t have to: VAA has already mapped it all out for me. It starts out with basic, fundamental stuff, but also teaches me the THINKING that goes in the painting: the composition, my color choices, how to consciously select which darks and lights need to be emphasized, etc.
Bottomline, I am learning how to create paintings that have both visual music and poetry, and it is super fun to see my growth! I cannot recommend this course enough!
Read more “It is wild to see how much I am learning in this course!”
Barry gave me a fishing rod so I can catch my own fish
Read more “Barry gave me a fishing rod so I can catch my own fish”
The small steps are easy to do
comprehensive art education
No need to buy expensive art books…. Just do the VAA 4 year course. I still refer to it
Read more “No need to buy expensive art books…. Just do the VAA 4 year course. I still refer to it”
Only online learning program I have ever discovered using a training industry best practice
VAA is the only online learning program I have ever discovered using a training industry best practice of incorporating Knowledge and Skills to support learning a new activity. Every building block (Drawing, Form, Observation, Concept, Notan, Composition, Colour, Brushwork) incorporates a “spiral learning” approach where you are introduced to the Knowledge/Skill at one level and then reintroduced to it again elsewhere in the curriculum. Sure genius.
I’ve attended workshops, read books, and watched YouTube videos — and none of them provide the scaffolded approach to learning the VAA offers. If you are just starting your painting journey, start here. If you are a mid level or advanced painter, start here. There is a sense of community with artists around the globe. You are part of a peer to peer learning process bigger than yourself.
As a result of the VAA, I have been juried into several shows, am represented by a local gallery and have been selling my paintings on a consistent basis. VAA curriculum’s approach will grow your ‘artist’s brush’ and aid you in finding your artistic voice. As your basics improve, your art improves. Henry Hensche said, “There is study and there is performance, and we should not confuse the two, study is done for perceptual development, our performances show us where we are in that development, and we must have both…”. VAA curriculum offers both.
I went through the entire curriculum, did every every exercise, and today review my printed books/exercises on an annual basis to keep myself fresh and ready for my next painting adventure.
Onwards/Sideways,
Jay “jbird” Holobach
https://www.jayholobach.com/
The equivalent of a 4 year art education at a fraction of the cost
Read more “The equivalent of a 4 year art education at a fraction of the cost”
A great learning platform
An excellent foundation on so many aspects of painting
When I got word of the course available through Virtual Art Academy, I was very excited for the opportunity to learn what I never knew about painting. VAA has provided me an excellent foundation on so many aspects of painting. The course is organized very logically, provides great examples, diagrams, thorough explanations and worthwhile assignments. I highly recommend this course to anyone with a desire for an in-depth education of art.
Thank you again, Barry, I love this course Jeanne
Read more “An excellent foundation on so many aspects of painting”