Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design (Dover Art Instruction)

The book gives a few intresting examples from folk art that I found interesting & inspiring. It would be nice to see more such examples & more exercises based on that.bWhat Notan actually is and how to percieve it & create it was also expained rather well.The exercises used in the book are for a basic skill level & based on cutting strips of paper with identations. I found them rather limiting although they explain and illustrate the main point in a simple way. That is why I gave the book just 3 stars. Art students with drawing & painting skills could find it uninteresting and appreciate more complex exercises more. I also didn't like that there is no talk nor exercise about employing Notan to your own designs and painting studies but I guess anyone with more skills can adapt the concepts taught to more adept levels.

As someone who has worked in a couple of design disciplines, and who has made art all of his life, it's always nice to find something new that will significantly contribute to how I appreciate and execute artistic works. This book did that for me.Negative space... This isn't the only art/design book that addresses it by far, and you do not need this text to understand it well, but in this day and age of instant and shallow learning, it is refreshing and enlightening to take a deep dive into a subject and spend several hands-on hours engaging with just one aspect of it. This work has given me a better respect for the necessity of cooperation and balance between positive and negative shapes and the designing of each. It's helped me cultivate an educated eye and hand for purposefully creating things with less reliance on luck in order to get it right.Everyone is going to get their own value (or none) out of this book, but it was 100% worth the cost to me. I very much recommend this book for painters, designers, draftspersons, or creative makers of whatever ilk.After perusing it as an e-book I bought the print version (because books!). My experience with art and design type books (particularly ones originally published before the prevalence of digital media) is that they translate less well to screens, especially smaller phone/tablet screens. And there is just something about a printed and bound volume that still does it fore me.As an aside, it might be interesting and worthwhile to pair this with Molly Bang's  Picture This: How Pictures Work  as the tools and materials used are similar, and the works would seem to compliment each other well.

This book is valuable. At first I thought it was silly. But I stuck with it. It all comes together in Chapter 6. After Chapter 6, the 1960s California style of thinking returns, meaning, it makes you wonder if someone has been smoking dope.

I have taught design in USA and Japan for decades. I have found this book to be an excellent resource for my classes. The exercises are fun and their effect long lasting on my students work. Highly recommended.

I am a design educator. Although I've developed a number of very effective design problems for my advanced students of visual design, I find I'm always looking for new sources of inspiration for my foundations students. The issue I generally confront is that texts tend to fall on one or the other end of a continuum, ranging between incredibly basic to either esoteric or obtuse. Notan: The Dark-Light Principle of Design, I am happy to say, tends to fall at the midpoint of the pendulum swing, providing examples of exercises that are appropriate for introductory learners. With some modification, the principles in this text are applicable to segments of drawing, 2D design, and graphic design curricula, and should make an excellent supplement to a core program of established design exercises.

This was a great tutorial on notan design, complete with exercises to try. I always knew I loved the balance between positive and negative space, but never knew why, or why some of my art is more successful than others. It's a short book, but very detailed.

from its opening statements about how the "east" and the "west" view positive and negative spaces, it proceeds to show the beauty and value of seeing more than what is presented before you. It is a valuable lesson book in learning to "see" and appreciating the visual balance and harmony that comes with looking at "both sides" of something, something we so often forget to do. It is profound in a very simplistic way. Well worth having on your book shelf whether you are an artist or not. This goes way beyond art!

A classic for design students looking to explore possibilities of dark/light principles. Simple easy to do exercises that encourage the exploration of shape, repetition and shade

Excellent book on the interaction of positive and negative space. The problem of positive and negative shapes is not discussed nearly enough today. Not only it explains this relationship but it provides a different perspective, one that draws from the Eastern tradition. I cannot recommend this book enough to both beginners and advanced artists.

A very practical book which explores the concept and application of Notan. The exercises are very useful providing an invaluable insight into this aspect of design. Made me rethink my approach to composition.

This book is fascinating and the ideas could be used in many ways even with colour. Symmetry and balance of shapes apply to the use of colour also.Get the balance of shapes sorted first then play with the balance of colour as confidence grows.

I love designs that use negative/positive space patterns - eg Escher and this book is an excellent way to learn how to design them but in a completely different way.

Interesting concept for contrasts useful as I am interested in design for embroidery and patchwork