"There’s no
way
your
paintings can’t
improve
after
this course"
"I’ve been painting on my own for a while and thought I was doing okay. Now that I’m taking this course I see so many things I can learn from that will make my work so much better. This is the stuff you can’t get in art school anymore, sadly. There’s no way your paintings can’t improve after this course. That’s how strongly I feel about it." ... Bob Akers., Crystal Lake, IL, United States
"...really superb"
"I find your courses really superb in two ways: first they are very complete and comprehensive, and second they go straight to the point, to the essentials. Both my wife and I paint and we both agree that these art instruction courses are one of the best sources of education for people who want to learn to paint in a direct or alla prima style" Bernado Martin, Alicante, Spain.
Erika is
following
her dream
"This course is truly well run, professionally handled -- and I can only echo the great comments of other students: I am glad, I enrolled in this course!! I got so much out of it already -- lots of explanations, areas to study up on, other artists to learn from. AND I am not at the end of the course, yet. I am getting more and more confident and bold enough to follow my dream -- to become a proficient and sensitive artist.
Erika, USA, 2009
"...already noticed
improvement
in
my work"
"In my opinion, your material is the best I have found. It builds the basics, from the ground up, recognizing that there are no short cuts.....Your course puts all the right info into one package, and even more important, it gives me an organized, building block way to get these things into my head, and I have already noticed an improvement in my work," George, USA
Why does a certain painting win first place in an art competition? The answer lies a lot in the harmonious arrangement of black and white in the painting. A synthetic arrangement of dark and light creates an impression of beauty, regardless of either the colors used or of the subject matter. This is called "notan" from the Japanese word that means "dark/light harmony. Notan is such a powerful contributing factor to the success of your painting that it warrants a complete set of courses to help you master it. The process may seem simple, but it is surprisingly difficult to do well.
A strong notan design is therefore the key to a strong painting. Without it, both color and line fail to reach their full impact. In fact many of the most powerful master paintings have very simple value structures, that is to say, they only use two, three, or four major values. For example, many of Monet's masterpieces use just two values. The idea is simple, but effective notan paintings are hard to do. It requires an understanding of dominant values and how to flatten values into a narrow value range. It is also very easy to waste time on excessive detail, and at the same time miss the essence of the notan design. This course will help you solve those problems.
Nothing else will contribute more to the success of your final painting than planning the notan correctly. Just about every painting that I have had win a competition, or got published in a book has had a very strong notan structure.
Some of the things you will learn:
Mass versus contour notan: why it is important to differentiate these two ideas if you want to learn how to develop more creative ideas in a shorter time
Color notan: a great way to explore alternative color harmonies
Edge notan: how to strengthen your paintings with a simplified value transition structure (like JMW Turner, and Thomas Moran)
How to put it into practice: I will share with you a series of successful paintings and how the notan structure was planned in advance
Jacqueline
Spain
"The material is very well presented and easy to understand - no lengthy explanations but short and condensed paragraphs with a load of very valuable information. Along with plenty of illustrations, this makes it a fun and easy study."
What is included in each course unit?
Unit 1 - Mass Notan 1
This is the first of six notan units that will help you build and refine your skills in this critical topic. Nothing else will contribute more to the success of your composition than planning the notan correctly. Just about every painting that is successful has had a very strong notan structure.
The subject of this first notan course unit is mass notan. This is a small sketch that captures the notan structure of your final painting very quickly. You should do anything between two and six mass notan paintings for almost every painting you do, whether it is a small outdoor color sketch, or a large studio painting. If you do not do this stage correctly, your final painting will be disappointing. Students are nearly always delighted with what they learn in this Building Block and how it helps them.
P.S. This looks simple. It is not. You will learn:
the difference between mass and contour notans and when to use them
the five types of notan compared and why and when to use them
how to create a mass notan and which are the best materials to use
tips, techniques and common problems you are likely to run into when doing mass notan paintings
the pros and cons of using graphite versus brush pens
Unit 2 - Mass Notan 2
This Notan unit will help you learn some of the most important principles for planning the value structure of your painting. In this course you will learn:
how to simplify the complexity of nature by flattening the values you see into a simpler and stronger structure
how to use the computer to analyse your paintings for a strong notan structure
the key principle of dominant values and the four simple types of dominant structure you can use
how to consider and use negative spaces in your notan planning
exercises for how to improve your creativity for developing new design ideas
Unit 3 - Contour Notans
In contour notans you explore the beauty of line and and shape. Since this is a fairly time consuming process, learning how to differentiate between mass and contour notan paintings can greatly accelerate the process of planning a painting. By accelerating the process you can explore more design options in less time and so you will probably end up with a better painting.
In this course you will learn:
how to do contour notan paintings and why they take much more time to do than mass notan paintings
how to learn from the Oriental masters to increase your skills in notan design
Unit 4 - Limited Value Studies
A key planning stage in a painting that comes after the initial notan studies is the limited value study.
In this course you will learn:
the key differences between notan studies and the limited value study
alternative materials you can use for the limited value study
tips and cautions when creating the studies
the difference between the dark darks in a notan painting and the dark accents in a limited value study
how to learn to use this effective planning tool for your paintings
Unit 5 - Edge and Color Notans
In this unit you will learn how to use color notans to help plan the color harmony in your painting. These studies are very different from mass and contour notan paintings but are a powerful tool for exploring your design before you commit to paint. Since they take only a few minutes to do, they can make the difference between a poor and a very strong color harmony in your paintings.Use these color notans in your landscape paintings, particularly when color is the key component of the design. Also, use them in your figure work since it can save hours of wasted effort due to a earnly poor color selection. This is an important skill you need to know about.
Edge notan paintings give you a way of exploring the design of your paintings more thoroughly than simple two, three and four-value notan paintings. Once you have mastered the basic techniques. you can do them in an incredibly short time, yet they can give you a very good feeling for the final paintings. In fact these small design sketches can turn out to be beautiful paintings in their own right. Also they are fun to do!
Caution: You can only attempt to do this type of notan study once you have fully mastered the techniques and principles in units 1,2,3 and 4. If you have not mastered those units, you are likely to struggle doing these. In this course you will learn:
how to create a color notan and what materials to use
how to use edge notans to explore fast and slow edges quickly and effectively
how to avoid the two most common problems most people run into when they add edges to notan paintings
an efficient four-step procedure for using brush pens to create edge notan paintings
which old master paintings you can examine to explore the edge notan concept more
how to use these small studies to enhance your creativity in design
Unit 6 - Gallery
This unit is a companion to the six notan units. It includes a gallery of thirty paintings together with the actual notans that were created before the paintings were done. By seeing the original notan studies and the finished painting, you can see how the complete notan painting process works in actual practice.
What does this cost?
This building block course is equivalent to a 2 week study course with a professional artist which can cost up to $3000 including travel and accommodation. Many of our students tell us this is the most comprehensive teaching they have found anywhere on the internet. Read their testimonials.
Complete Set of
'Notan'
Course Units
$90USD
Click the Buy Now button to see the
price in your local currency.
We are so sure you will be pleased with the courses that we offer a 30-day Money Back Guarantee,
so you have nothing to lose.
Click the Buy Now button to
purchase this course unit.
What happens after you click
'Buy Now'...
Purchase
You will be redirected to our credit card payment site 2checkout.com and asked for your billing details. You will see the cost in your own currency for your convenience.
Register
After you have filled out your details and the payment has processed, you will see our Registration page. Just complete the details there and then check your email for a confirmation message.
Download
Once you have confirmed your registration we will email you the instructions for downloading your painting lessons. Before you download your painting lessons, make sure you have the latest version of Adobe Reader installed on your computer (to read the PDF files).
Your 30 Day 100%
Money-Back Guarantee
If you are not completely satisfied with the quality of our materials you can request a refund at any time within 30 days, no questions asked.
