Painting – Page 17 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Iris, iv

Irises – in Color – in Ink

The iris – the butterfly flower – is just too much fun to paint! And quite a challenge as well. The videos make it look easy, but I assure you, it is not! The shape of the flower petals is far more difficult to do in a few squishy movements than it appears. Loading the brush, with ink and / or pigment, is also a challenge.

Of all the videos, I looked at Virginia Lloyd-Davies’ the most. The reason for this is that she has multiple irises in different positions. She also uses similar approaches for each iris, but varies the iris enough so that brush variations also occur. By watching her video repeatedly, it became possible to actually learn a great deal by imitating.

For these pictures, I used the same paper. The paper is double xuan, which is an absorbent paper which is heavier than student grade, and much nicer as a result.

Unfortunately, I did not take very good pictures, but at least they are clear. In the picture above, you can see some attempts are better than others. This picture represents my first attempts at painting irises in color. The ones on the left side were done with the paper turned around – what you see are upside down. The reddish-purple ones are my first ones, the blue ones later on. You can see there is some improvement. As always, my sense of value seems very off to me – not enough contrast between the light and the dark and middle tones. The yellow iris was just awful. The yellow paint has a decidedly greenish cast, and I could not find my white paint (I’m using Marie’s Chinese Paints) – or maybe I’m just out of it. Anyway, it held no appeal once the color was on the paper.

These two side-by-side paintings were my tries at creating the irises and attaching them to the stem. Not very good. The colors of the irises are not bad, but the shapes leave a lot to be desired. Leaves as well are unpleasant.

This painting with the reddish irises is better than the blue ones, as far as some of the shapes of the flowers. Those of you familiar with orchids in Asian painting will realize that these are orchid leaves, not iris leaves! Well, I guess I have some sort of hybrid here.

Once I got frustrated with color, I got out a Chinese ink stick and ground up some ink. I made three shades – light, medium, dark – and went to work. Again, contrast was an issue, but the flowers, stems, and leaves became a lot nicer. This one was the first attempt which pleased me.

The second sumi iris also shows a problem with light / dark, but the composition is pleasing to me.

And this one, the third one, pleases me the most. Still some problems with light / dark, but not so badly. The entire flower is looking a lot better, from top to bottom. Certainly some of the irises are rather blobby, and the buds don’t quite make it. Parts of the painting are too busy or crowded, but, over all, I think I am seeing some success. Certainly I plan to continue practicing, and I hope that I will be able to produce a creditable flower.

Leftover Ink

This is what I did to use up the rest of my sumi ink – I hate wasting it!

All these paintings were done on Memorial Day. A few others were done as well. As far as the photography, well, let’s just say it sucks and I need to work on it. The paper is a warm cream, and perhaps I should have used a flash. Ah, well, always something new to learn.

Iris, ii

I did my visual research. I downloaded almost 100 different iris pictures, for color, shape, structure, position. Too many to post here! Also copies of famous prints and paintings – Japanese screens, Van Gogh’s fields. Besides flowers, I also looked at leaves and descriptions. I pulled out my “how to” books. And, I watched the videos from my last post.

The iris is an impressionistic dream! It is not a tightly structured flower, but more an explosion of color and shape. Also, not all irises are bearded, even though there is a similarity of structure amongst the varieties, as far as I can tell. The color variations are numerous, and vary from subtle to outrageously loud. The most structured thing about the iris is the leaves, which are a perfect contrast in their simplicity against the frilliness of some of the blooms.

Each video provided some instruction, in shape, in how to move the brush, how to load the color. Right now I am working in sumi ink alone, so that means grays, whites, blacks, and everything in between. The paper I am using is a roll, and the paper itself is very absorbent. This presents a bit of a challenge because the brush has to be very, very dry for control. And then, waiting for the paper to dry enough to pick up darker lines, but not bleed them away into the already wet paper.

This is what I accomplished this evening. The main focus of this painting venture was to think about, and to do, the brushwork. Determining how to manipulate the brush to create given shapes and how to load the ink onto the brush is part of this practice session. Because the throat of many of the lavender-blue-purple irises have a yellow throat, that pale color has to be represented by white or light grey ink. Some irises are light on the tips, and darker toward the center. How the stem attaches to the flower is also important, and deciding how to relay it visually also means deciding what kind of movements need be done with the brush, wrist, and so on.

I’ll stop with that. Needless to say, the values need to be sorted out at some point! These are all disasters in that area.

From Sadami Yamada's Book on Flower Painting

Following the Brushwork of Danny Chen's Video

Following Virginia Lloyd-Davies' Brushwork in Her Video

Painted from an Upside Down Photo - a la "Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain"

Retrospective Introspection

Admittedly I have been feeling rather sorry for myself. I get like this when I have no time to sit down and think about life and what I want to do with it. Thursday I walked into my office at work and was just unable to make choices as to what to pursue next. Oh, there were a lot of things to be done, but it seemed just so overwhelming and the mere act of choosing what to do was impossible. The best thing to do in these circumstances – for me, at least – is to sit down with paper and pen and begin to write. Five pages later, the world was in order once more.

Writing is therapeutic. It’s like the pensieve of the Harry Potter stories. I pull out thoughts and ideas and frustrations, and when they are all placed onto paper, there is structure found amidst the chaos.

Painting is much the same process as writing; however, I often feel pulled into different directions. I never focus on one style. The consistent factor is my use of water-soluble media and paper, but other than that, I don’t have a particular style. Consequently, I am not as accomplished as I would like to be in watercolor. I like many of my ink paintings and the simpler watercolors that are based on sumi-e. Traditional watercolors are often disastrous failures. Acrylic paints are not my favorite medium, but there are times when I have used them to create more graphic pictures.

Today, I went through my hard drive to look at some of the paintings I have scanned or photographed over the past year or two, and pulled out some which appealed to me for whatever reason – sort of a retrospective of the work of the last few years. Here they are, not in any particular order, but just for me and anyone who wants to look at them to see and consider.

Pine Tree, ii

old pine–

my own life’s autumn

is like that

—Issa

Painting Wheat in Sumi-e

Fields of wheat are found throughout the world, and it is a grain of significant nutritional importance to many populations. Technically a grass, wheat originated in the middle east, and was the agricultural foundation for a number of early civilizations.

As a subject to paint in sumi-e, it provides a number of interesting lines and planes. Using a diagram of the plant, pictures of wheat found on the web, and dried grasses for arrangements, there are many resources for the artist. I’ve used a combination of all three as references.

Painting Wheat

The first area to be painted is the seed head. It weights down the plant, and gives a graceful direction to the subject. By painting these first, the focal points of the picture may be chosen. As wheat rests on a top of a tall stem, consideration should be given to the composition – is the wheat going to be upright and tall, or bending over in a graceful curve?

The seeds are painted dark to light, with the ink on the brush being used until gone. Next, the stem and the beard may be painted. The beard is lightly done, with quick graceful strokes. The stem may be created with a pause and pressure at the beginning of the stroke, before continuing on and completing the stem in one movement.

The leaves are done at the end, using the side-brush stroke in combination with vertical strokes which change direction and pressure for character. Finally, the veins of the leaves are done in medium-to-dark ink.

My own wheat is rather amateurish in execution, but that is how one learns. Many sumi artists and calligraphers will practice a subject over and over until the right combination is reached, and the seemingly effortless execution of a painting is done.