This year, I started to teach at the Community Centred College for the Retired in Burnaby, BC. Two sessions of 8 lessons have taken place. The second series was devoted to landscape. We had a lot of fun. The students are enthusiastic and have made much progress. They tackled the various elements of landscape, and then put them together in a picture. I believe it is important to go through the entire process of creating a landscape. This way, the students appreciate the process and how the individual elements are used.

Here is a picture I created in stages during the class. I use basic standard techniques for this picture. Basically, the space is created by stacking layers upon layers of landform from distant to near. The composition is based on a painting by Huang Jun Bi. First we need to study the composition and identify the various layers. To start, use medium to light ink to outline and texture the mid- to near- distance layers (trees, rocks...). (The far distant mountains come later in the wet wash.) Next use darker ink to sharpen the near layers. Color the elements in terms of their innate color, as well as light and shade. Use fluid line of light ink to do the flowing water. Repeat the process of sharpening, color glazing, texturing. The near should be darker (warm color) and the distant light (cool color). The water has color, but leaving the white (no color) is critical. Then a wet-in-wet treatment put in the distant mountains and the cloud/mist. This wash is repeated to build volume. The goal is overall unity in the picture. The whole process takes time and patience, as the paper needs to dry between the stages. This standard technique forms the entry point for more advanced free-style methods.

I believe that a goal of art is trancendence. By achieving a sense of depth, we transcends the 2-dimensional paper. The next level would be a sense of life, or movement. This is harder to achieve or to describe. This mist and flowing water in this picture have some of that. Generally, a freer or looser style is more conducive to life. I'll touch on free-style methods in future.