Tag: ink painting
Sumi-e Studies
After the trip to the Descanso Gardens, and the Gardens of the World, I finally got out some ink, paper, and brushes. The camellias in bloom everywhere in the Descanso Gardens, and the rows of magnolias in the Gardens of the world, pushed it. Seeing something that I have practiced painting before, in abundance, was an amazing inspiration. So much beauty! It is much different to paint something, practice something, and become familiar with it in one form – and then to re-experience it in another form.
I chose to focus on the camellia, or tsubaki. There is a lovely painting demonstration by Kazu Shimura, as well as other images in sumi-e throughout the web if you google. Photographs help, too, ones you might take or you might find.
The petals have a light ruffled edge, the center stamens and pistils point outward. Blossoms vary from a few petals – as seen in Shimura’s paintings – to multiple layers. The leaves vary in shape, but in general are long and round and end in a point. The edges of the flowers are hard to do gracefully, for me at least. The leaves are easier. I spent several hours just practicing the outline of the petals.
Yesterday at a local garden supply store, there were camellia bushes for sale. I may just buy one for more up close studies as this is the season of bud and flower and leaf.
Dragon Stone
We are still moving things around since my brother moved out last year. Needless to say, we are slow! In that process of making room for him, a lot of stuff was shifted, stored, and forgotten. Now that the studio is being revamped, I am refinding things, namely, two ink stones, one Chinese, one Japanese. Today I will write a bit about the dragon stone. Clicking on the image below will take you to a larger image which will allow you to see the in greater detail.
The above stone is Chinese and measures about 8.5 x 6 inches (22 x 15 cm). What kind of stone it is – most likely a slate – I cannot tell you for sure, but I will say the design is more Chinese, from what I know, than Japanese. The stone has a rather bell-like sound to it when tapped. Breathing on the stone shows little retention of surface moisture, as do some other stones, but a thin layer of water holds to the surface, then vanishes. I have not ground any ink on the stone as of this writing. Also, I have no idea where or when I purchased this stone! I expect I bought the stone because I like the carvings of the dragon in the clouds more than anything else – I’m a water dragon myself.
Unfortunately, when I unpacked the stone, a number of chips were in the box. I managed to salvage a few, and, not knowing what type of glue to use, decided to just try white glue. As the stone is porous, and white glue works well on porcelain, I decided to give it a shot. Admittedly, it doesn’t look great, especially in large pictures, but the mending is not too noticeable in the large picture of the stone itself. The stone seems rather soft, which may account for the issue of low moisture retention on its surface, so it may be rather porous as well. However, until I use it to make ink, I really cannot assess its grinding qualities.
I love the energy of the carving! You can just imagine wild, stormy weather, and a fearsome dragon flying through the clouds.
The carving on this stone is quite fine, with thin lines being well expressed in the undulating lines of the dragon’s body as he flies through the clouds. Scales are small and subtle; the whorling clouds undulate gracefully over the carved surfaces.
There are also small, light inclusions in the stone, which probably to the knowledgeable will give a lot more information about the type of stone this is, and its origins.
This stone is enjoyable for its carving and size. I’ll ink it up in the next few days and tell you what I think. And, hey, maybe I’ll even do some painting (at last!).
UFOs are Landing!
Yarn Balls Rolling!
What was supposed to be a two-week interim stay by my brother turned into five months. We moved the guest bed in my husband’s office into my studio so that Josh, who telecommutes, would not be kicking my brother out at 5:30 a.m. All the stuff in my studio, where the bed landed, migrated to the former bed space in my husband’s office.
Last night I dove into the knitting projects which had begun piling up there. Some people live out a suitcase quite tidily – I admit, I do not – and using borrowed space is sort of the same. The result was a treasure trove of lost needles (more than few, and lots more than several), projects, yarn. In the mix I found two sweaters which need finishing up, like weaving in ends, that I had neatly folded into a bag and promptly lost. Also, a beret or two or three or four in various stages of design and failure. The list grows.
Paint Brushes Ready to Escape!
The remaining items include the tansu which stores my suzuri and varied painting supplies, rolls of paper, and a box full of ink-painting supplies (mostly sumi and hake brushes) which I have been hoping to sell here on Ink, Yarn & Beer, to see if anyone might be interested in a few specialty items. My light table is also in there and who knows what else!
Photoscaping is Happening!
And while I am at it, a wonderful, easy-to-use, free program to edit digital images just released an upgrade. Photoscape is a fantastic product. I use it for quick editing of jpg files (it does not support raw files, as far as I know), especially those with color issues, such as being too red. For those red ones, I decolor the image to -3 or -4, depending.
Now it has frames! I used one of the gradated ones for these. Check it out – there is a bit of learning curve, but I have found it quite easy.
And?
It takes time to re-organize after such a disruption. Available space is different than it used to be as the bed is staying in the studio. The best part – hooray – is I can paint with far easier access to supplies.
Ciao!
Shapes
Simple shapes may not be so simple.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 