Tag: sumi-e

Remembrance of Things Past

If I want to be honest – which sometimes I don’t want to be! – I never realized that in watercolor, as in sumi-e painting (which I haven’t done for a few years), the brush is important.  In sumi-e, brushwork is important as it expresses what color cannot – color is not found in sumi-e, only shades of blacks and greys and white, with the subject hinted at, not indicated in boldface!  Playing with leaves made me remember this . . .

Because my chronic struggle in watercolor always seems to be overworking and mixing too many colors together, I decided to pick up a book called Everyday Watercolor:  Learn to Paint Watercolor in 30 Days, by Jenna Rainey.  I figured some kind of disciplined plan could work.  Her style of painting is not necessarily my style of painting, but that was not important as far as I am concerned.  My concern was to stop making mud and to relearn what I have forgotten over the years.  The examples in Rainey’s book are pretty basic, pretty straightforward, and actually, a lot of fun to do.  It has helped me drop that little, nagging, nasty perfectionist who always criticizes.  Rather, it is far better to just do, and quit the role of critic.   She does studies such as shapes, allowing colors to bleed into one another; she discusses design in the abstract exercises with squares and circles.  There are simple exercises in drawing and painting trees with foliage in shadow, and depth, with lighter pine trees in the distance, and darker ones in front.

What do I find the most valuable in this book?  Crazily simple lessons.  Step 1.  Step 2.  Step 3.  Limited palettes of color.  Most how-to-watercolor books are wonderfully full of tantalizing pictures, but few that I have seen really drill down to making it simple.  I enjoy the work of watercolorists such as Winslow Homer – people with a loose, free style which I would love to emulate.  I am not a contained person in the sense of wanting to fill in the lines, like in a coloring book, but I also appreciate the disciplined approach of people like Birgit O’Connor, who paints huge flowers, beach debris, and so on.  I am still struggling with watercolors enough to have no style of my own – I am still attempting to master the brushwork, water, and colors.

Currently, I have just finished Day 11, which is wet-into-wet and some dry brush.  Like in dry-into-wet.  Something like that.  It’s a papaya.

I’m looking forward to 19 more days … sort of a diet!  And to date, no mud!

 

Rocks & Shells

Rocks

As with sumi-e painting, in watercolor painting, much is to be learned from observation.  Recently, I purchased a video by Birgit O’Connor.  As an artist, she excels in vivid, colorful, large and intimate perspectives of flowers, but in looking on YouTube, she also can do a lot more than flowers.

The video I bought is Rocks, Sand & Sea Glass.  What makes it excellent for me is that she is very clear in her demonstrations, and more importantly, clear in her verbal explanations.  Her voice is nicely modulated, and proceeds at an even pace.  I really like the fact she identifies the brush she uses so explicitly, such as “my number 30 natural hair brush.”  Detailed as it seems, it allows the viewer to hear while watching.  I don’t have to sit and stare at her brush to think about what one she is using because she tells me.

In addition to watching, practice is paramount.  Seriously, you have to sit down and do it.  And do it again and again.  I know this about painting, because brushes vary, papers vary, my mood varies, and colors vary.  Self-control is necessary.  So is practice.  Having something interesting to paint makes it more fun.

Mussel Shells

Brushwork is so critical – knowing how to use a brush, how to load color, how to move the brush, maneuver it for shape, and how much pressure to apply.  How the paper responds is also important, simply because different papers have different characteristics, as well as come in different grades.

These are what I’ve produced.  More will come, as my supplies show up, too!  Thank goodness for Dick Blick and Amazon!

Brushwork and Value in Watercolor

Watercolor Brush Strokes a la Sumi-e

 

Having been doing sumi-e with some regularity for several years, I am finding it helpful in watercolor. Because the brush is the vehicle for watercolor, as it is in sumi-e, it is important to understand how the brush works.

Pencil Outline

Kolinsky sable watercolor brushes can be considerably stiffer than the white-haired sheep brush used in sumi-e, but much more flexible than the wolf and horse brushes, which have darker, more stiff bristles. Basically, a western watercolor brush combines both qualities in one brush, but this does not mean that it is the same at all! A good point is important for a Kolinsky round (I am using DaVinci Maestro Series 10s and Escoda Series 1212) just as it is with sumi-e brushes, as is the ability to carry water and color.

Layer 1

Many of the same techniques used in sumi-e can be applied to watercolor. These include brush strokes, such as increasing and decreasing pressure to change line thickness. Two or more colors may be applied to a brush, as in sumi-e when different ink intensities are applied. In Western watercolor, a brush stroke may be modified, working wet-into-wet, wet-into-dry, dry-into-wet, and glazing or layering colors. This does not work well in sumi-e, unless one is doing fine line Chinese painting.

Layer 2

The major differences between sumi-e and western watercolor are responsiveness of paper. Japanese and Chinese painting papers are generally much more porous than traditional Western watercolor papers. Heavily sized Asian papers are used for fine line painting, where color layers are used, and bleeding of ink, so characteristic in sumi-e, does not occur. Western watercolor papers will vary in the amount of sizing used, and this, in turn, affects the absorbent qualities of the paper. Knowing how a paper responds takes time and practice, whether in Asian painting, or Western.

Layer 3

Value in sumi-e is achieved in how the brush is loaded. Ink can be very pale, and while it is still damp, darker ink may be applied to good effect. A sumi brush can also be loaded with pale ink, then a medium ink, and finally a tip or dark, or even one edge of the brush in dark ink. The stroke of the brush creates all the gradations. In watercolor, value is achieved by layering, as well as working wet-into-wet. Layering, also known as glazing, is the application of wet paint on a previously painted layer which has dried. Glazes are also built up light to dark. Wet-into-wet can be sopping wet, or in varying degrees of dampness.  In some ways, wet-into-wet requires more self-discipline than glazing, which requires patience and forethought.

Wet-into-Wet

Each painting technique, sumi-e and watercolor, have similar techniques, as well as some which are exclusive to that medium. The key is to learn from both, and to master each.

All these paintings were based on demonstrations from Linda Stevens Moyer’s book LIght Up Your Watercolors Layer by Layer.

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.