Thank Goodness for Books in The Mail

I am in a mind wasteland here as I sit and wait for my leg to heal. To entertain and stimulate myself I ordered some books.I was sent on a journey by a post I made here in the blog, do you remember the Little Red Ridinghood in the mouth of the Big Bad Wolf ? This art reminded a sharing person of something I might be interested in, a book titled, Picture this: How Pictures Work by Molly Bang. This link me to various other books which contained the word Notan. This is not something I knew about. Although it apparently is a middle school concept, it was not covered in the dark ages.

Wikipedia has this description:

Nōtan (濃淡^?) is a Japanese design concept involving the play and placement of light and dark next to the other in art andimagery. This use of light and dark translates shape and form into flat shapes on a two-dimensional surface. Nōtan is traditionally presented in paint, ink, or cut paper, but it is relevant to a host of modern day image-making techniques, such aslithography in printmaking, and rotoscoping in animation.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm all about the light and dark. So even though I've studied this a great deal I was interested to learn a new take on it or to deepen my understanding.

So I also ordered Notan, The Dark- Light Principle of Design

This led me to this instructional video that I'm using for a creative exercise on The Welcome Mat Group, Creation and Expansion.

(Jeez enough with the links already !)

This research led me to a book called Pictorial Composition and Composition Understanding, LIne, Notan and Color.

That should keep one part of the the gray matter busy.

For pure pleasure I got An Echo in The Bone. I'm also reading South of Broad by Pat Conroy and it is good.

If I didn't have books and my computer and my phone I would be crazy right now. Well, even crazier.

Tonight we move the hooking to high ground so it is easier to access.

Which brings me to this: