-N- – Page 742 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Adaptations of West & East

These past few weeks I have gone through some of my past paintings. One of the things I have been trying to figure out are ways in which it may be possible to create a certain spontaneous, zen, sumi-quality in a painting done using western materials.

The absorbent paper, and other papers of Japan, China, and Korea are not readily available in the United States. Mounting the very thin, Asian papers is a challenge. Traditional methods of wheat paste are difficult, and until the method is perfected, the artist can lose a lot of work if not careful. In Japan and China, there are shops to do the mounting for you – not so here. Other methods for mounting include using a framer, but the framer may not be able to get rid of the wrinkles for you. Dry mounting, using silicone release paper, such as used in photography mounting, may work, but even that can be risky – the wrinkles may still be there, or the adhesive may catch another part of the painting if you are not careful.

Western watercolor paper comes in rough, cold press, and hot press. Yupo is a Japanese synthetic paper, but sumi ink and gansai rinse away under running water. Thus, it seems, that the ideal is to somehow re-create the absorbent quality as best as possible using western papers.

The quality of xuan and tissue-thin sulfite papers is one of both absorbency and ability to portray each brush stroke. These are the ideal papers for sumi ink and sumi-e. Dry brush is easy enough on western paper. But that absorbency? How to achieve that?

Keeping the paper damp, so the color or ink is drawn into the paper fibers is critical. I don’t want the paper so wet that everything bleeds, but damp enough so the character of the ink or paint is caught. This is so hard to describe!

bamboo

This painting of bamboo is done on Fabriano 100% Cotton Cold Press paper. First, it was masked off with drafting tape onto a board, and then a layer of water was lightly brushed over the surface, and then a pale wash of lemon yellow added.

As in traditional sumi-e, the idea was to paint without outline, and to create a focused, yet spontaneous, painting. The shape of the bamboo stalks was considered, and painted without the drawing of outlines. The brush was pushed onto the paper, or paused in areas. I touched the paper to assess its dryness or dampness, and waited for more drying to occur, or added water as needed. To get the color gradations, I loaded my brush with pale-medium-dark paint, but at times I helped it along by adding color on the edges of the stems, or lifting as necessary. The result seems to have been successful.

With Arches 140# Hot Press paper, the technique is similar, but the smaller the sheet (as in the small size for ACEOs), it becomes apparent that the paper can warp more easily the wetter it becomes. Weighting down the finished product seems to help, and so does ironing!

These next pictures were done on ACEO-sized Arches. For the maple leaves, the background was given a very light wash of yellow, and then, as you can see, a wet-into-wet technique done with the branch on the far right. It has a very soft effect. The lighter leaves were painted first and allowed to become nearly dry before the darker leaves were added. Brush movement of pushing down, or turning and lifting, were done to create the shapes of the leaves as well as for the tiny maple seeds. Overall, fairly successful.

maple tree

The plum tree below is also done on an ACEO-sized sheet of Arches 140# Hot Press. Here, the effort to utilize the damp paper succeeded to a degree. I did load my brush with successive levels of ink, light to dark, but I did not succeed in its showing up. Perhaps the paper needed to be a bit dryer than it was, as the ink shades all blurred to create one shade. Still, the final result was not too bad.

I think that with more practice I might be able to achieve the effects I want, but it will take analysis and experience. In the meantime, I am trying – still! – to master the mounting of xuan with silicone release paper. But, to tell the truth, I rather doubt I have the patience for it.

The Holy Gusset

Many, many moons ago, as a young and novice sock knitter, I produced my first socks. I read my book. I followed the directions. I made the heel flap, turned the heel, picked up stitches, did the decreases and — and — and!

I had holes at the very top of my gusset.

I ripped it all out. I read my book. I followed the directions. And there, once again, was those pesky holes.

I ripped out. I read my book.

You get the idea.

Finally, in frustration, I just knit some extra stitches and did some strange things, and the holes magically disappeared. But, I had not followed the rules laid out in the sock pattern directions, and felt that, somehow, my inadequacy as a knitter was to blame.

Now mind you all, this was back in the days before internet, when yarn stores did not exist except far and between. Libraries and books and relatives and friends were the only sources of information. No one I knew knit socks. I was on my own.

Fast forward a century or two. Nancy Bush’s book Folk Socks debuted. More sock books were published. Sock knitting was In! And The-Hole-at-the-Top-of-the-Gusset came out of the closet.

These memories tumbled out of the past as I was browsing YouTube. This little jewel of a video shows you that nasty hole and how to conquer it. Thank you KatAutumn!

Water Birds

Water birds – wading, fishing birds – are a common theme in many Asian paintings. These include cranes, herons, egrets. There is something incredibly beautiful and fierce about these birds.

Seeing these birds is an incredible experience. When I was a student at UC Santa Barbara, my dormitory looked out over the lagoon. Great Blue Herons nested in the eucalyptus trees. One day, an escaped pink flamingo began living in the water! Hiking in the Matilija Creek area of Ventura County, I sat down and suddenly, within inches of my head, whoosh! – out flies a heron! Egrets wade in the marshy areas of local rivers.

Imagine yourself as one of these birds. Suddenly, your legs bend forward at the knee, not backward. You don’t have hands. You have long, wide wings, with feathers rippling out from the sides of your body as you bring them forward. Your nose is now long, longer, longer . . . how long is a bill? Is it a bill or a beak? And your nose is also your mouth – snap! A fish, a frog for dinner. And then, there is your neck. Long and undulating, suddenly your head is able to turn to look behind you, it goes up and down a long distance (certainly longer than mine!). And eyes on either side of your head, not looking out in front of you. How does it affect your vision? Lack of depth but awareness of movement?

Take a walk in your new bird body . . . feel how your shoulders hunch, how your wings expand, how you walk in the water . . . expand the crest on your head, fluff your feathers . . . launch yourself into the sky like a rocket, stand still and then, faster than can be seen, snatch your fish from the creek. How do your claws feel as they dangle when you walk, when you come in to land, when you launch from your nest in the reeds? What do you see around you? Leafy trees, swamp grasses, other birds. What do you hear? Rain on water? Wind in the trees? What do you feel when the wind rustles your feathers or rain pours off your back?

Photos are incredible resources for studying birds. There are many public domain sites from which photos can be copied. The snowy egret above came from the digital library system of the US Fish & Game site: http://images.fws.gov/. Take a look . . . imagine . . . think about how your brush can create a feather, catch a movement. What shades of grey? White? Ink only?

Knitting Offenses

The other day, I was over at the local bookstore, and decided to grab a few knitting magazines to peruse with my coffee. I saw some great designs in texture combined with lousy garment construction and finishing techniques. The biggest offenders are the shoulders, sleeves, bodies, and necklines.

Garment Design. As an example, not too long ago, I bought a pattern booklet from a famous yarn maker. The cover hat and glove set caught my eye. I bought it, without reading it. When I read it, I was stunned. The hat pattern – the same as for the back of the glove – was knitted back and forth on two needles, and then seamed! The gloves were knitted on four needles, in the round.

Huh?? Am I missing something here?

Necklines. I always look at the construction of the neckline, and I read the pattern. Is there sewing to be done? Is it knitted and attached as you go along, or done separately and then sewn on? Is the neckline shaping capable of supporting the rest of the sweater body? How does that V-neck or scoop neck look? Too low? Too high? Do the edges of the neckline have a finished look, or do they look sloppy and stretched out? Is it flattering? Does it make the sweater fall off the shoulder?

Badly Designed Sleeves. Under this heading, you can find poorly sewn sleeves, at the shoulder and into the armpit, and along the length of the arm. First question: Who did the finishing? Next question: Why would you design a sweater with sleeve seams?

In one of the magazines I looked at, it was pretty obvious that the person who pieced together the sweater could not do the job. The sleeve seam was messy and ragged. The knitted pattern did not add to the offense; some stitches make it difficult to knit a “sewable” edge, but the designer can eliminate this problem if they must have sleeve seams.

Another picture in the same magazine showed inset sleeves with the same crappy finishing. Puckers, uneven sewing. This destroyed the sweater. Here, the knitting designer was at fault to a degree because the pattern stitches used did not make the sewing-up easy.

Finally, photography. A lot of magazines show evidence of pinning and pulling to make an item “fit” the model. Here is when design flaws can really show up, as well as poor finishing techniques. Thank the photographer for this! It may make you re-think doing that pattern.

Body. This has been written up by some rather famous people. Elizabeth Zimmermann said it all. She documented this issue quite well when she sold her seamless Fair Isle sweater pattern to a famous magazine. Said magazine rewrote the pattern to have side seams, shoulder seams, and sewn-in sleeves, even though it was pretty obvious in the picture that there were no seams at all – or that the seamstress was superb!

Poorly designed sweaters can result in sweaters which can never be sewn together well, no matter the talent. I have some ski sweater designs from the 40s and 50s. The raglan sleeves are sewn in, and the patterns – snowflakes, elk, stars – are placed in the middle of the raglan seam. Not nicely sewn in the photos, and not worth doing, unless it is in the round.

What to do? Well…what can you do? If you really like something, is it something you can do? Do you have the skill, creativity, know-how to fix problems? Do you want to take the time to do it? Do you want to learn to do it?

If you answer yes, then have at it. If you answer no, then look for another pattern! You know your own personality, so why make yourself crazy and frustrated to the point of misery?

IMHO. I am a frump and a snob. I don’t wear trendy clothing, and I don’t make fashionable designs. I like well-tailored, comfortable clothing. I like good shoes. I like good materials and craftsmanship.

When it comes to knitting anything, I really appreciate good construction design, good finishing, and elegance. Most of this can be done with a minimal of sewing.

Line & Color, vii

The Final Pictures

The final decision was to attempt to darken the middle flower and create more light / dark contrast. Don’t think it works. The other choice was to move from more warm at the base of the painting to cooler on top. Washes of yellows and yellowy-pinks went in, from bottom to top. Purple-blues were overlaid the very top flower.

To a degree, I think this warm-to-cool saves the painting, but the lost contrast in the middle flower weakens it as a whole. The contrasts between the red and green of the leaves helps, but doesn’t save it. The B&W below shows this quite clearly.