#30×30, 2025, Day 04: Notan!

Trying something different today!

‘Notan’ is a Japanese term that might be be translated as ‘Dark/Light Balance’. It’s a principle, more than a specific kind of artwork, in which the dark and the light elements in an image are in harmonious balance. So it applies to drawing and painting, but it can also be a guiding principle in film or photography or anything really – even architecture or garden design.

I’m still doing miniatures watercolors (+ white gouache) – but what I actually did first was a few pages of 2×2″ thumbnails, and enlarged my six favorites to a *gigantic* 5×5″. Hah! It actually feels spacious after 4×4″

I want to do a few more and choose a few to work up as ‘wall sizes’. Maybe I’ll get one done before the end of the month!

My thumbnails are, of course, just pencil doodles. What I *should* have done, if I really wanted to be doing Notan, is black and white watercolor / gouache. Ideally you want to be visualizing entirely in ‘optical weight’ rather than in line.

But to be honest, I could see what I wanted so I skipped ahead to save time.

So yes, this is a 180 from my colorful watercolors – but I do like to switch it up :) Doing something completely different is a way to reset your thinking.

Sometimes when working plein-air or from a photo, I feel like an organic camera. I don’t need to think when I’m painting on location; it can be a completely automatic eye-to-hand translation. I can listen to a podcast, or hold a (casual) conversation, I don’t need 100% of my brain to paint. (Good thing hey? Nyuk nyuk!)

What I wanted to do with these is INTENTIONALLY DESIGN the image. PLAN the thing as an abstract shape, rather than a reactive kind of ‘paint what you see’ study.

Because really, you need to be re-designing what what you see in every painting.

So yes! For my fellow attention deficit folks – you don’t have to finish a series before you start the next thing :) You can have multiple series going in parallel :)

That’s what I love about the #30×30 marathon. It’s kind of my ‘laboratory’ where I try things out.

I have done this Notan>to>Painting approach before; back in 2019 I did the whole marathon this way.

My prep was done digitally back then – I used a little 8″ iPad mini to make the sketches in ProCreate, just using my finger becuase the original mini doesn’t support the apple pencil. A really fun way to sketch! Digital is the ultimate in flexibility really. Talk about the perfect mix of opaque and transparent.

Ok! So that’s Day Four. Things are taking off! Stuff is happening!

I hope your own marathons are off to a big start.

If you haven’t checked out our co-founder Uma’s new ‘sharing space’, please head over to the Vivify Pod; #30×30 Direct Watercolor 2025 and start posting and sharing! We will all benefit from the community building!

~m