Category: Blitherings

Video: Painting Sunflowers in Sumi-e

There are a lot of “try before you buy” video editors out there.  Some allow you to publish a video without blurbs on the final product which tell the whole world who they are.  Others do it, which is annoying, but they can be removed with some editing.  Some programs are fairly intuitive – which is important if you don’t know a dang thing about video editing – and others come with decent tutorials and help sections.  Some are slow to load, hard to see, confusing, but full of cool devices.  Others are not, but have online resources which you can use to create your own what-is-needed, like a title or template.  To get what I want I have been swapping between a number of programs, but expect I will eventually settle on one.  I really appreciate 30-day windows to try out stuff!  I’ve been rather confused and frustrated, but am beginning  to understand a bit about them. One thing I do know is that over-processing the videos is occurring, and a lot of quality is lost. As long as you don’t watch them in full-screen mode, the quality is okay.

Sunflower Sunday

As always, my weekends are far too busy, but I do make time to have fun.  This weekend I was determined to try out a different set-up for the Zi8.  When I work inside in my studio (office, spare room, whatever!), the camera cannot be easily placed where I usually work.  My painting area is part of an L-shaped computer table, and the camera really is best placed to my left.  Unfortunately, the computer area is also to the left.  I have tried all sorts of gyrations, but nothing was especially great.  Practice will eventually create the perfect set-up.

So, I decided to try it out on the patio, and it worked out pretty well.  I could get the camera over to the left of the chair and angle it so I could film as if the viewer were looking over my left shoulder.  The key was to place the feet of the tripod perpendicular to the table – this way I could scoot the chair back to stay out of the picture, but not knock over everything if I moved.  All this worry creates a very stressful painting situation, but this time I actually felt fairly comfortable, and ended up painting and filming – turning the camera on and off with the remote – for quite some time.

The result was a 15-minute video on painting sunflowers.  YouTube has both a size and time limit, but I decided to try it anyhow.  No dice.  I tried to compress the video into a 10-minute segment, and all I ended up seeing was a black screen.  Thus, I had to divide the video into segments, which was not easy until I got into another software package.  I was able to edit out sections with pauses, and divide the sections into different videos with different titles.  The final result is two videos!

Painting Sunflowers in Sumi-e:  Part One and Part Two

Here they are!  YouTube also allows you to do “audioswap” and add a free (to the video-maker) music track to the video, with the caveat some advertising may appear.  I did it for the Painting Wild Orchids in Sumi-e video, and for the two sunflower ones, which you can see below.  Hopefully the music will add to the proverbial “viewing pleasure” and the advertisements won’t distract.

Oy!

This week has really not been bad.  It has just been busy, busy, busy.  All of last weekend was packed with people and events.  Monday and Tuesday were full, as was Wednesday and Thursday, all day at work and afterwards.  Friday the dryer died.  There went Friday night with a trip to the laundromat to finish up soggy clothes.  Saturday morning was Japanese class.

But, despite it all, I took some time to play with yarn.  Most knitting projects I have are at points where things need time – they cannot simply fill time –  except for playing with a stitch pattern I found quite interesting.  

What I did not expect was the curved bottom at the beginning of the pattern – the book did not mention this at all, which can create design element problems.  On the other hand, used properly, it can lend to some creative adjustments to eliminate the ripple, or incorporate it.

Now it is a sunny, Sunday morning. Light breeze, blue sky, warm weather. An extra hour to have fun because of daylight savings. Not a bad way to wind down a crazy week!

Buttoned Cardigan, iv

This sweater is nearly done – about 85%. I’ve had to modify the pattern a bit to meet my needs, specifically having yarn that could not be knit to gauge. I have completed the first sleeve, which has knit up quite easily. I picked up 80 stitches total around the armscye.

If you look at the pattern photos from an earlier post, the sleeves are wrist length. As I am notorious for catching and ripping anything at wrist level, including destroying metal bracelets, I always roll my sleeves up, no matter what, or try to find clothing with 3/4 length sleeves. So, I decided to do this with the sweater as well. And, the end result (hopefully) will be that I have a very comfortable sweater which will have nice cuffs over time, and not be as hot as full-length sleeves would make it.

I’ve set Ishbel aside until I’ve finished this project – I think I have made a mistake in the current row of the lace, but don’t want the stress of finding right now.

And, admittedly, I have other knitting projects I’m putzing with . . .

Tulip Tree

In Southern California, the normal scenery is beige in the hills during the winter – lately, black – but in the towns, landscaping tends to be green year round.

Seldom do you find leaves changing like you do back east – which is anything inland from the Pacific! – but in our front yard we have a tulip tree. In the summer, the shade and leaves keep our house cool, to the point we seldom have the air conditioner on. In the winter, with fewer leaves and shorter days, the light comes in the windows, and the branches are silhouetted against the sky.

And as the year ends, it drops it leaves. This year, we had a short cold snap that came with rain, and the leaves are so beautiful, more so than usual. Soon they will all drop off. I caught this picture in the late, late afternoon.

The Four Gentlemen: 国画兰花 (Orchid)

According to the Google Chinese translator, 国画兰花 means “orchid painting.”  If I plug in the characters, sure enough, that is what I get!  There are a lot of really beautiful orchid paintings, both Japanese and Chinese, and some from other parts of the world.

The Four Gentlemen

In learning to paint in sumi, the student first becomes acquainted and accomplished in painting the orchid, bamboo, plum, and chrysanthemum. Practicing each, the student learns critical brush strokes, and while one may become adept at the strokes, mastery is where the artist steps in.

Painting the orchid allows the student the opportunity to practice long movements with the brush. This requires moving with the arm, rather than the wrist, which is very strange to us in the west. Those of us who learned to write script hour after hour in school learned to control our movements. Big, sweeping arm movements were not encouraged.

In addition to learning to control large movements, the student also works with varying shades of ink, from light to dark, to create a dynamic painting. The leaves require darker ink, and the flowers require lighter. In addition to lighter ink, the flowers require smaller, controlled movement. Finally, “dotting the heart” – the black ink at the center of each flower – requires the patience for the ink to dry. Applied too soon, the elegant shape becomes a blurry spot in what might otherwise be a perfect flower.

Besides being an elemental step to learning sumi, the orchid represents spring, as well as the virtues of noble behavior and modesty. In Japanese, the “Four Gentlemen” are called “shi-kunshi. Each plant has a corresponding season and virtue. In contemplating paintings of these subjects – the orchid, bamboo, plum, and chrysanthemum – one also steps into the symbolism of each.

Painting the Orchid

Of the “Four Gentlemen,” the orchid is the most easily learned. The long flowing leaves are delightful to paint. The flowers are as well – a great deal of satisfaction is found in mastering the curves of the strokes. Most difficult is “dotting the heart.”

That said, the mastery of the orchid, or any of the Gentlemen, is a lifetime experience. The expression and shape and composition of such simple subjects becomes increasingly more interesting, and more challenging.

The Video: Painting the Wild Orchid in Sumi-e

Here is a video showing some of my orchid paintings in color, as well as a demonstration in sumi. I have not annotated this video, but am leaving it for you to observe. Let me know what you think!