Class Notes 10-5-2018

Bamboo
Leaves: 
shape, proportion, relative lengths and widths, orientation, curvature,

Think in term of groupings, clusters.

Groupings and clusters: distinguish between major and minor components.

Mindful of leaves that "fly" out;  these give flair and spirit to the grouping.

Stems: avoid parallelism and alignment;  they unite the leaf clusters to form a balanced whole.

Video:
https://youtu.be/XES07nzIj8E

LANDSCAPE
Use medium ink to start.
Mainly lines and angular shapes.  Pay attention to the quality of the lines.
To build space, to separate land-form "in-front" from "behind",  strengthen the lines with dark ink, and adding dots (distant trees).
Texture with lighter ink to show "lay of the land-form" -- sheer? rounded? flat? smooth? rugged?
Use larger strokes (brush at a shallow angle) to do the distant mountains and waterfall.  White gaps left behind is the waterfall -- use a dry brush to draw in the flowing water  (just a short stroke, rounded at top and sharp at bottom).
[Adding color will be subject of the next class.]

Video:
https://youtu.be/mCVes5fSjOk

Class notes of May 18, 2018 -- Adding color

A belated posting of the coloring process for the ink painting of the previous blog. The class video, in two parts, are viewable below.
https://youtu.be/Md6JCx7Nkdk
https://youtu.be/hjryJ1x3ms0

The final product is:

Class Notes 5/4/2018

Here, we form yet another landscape picture using essentially the same elements as discussed in my blog of April 2, 2018 (Class notes of March 30, 2018).  We move those elements around, magnifying some, shrinking others.  We flip some around (like a mirror image).  Extra layers are added.  For a scenery with a body of water, we draw in the line to indicate the contact of the elements with the water surface.  Thus, another picture is obtained.  To add depth, we include a tree in the foreground to frame the scenery.  Water lines (like waves) and reflections work together to render the illusion of water.

The video are as follows:
Yet another landscape -- Water Scene -- Part 1
https://youtu.be/KbrD5CO-D8o
Yet another landscape -- Water Scene -- Part 2
https://youtu.be/oxX3OuCR7nc

Class Notes 4/27/2018

Doing the Forsythia and Butterfly.

The flowers:
Load brush with yellow;
Tip with red or brown;
Brush Strokes: Heavy initially, move and then lift to exit.

The videos:
Flowers
Butterfly

Class notes 4/20/2018

"Wet Wash" represents the final stages in the Landscape Painting.  This is done after appropriate color has been applied to the picture, with paper being dry.  Now color is added when the paper is wet/damp.   With wet-wash, one can work more slowly and deliberately, and it is a matter of achieving an overall feel and atmosphere.  Also, the wet rice paper shows the color more vividly and accurately -- closer to the effect after the picture is mounted with a backing paper (an essential final step).

Wet-wash is done on a felt substrate.  The wet rice paper is quite flimsy, and needs the support.  Be sure that the felt is clean!!  It must not have any flakes of ink or color on it.   Completely wet the paper using a spray bottle. Then use paper towel to blot off excess water -- paper should be damp, not wet.  Apply color, being mindful that the brush cannot be too wet.  Also no heavy color.

3 tasks to do interactively.  There is no formula, but make sure you step back  and look(!!).
First, strengthen spatial relation.  Near and far elements should have proper relation; usually the near is darker, and has a warmer tone. 
Second, build clouds and mists, by adding bluish color to their periphery.  The white space left behind, uncolored, is the cloud.  Be mindful of the shape of the cloud -- it should convey a sense of movement.
Third, add distant mountains with bluish color.  White again needs to be preserved, at the lower edge of the mountain form -- atmospheric haze.

Finally, a light bluish grey is brushed on to the sky.  Make sure the color is well mixed and uniform.  Use horizontal strokes.

If desired, additional wet-wash can be done, after the paper has dried and the color fixed.

See the videos below.
Landscape Painting -- Wet Wash
Landscape Painting -- Wet Wash the Sky

The end result:

Class Notes April 13, 2018

Continuation of Rock Landscape Mark 2 -- Adding color using a traditional color scheme.

A traditional color scheme uses brown (burnt-sienna) for the bright part, and blue (indigo) for the shade or shadow.  Note that the main effects of the painting are already in place from the ink work.  Color functions to augment the ink lines and to build space.   Hence quite a light touch is often sufficient -- quite dilute color.  Near elements are brownish; distant elements are bluish.

The rice paper is absorbent, (color tends to spread beyond the form) and it also tends to show each brush stroke distinctly.  Thus, in applying the color, it is best to attend to the brush strokes.  First, the flow of the stroke should conform with the lay of the land -- is it round, sheer or angular?   Second, color each form with just a few decisive strokes; the more strokes, the more the brush contacts the paper, and the more water gets into the paper, leading to more color bleeding.  Hence, be quick and decisive.

Mix the color: brown goes with a little blue.  Keep mixing the colors afresh so that there will be variations each time.  Do each form separately.   Allow to dry a little, then use a dry brush with blue color to add blue to the shade and shadow.  Maintain a dry brush for the blue, again to minimize water and color spreading.

The coloring at the lower part of the mountain is for the creation of cloud and mist.  The blue color will define the contour of the cloud, gathering at the base of the mountain, in the valley.  Be mindful of the shape of the "white".

The next stage (after drying) will involve a wet-wash, i.e., adding color with the paper completely wet/damp.  This will yielding a soft effect, especially effective for the clouds!  This final wash will serve to unify the overall picture.

Coloring the landscape -- Part 1 (Preliminaries)
Coloring the landscape -- Part 2

 

Class Note April 6, 2018

Rock-Landscape: Mark 2
We have arranged the rock-elements (referred to by letters) of the last lesson into a different landscape, as shown below.  Thus the distant mountain on the left comes from flipping the E rock.  To tie everything together requires some additional elements, just various C-like lumps of different shapes.  These are designated by the letter O.   This is a fun exercise to illustrate how a landscape picture can be built.   It is also interesting that quite a range of scenes can be obtained by putting together a limited set of shapes. 

Next, we shall apply color to solidify the scene...

Willow & Plum Flower Picture -- preliminaries

Demonstration of the first stage of painting "pussy willow branches and plum branches in a vase".  This is done at Chinese New Year 2018.

Class Notes of March 30, 2018

Class Notes at Somerset Run 3/30/18
-Practice on five different rock combinations
-Assemble them into a landscape picture
-The target picture, with color added, is shown below.

The demo are shown in the following videos:

How to do rocks
https://youtu.be/I4pAOdkMnus

Adding color to the rocks
https://youtu.be/i0r9l2KTvMU
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