4th Grade: Beautiful Balance of Light and Dark
4th Graders explored positive and negative space and how to use both in their designs. We learned about the art of Japanese Notan, which deals with the ideas of balance of light and dark and contrast.
To see the presentation and discussion we had about this beautiful Japanese art form, please follow the link to the Media page here, and check out 4th Grade Japanese Notan Art. :)
"Notan" is the term used by the Japanese to express "light-dark" as an element of design. In the West we use separate terms such as positive space and negative space, dividing the idea of light-dark into separate components. On paper it is easy to see that dark shapes cannot exist without a surrounding area of white. White shapes cannot exist without dark to define it. The two elements are really one. This is an eastern concept of yin-yang that each is what the other is not.
Students used this idea of balancing light and dark to create designs that demonstrated an equal use of positive and negative space.
The students were given a 8x8" square of black paper and created organic designs that they cut out. They then replaced the pieces like a puzzle and flipped them over the axis created by the side of the square. These really are beautiful! Some are super intricate and some even include words. They were given the option of using a traditional white background or to experiment with various colored backgrounds. Both are really beautiful! They did a stellar job creating these unique designs!
