Art Cloth Studios- Expansion of the Square:
http://www.artclothstudios.com/Tips-Techniques/Expanded/expanded.html

See Notan, by Dorr Bothwell and Marlys Mayfield.  ISBN 0-486-26856-X

Sharp scissors are needed. Bunki Kramer suggests that you have some tweezers handy for the kids as it's very tedious to glue small pieces (Bunki's student work was more intricate that the work above).

Middle School Examples - from Larry Prescott, Madison Middle School, Rexburg, Idaho

            
Good lesson for organic shape/biomorphic shape - geometric shape. Positive and negative shape. Designs can be symmetrical - or asymmetrical. Look how both examples above are very pleasing.

Helpful Links:

Book - Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/048626856X/102-0287640-8075300?v=glance

Some examples -Santa Rosa Junior College:
http://www.santarosa.edu/art/art3/notan-web/
http://www.santarosa.edu/art/art3/notan-sp03-web/FrameSet.htm

See the Cardboard masks from Santa Rosa!
Project 4 3D NOTAN MASK by John Watrous:
1. Cut a perfect square of cardboard, about 12-14" square (turn the square like a diamond) 
2. Score and fold this square from corner to corner 
3. Using ideas, simplified from your work with Notan activities done earlier, but without such tight limits, make an ATHROPOMORPHIC MASK with some movable parts.

Notan mask designs (slide changes every 10 seconds):
http://www.santarosa.edu/art/art3/notan-masks-f02/
Here they created corrugated cardboard masks from their designs:
http://www.santarosa.edu/art/art3/notan-masks-sp03-web/FrameSet.htm

pdf file - student handout:
http://www.santarosa.edu/art/art3/notan.pdf

Bunki Kramer's student work:
http://www.lcms.srvusd.k12.ca.us/NEWKramer/Notanfolder/NOTAN.htm

Larry Prescott's student work:
http://mms.d321.k12.id.us/webart/html/student%20work/notan.html

You can find more examples by entering Notan in a Google image search.

Here is another design project to consider - Type Collage:
http://www.santarosa.edu/art/art3/type-web/  good for middle school through
high school.

Note from Woody Duncan:

If I remember my "History of Art Education" correctly, Notan was featured in Art Education
text books written by Wesley Dow which were studied and used by Georgia O'Keeffe in her days as an art teacher in Texas. History does repeat itself. I would also suggest that teachers interested in Notan check out Chinese paper cutting and the Polish art of Wycinanki.
http://acweb.colum.edu/users/agunkel/homepage/polxmasw.html

Notan from Robert Genn's Twice Weekly Letter - The Painter's Key

Notan is a Japanese word that means "lightness-darkness."  It represents one of the basic principles that help compositions stick to the wall.  Notan has nothing to do with local or chosen colour.  It's the ability to see things in terms of black and white, and to consequently build strength in imagery.  When compositions work in black and white--they work.  

Whether they put a name to it or not, artists in all cultures have long recognized the value of notan.  Devices have been invented to look for and find it.  The "Claude glass" is a convex, black glass used to reflect a landscape in a reduced size with muted colours and less detail.  The French painter Claude Lorraine (1600-1683) is thought to have invented it.  While the odd one is still seen among "plein air" painters, the more common approach is to view work with half-closed eyes--or to get way back.  Another system is to view art and subjects through generally blue or green camera filters or gels.  But more than anything notan is a learned skill.  For those of us who struggle daily at the painting game--the enemy is "wishy-washy," and the desired object is to yin and yang with the viewer's sensibilities.  In the words of Junichiro Tanizaki: "Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides."

There are two types of notan--planned notan and developmental notan.  Planned notan is often figured out in a preparatory sketch, or is "ready made" in the subject matter.  Developmental notan is where you find notan--indeed you make notan--as you go along.  Notan is also a matter of degree--it can be a strong, interactive pattern with negative and positive, even an eye-fooling optical illusion.  In abstract work the job of finding notan can be the main joy and source of magic.  In more realistic work it can be a skittish but nevertheless satisfying pattern discovered and built during the process.  Tuned-in artists find themselves saying: "This is good notan."  An exercise that never hurt anybody is to simply plan and calculate good notan into a work--then make sure it stays put.

Best regards,

Robert Genn

PS: "Notan is a synthetic arrangement of dark and light that creates an impression of beauty, regardless of either the colors used or of the subject matter.  A strong notan design is therefore the key to a strong painting.  Without it, both color and line fail to reach their full impact. Many of the most powerful paintings have the simplest value structures.  That is to say, they only use two, three, or four major values." (Barry John Raybould)

Esoterica:  Very often the quality of a work can slip because artists simply fail to work things out in the best order.  A carefully drawn and even beautifully prepared work may, for example, have poor notan.  Never forget that drawing and line can be the enemies of pattern.  "Think pattern first, then drawing, then color.  The character of your painting is resolved in the pattern." (Edgar A. Whitney)
(c) Copyright 2004 Robert Genn. (reprinted here with permission).

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