Ink, Yarn & Beer

Landscape in Ink & Color

Traditional landscape painting in ink does not focus on realism. Instead, it works to capture the spirit of a place. Brush strokes are key as painting in black, white, and shades of grey can be challenging. Once the brush touches the paper, you leave a mark you cannot remove. So – think! Landscapes can be complex and it is very easy to make a mess. Even thinking in terms of masses of shade and shape is hard, because how do you convey the texture of a flowery field in ink without color?

The absorbent qualities of the xuen paper really make me work. It holds onto water and ink a long time before it dries. I found this out as I painted – the black kept spreading outward from my brush tip, and if I hadn’t pressed the water out of my brush before picking up more, the black became grey and the water was on the paper and in the paper forever! It seemed to spread forever. Even using a hair dryer didn’t seem to speed up the drying process. The challenge of ink painting is forethought.

Not a great landscape. Will color make it any better or interesting?

Kuretake makes traditional Japanese Gansai paints, of which I have a few colors! I decided to use these a day after the original landscape had been painted. Most of the painting I re-wet in sections to see how the colors would blur into one another. Some areas, like the rocks in the lower right hand side, I did on dry paper with a fairly dry brush but diluted paint. The Gansai colors vary in intensity, so the diluted paint seemed to be a good starting point. The bright yellow is a mistake – too intense although diluted. At this point I used a bit of scrap paper to test colors before painting.

Most of the colors were applied wet-on-wet. In the end, this painting makes me think of hand-colored photographs from the early 1900s.

Yasutomo Liquid Sumi Ink, “Jade Plate” double xuen paper.

Inky Kits

Cats continue!

This time, I worked free hand (no preliminary sketches on the paper) using “Jade Plate” Double Xuan paper from Oriental Art Supply in Huntington Beach, CA. It is a paper where the moisture is more easily controlled. This is the first time I used it. Like watercolor paper, sizing and so on determines how quickly the paper absorbs moisture. So far, so very good.

The ink I used is the Yasutomo Liquid Sumi Ink, a pre-mixed ink that uses the same ingredients which make up traditional Japanese ink sticks. It smells very nice, too. I chose to use bottled ink because I was more interested in painting than using an ink stick. Be aware that not all liquid sumi ink is of good quality – my opinion, this is the best.

Of course you are looking at this and going, “Huh?!” I do, too. But, the fact is, I had a sheet of paper and made sketches of cats, starting in the center, and rotating the paper to create the next cat. Below, I present them to you in the order I did them.

This is the first one I did, centered on the paper. Not having used this paper before, I needed to use washes and ink of varying degrees of value to get a better sense of the paper. My brush was fairly dry as I blotted it on paper toweling a lot, usually in between adding ink.

And then the one above. The second one. Here, more focused on sketching with a dryish brush using very light ink mixed with water. After letting the wash dry, the darker ink was applied using a very dry brush.

This third painting, as with the second, had a light outline in pale ink, but from there I moved into stronger ink and bolder brush strokes. I focused maintaining the white of the inside of the nearest ear while working to express the dark fur of the cat.

Kitty #4 is a kitten, looking up. Here, I wanted to work on that perspective – the upward movement and the shape of the cat’s head and ears. I was getting lazy, perhaps, as I did not focus as closely on monitoring my brush dampness when applying my ink. You can see it in the way the ink blooms outward a bit and there are not sharp lines.

And the last, a totally white cat on a white background on white paper. The ways to do this is to suggest by a few discreet brush strokes and pale ink.

I forgot how much I enjoy ink by itself. Working free hand with a brush or pen is a challenge, but it feels so comfortable and natural. The double xuan paper adds to the experience as the tactile elements just extend into the hand and brush and back. I used only one brush, too, for all these paintings. Asian brushes, when I first began to use them, annoyed and frustrated me. They are very different from most traditional Western ones because they are very flexible. They feel soft and floppy but come to a fine point when shaped on the edge of the water container or ink stone. Learning how to control them is like herding cats – it seems impossible, but it can be done.

More to come – cats and ink and who knows what!

Kitties a la Gouache

Tuesday is painting class day, generally oil or acrylic, but for the time being I am working with artists’ gouache, a water-based medium. It can be reworked, and thus, perfect for practice, quick drying, ease of use, and so on. Also, I can travel light. I don’t need to lift things up and down – I have a heavy cart on wheels for my oil paints – and that is another reason I am currently using gouache. I pulled a muscle in my back and don’t want to push it – the flood did that, so let’s be lazy. Like a cat.

You can see I used the basic elements of proportion and design from Willshire’s book I mentioned in my previous post. Reference photos for ginger cats were used for fur patterns. The ears are a bit wonky and the muzzle is not the best, but this is also my first foray into cat painting in gouache!

After this, I did a silhouette of a cat. While I remembered the overall proportions of a cat, I referred to general sizes and proportions for this view of a cat. I rather like it. Again, gouache.

This painting is less fiddly than the first one, and it was fun to just be expressive about the critter. I like it pretty well.

And now we come to Mr. Grumpy Britches! This is a work in progress and I hope to do more on it later today and post the final painting when it is done. This is a very fluffy, furry cat. Cats just crack me up!

Artists gouache, tan toned multi-media paper.

Kitty Underpinnings

The inky black cats have evolved. I decided I needed to invest in a bit of education about the build of cats and their proportions. I found some good resources to learn from, such as ones on YouTube, but since video does not play well outdoors in the sun, I opted for a book. I downloaded one for Kindle called Drawing Cats: A Step-by-Step Guide for Artists by Aimee Willshire. It had what I needed – a basic skeleton and a bit of a formula in proportions to make a drawing that can pass as a cat if I am lucky. As with portraits or people, or anything, there are essential dimensions upon which you can place individual features. I found it helpful and simple, which is really what I wanted.

So, sitting in the sun, I looked at the Kindle book and used pencil and ballpoint pen. Here are the results.

There is more in Willshire’s book, such as facial proportions, as well as specific exercises and suggestions. For basics, I am pleased enough to continue with more kitties, time permitting.

Inky Black Cats

One thing about having to clean up and discard damaged items from the flood is that I found a lot of things I had lost, buried in the debris. I also cleaned out the garage for 4 hours the other day, reorganizing my loads of loads. My muscles are sore and my mind is blank. There are still some things in the living room, but as the bins are full, I am forced to take a break. That’s good.

One thing I found was some sumi-e ink and thin paper for practicing traditional painting strokes. I still had a bit of a knack for ink painting – one of the founding subjects of this blog, too – but don’t have quite all I need. Nonetheless, I decided to try my hand with my ink stick, suzuri, brushes, and rice paper.

Nothing spectacular. I managed to remember a few things. I also realized I had to find a few other things, like a felt mat and some paper weights to hold my paper steady. Easily done.

From there, I drew a cat in purple ink, thinking about painting cats could be fun.

And easy.

And I found out they are not easy!

So, I tried to follow a few “how-to” videos on YouTube, I got frustrated and had an epiphany: I much rather paint in my own way, not following traditional formulaic representations. And this is not to put these traditional ways down – they are amazing in their own right – but I find it very frustrating to paint like someone else. Learn from someone, from tradition, but ultimately go on my own path.

So, I painted some cats. I copied some, I looked at photos of cats, and that is when I realized I need to learn more about controlling my brush and the shades of grey and black and manage the moisture on the paper. So, inky black cats, some of which may give you nightmares, but working on their shapes and using my brush has opened my mind to a lot of potentials. That is the exciting part!