The loquat is an evergreen, and can be considered a large shrub or small tree, growing about 12-15 feet tall. The leaves are long and pointy, dark green and thick, with a serrated edges. The sweet-smelling flowers appear in the autumn or early winter, and the fruits are ripe in late winter or early spring. In California, fruits appear April to May. This plant originated in China, was thence exported to Japan over 1000 years ago, and came to the west coast in the 1800s. It is frequently grown for both fruit, and as an ornamental plant.
Loquat fruits, growing in clusters, are oval, rounded or pear-shaped, 2-3 inches long, and can be pale yellow in color to a gold tinged with red. Depending on the type of loquat, the fruit can be rather sour in taste, or very sweet. The seeds of the loquat are lovely, being large and of a shiny brown.
The contrast of the roundish fruit with the wide, pointy leaves makes for an interesting painting subject. Here is my video on painting this lovely plant.
Down the street from us is a yard filled with wisteria that wanders along the fences.
Painting wisteria is delightful. The sweet smell of wisteria, the graceful fall of the leaves, the thick cascades of lavender flowers, the curl of the tendrils, the twists of the trunk.
Begin with the Flowers
The process of painting wisteria, in ink or in color, is the same. The wisteria is painted in medium tones in general, with dollops of lighter and darker flowers for contrast. I start at the top of the cluster, and use short side-brush strokes that are done quickly. First, press down with the brush, then quickly curve it and pull up. Do this twice, aiming at the center. The outer edge of the flower is thicker than the center. Continue doing this down to the end, decreasing the flowers in size. Place only a few flowers at the bottom – just a touch to suggest the petals. Let the flowers dry so that they are semi-damp.
Painting the Leaves
While the petals are drying, decide where you want to place the leaves. Wisteria leaves are long and slim, and are best painted with a graceful swooping motion. Begin with the narrow tip of the brush barely touching the paper, and then as you continue with the leaf, push down as you keep the brush perpendicular to the paper, and then raise the brush up. It is important to note that the leaves of the wisteria are paired opposite each other, evenly along the stem, and are not staggered. The last leaf is single, continuing off the stem.
Dotting the Flowers and Drawing the Leaf Veins
As the leaves dry, it is time to begin to dot the center of the wisteria flowers. Â This should be done in dark ink. Â Just little dots will do. Â The flowers themselves should be damp-to-dry. Â If they are too wet, the black ink will bleed into the flower. Â After you have finished the flowers, return to the leaves, gently creating the center vein with ink slightly darker than the leaf itself.
Tendrils & Trunk
The trunk of the wisteria can be ancient, twisting and woody. Â This provides a dynamic contrast with the graceful quality of the flowers and leaves. Â Paint the trunk with a dry brush using dark ink. Â Lay the brush on its side, and use a hard brush for even more dynamic results. Â Follow this up with swirls of dark ink to create the tendrils.
Wisteria Painting in Sumi-e – The Video
Above is a colored painting of wisteria I did some time ago. Â This video captures much of the process I described above. Â I hope you enjoy it!
Seeing how awful my videos look, and knowing that the Kodak Zi8 can produce some very nice videos using its HD capabilities, as well as its macro capabilities, I thought I would start exploring how to make videos more interesting, more effective, and certainly better lit.
If you are not familiar with the Flip or other small video cameras, these critters are about the size of an iPhone – very small, can be held in the hand, and have the potential to do some very nice things without a lot of bulk and hassle. What attracted me to the Zi8 was its potential for HD, as well as the fact it has a jack for a line-in microphone. Yesterday, when I was shooting my first video, I used the sound to have streaming music as a background for the non-verbal video. Sound was fine – music was fairly clear. So was the clicking of my clock! You can hear it in tomorrow’s video if you listen to it.
Kodak Zi8
The Zi8 made its debut to techies in late July 2009, as a direct descendant of the Zi6. From a review by Gizmodo, they write the following:
Kodak’s . . . product tease was indeed a new pocket cam, potentially their best yet. Launching with an MSRP of $180, it will overpower the Flip Ultra HD with 1080p recording, an electronic image stabilizer, SDHC card slot and other enhancements.
The list of improvements continues: The Zi8 has an external mic jack, and it’ll shoot 5-megapixel stills, track faces of subjects and, according to Kodak, “see more details and accurate colors in low light.” Now that’s something we’re looking forward to, especially since low light seems to be the biggest bane of these Flip-class cameras.
There are also a number of videos (what else?) showing some of the capabilities of the Zi8. This is one of my favorites – the colors are so brilliant. It was shot with the macro lens.
For $10.00 on the Kodak web page, a remote control can be bought for the Zi8. I probably will buy one – it was really inconvenient to reach up to turn things off, even though I was out of the camera’s eye when I did it.
Also, switching from regular viewing to macro, there is a very audible click when you make that shift – it’s a mechanical movement from one lens to the other. But, the results can be good.
If you are interested in a more detailed video, here is one with information about the controls.
For a small price, a fun toy. Of course, now I am researching information about how to make decent learning videos. Lighting, framing, sound (need to buy a mike), structure, and of course post-editing. Something else to distract me . . .
This really is my home-made video debut. Â For my birthday, I got a Kodak Zi8. Â I’ve never shot a video in my life. Â It’s been in the back of my mind for some time to try to create videos on various subjects, in particular those related to sumi ink painting. Â I’ve long admired a number of ink artists, and have learned a lot from watching their videos. Â So, I decided to make a video today, just to see what I can do. Â Already, I know that what I have done is incredibly amateur, but for a first try, I decided to go ahead and post what I’ve done. Â Just making the videos gave such a greater appreciation for the thought which goes into a good one, as well as having good editing software. Â The Kodak Zi8 comes with MediaImpression for Kodak, by ArcSoft. Â I’ve managed to add a title and an ending to the file, but nothing else. Â What you see is really unedited footage!
The Art of Grinding an Ink Stick
Many authors of Japanese and Chinese ink-painting books will tell you that while you grind the ink on the stone, with gentle motions, it is a good time to collect oneself. Â I agree. Â I like to take my time, listen to calming music, and relax. Â Focusing on breathing helps – in, out, in, out – slowing down. Â Given the permanency of every ink stroke in sumi, it makes sense to calm down, to control one’s energy, and to take time to become centered. Â Breathing helps. Â I know that if I start out feeling stressed, my painting is stressed, tight and unhappy. Â Grinding ink is a period of transition.
Making the Video
Well, making the video was a pain! Â At first the camera was too low, and the field of vision too narrow. Â I had to build up the height of the camera, and retrain its focus. Â Looking at the video, certainly lighting needs to be improved, and the camera should be coming over my left shoulder, and lighting needs to be less yellow (maybe use the no-light setting!?!). Â Shadows need to disappear.
Purpose of the Video
Show the ink stone, with water
Demonstrate the ink stick
Demonstrate the upright position of the ink stick, and the motion on the top of the stone, as well as pulling the water up from the well of the stone, to continue the grinding process
Show the creation of dark ink, show the creation of medium ink, and the creation of light ink
Show through the time of the video that grinding ink for sumi does take time – it’s not something poured out of a bottle.
The Video
Let me know what you think! Â Try it in HD and full screen, too.
This morning before I popped off to my Japanese class at the Oxnard Buddhist Temple, I practiced writing hiragana, and thought about my own practice of mastering it. While there are a few characters which I am still struggling with, just because I am not yet clear on the rules of pronunciation, I feel pretty good at being able to see them and identify them fairly quickly. What I would really like is to do is sit down and read them in a story and be able to understand the language constructs. I have yet to learn katakana and kanji, but that will come later.
Online, there are numerous sites with hiragana fonts, flip-cards to enhance learning recognition, software downloads. A lot of applications are also available for the iPod or iPhone. However, while those are great resources, for me there is nothing better than sitting down and repetitively writing down the hiragana and saying each sound as I do so. In class, we learned a song to sing, like the ABC song we learn as children. I sing it to myself (when no one is around to hear me!) and visualize each hiragana as I say it. I stumble around with the “hya” and such, when I sing, but at least I am getting it.
Another area which is challenging is recognizing subtleties of the hiragana. Many look similar, but have subtle differences. I found it very helpful to isolate the hiragana nu, ne, no, me, re, and wa since they all look very much alike. Listening to Japanese and transcribing it into hiragana is also difficult, particularly when vowels are drawn out, and when sensei says “tsu” and “su.”
Practicing and memorizing the hiragana is only the first step. Because I enjoy painting, I’ve used sumi ink and calligraphy brushes. Another fun thing to do is to paint the different ones in different watercolors. I’ve also got a brush pen from Sailor – a Profit – that takes cartridges and a piston filler, so I can use colored fountain pen ink in it. And the final fun way to learn hiragana (and then katakana and kanji) is the inkless calligraphy paper – just dip your brush in water, paint it on, look at the strokes, watch them disappear – and do it over and over again on the same piece of paper.
Result? Mission Hiragana accomplished, with a heck of a lot of fun!
Ink, Yarn & Beer 