Watercolor Japanese Notan Paintings

This is a very exciting project for 5th graders.  Students have the opportunity to experiment with watercolor paper to create a beautiful background for their Japanese Notan.

Students used prior knowledge of paint techniques such as, wet on wet, splatter, salt pouring, etc.

Next week, students will create their own Notan design using black paper.
A Notan is a Japanese word for balance between dark and light.  Japanese artists create art that involves papercutting with positive and negative shapes.

The most popular and well known Notan design involves the Yin Yang!

Here are some watercolor painting examples from the students: 

Here are some Notan designs that students will use for examples: