PERSPECTIVE continued

With my new understanding of "perspective", I am itching to put that into practice.




What I have done here is sort of cheating, well, not exactly. By that I meant I have changed the characteristics of the landscape. I have chosen the type of landscape that is more conducive to revealing the birds eye view perspective.




I have chosen to paint precipitous bluffs with flat surfaces that I can more easily depict an upward orientation.




I have chosen to hide the water leading to the fall with mist and vapor. This void space also helps to create distance from the hills in the back.




A bridge is painted way low to augment the depth of the structure. I wish I had extended the waterfall (void space) below the bridge before the darker shade of vapor.



Bodies on the bridge showed wider shoulders and skinny legs; a distortion that helps the mind to assimilate that this is a view of looking down from above.












I found a piece of sketching to further illustrate the view of "perspective"




In this piece of work, the gazebo showed the underside of the roof, therefore the observer is looking at it from below.



The hill it sits on is at eye level.







The buildings in the lower foreground show their roofs and shingles, thus the observer assumes a higher vantage point than the buildings.



The rock formation in the foreground showed extended flat surfaces. The front contour lines are replaced by light value shadings. The observer can appreciate the and feel the structure as one that the observer can set foot on!



The use of "perspectives" in this painting is more akin to the western practice. We have the upward view, the level view and the downward view, and also, to the left and to the right. The "virtual" position of the observer in this painting is well established.

SCATTERED FOCAL POINT PERSPECTIVE

I was presented with a piece of work with the emphasis on perspective. In this instance, assuming a downward looking perspective.



Before I delve into this topic of perspective in Chinese paintings, let me address the concept of scattered focal point. As we thumb through "HOW TO" books on painting, we often find the terms horizon, vanishing point, etc. In Chinese Landscape paintings, the concept of scattered focal point is introduced. As you look at objects at different elevations, and I am using a building as an example, conventional wisdom will tell you that if you see mostly roof, then you are looking at the house from above. If you see mostly foundation, or the soffit then you are looking at it from below. A lot of Chinese landscape painting however depicts the buildings at various elevations as if one was looking at them from level ground, and this is the concept of scattered focal point.






The attached illustration makes that observation.



When the uninitiated individual looks at a Chinese landscape painting, one might notice exotic ways of representing mountains, hills, rocks and streams and vapor etc, but one can't quite put the finger on what else makes the painting different. This is almost like looking at a flat map of the world instead of the spherical map



Having said that, the artist can choose to deviate from this format, and utilize perspective to add to the overall feeling of the painting.



When I looked at the presented work, I had a strong feeling of discord. I will shy away from discussion of composition, but I will



try to address what I see is wrong, and it all has to do with perspective. The work pretends to present a view from above, thus the observer is looking at the top of the gazebo. Unfortunately nothing else suggests that. Everything else in this painting has the scattered focal point presentation.



I used the following indicators:



I should be able to see the water leading up to the fall on the left.



The water falls ( the artist says those are water falls ) on the right looks like streams if this was the perspective from above. They do not show a downward movement, just a north-south direction.



The contour lines on the hills are those of a typical observer at the same level, i.e. the contour line defines the ridge.



The artist did not accept my observation well. Perhaps

the artist is too entrenched in the Old School of copying and did not do much observing. I asked the artist to paint the same landscape, but using the traditional scattered focal point practice, to show me the difference his view of " from above" vs that scattered focal view and the artist was not able to do that. I then realized that his inability to do so stemmed from his lack of true understanding of "perspective".



I spent a couple of weeks attempting to present my case in a different fashion. I tried to draw the same painting by using my understanding of perspective, and I failed. I found that his type of landscape does not lend itself well to make my case.



I finally resorted to building models to illustrate my point. I crumbled a piece of paper and built my own mountain. I fashioned my gazebo top using a tiny square of paper, resting on a pin. Set up my light source to the right, above my "mountain" to simulate the sun, and took pictures from above and from eye level to get the 2 perspectives. I labelled the typical contour lines A,B,C,and D to show how these same contours, or land features, are different when viewed at different elevations.



What is readily apparent is that in the eye level shot ( gazebo top is in perfect side view), the contour lines pretty much defines the highest point of that feature, therefore a line defines a hill. Whereas in the birds eye view, that line has crept forward, followed by an area showing the "thickness" of the feature. This thickness can be addressed by light values and not by lines. One needs to add real estate beyond the contour line !! To make an extreme case of this, a tree at eye level shows the trunk and the crown. The same tree in the birds eye view will be a round circle of leaves, i.e. the "thickness" of the crown.

I showed these photos to the artist, and now he understood the point I was making. He asked to borrow the photos for further studies. This is why I am posting this, as it had been a consuming topic for the both of us, to explain and to comprehend.

I have certainly learned from this exercise. I had a concept that I could not verbalize, nor execute. At least now I have a better understanding.

But to the artist's credit, traditional Chinese landscape paintings often incorporate the bird's eye view with the scattered focal point perspective.  I am not sure how to put this concept across succinctly, what comes to mind is how we look at a world atlas.  We know the earth is round, so if we can conjure up a view from space, then northern Russia and Greeland would not be as big as they are seen on maps.

A two dimensional map tries to make the converging longitude lines into parallel lines, thus distorting the distances at the ends of these lines. Thus the typical perspective for a Chinese landscape painting is one that is a bird's eye view of the landscape, but the description of each part of the landscape is as if the person is seeing them at eye level.  One can almost claim that these paintings do not really distinguish foreground or background.  Every point of interest is "equal distance" from a perspective point of view. 

HORSING AROUND WITH STRIPES

Garble Garble, hope everybody had a wonderful turkey day. I had to work that day, but all these years of working retail had taught me to look at any day as just another day! How can one be disappointed when one does not have any expectations.....hmmm, something Confucius might have said.

In preparing for the Portland Open Studios, I wanted to paint something that is high contrast and black and white, something that reminisces of a black and white photograph. I came upon a picture I took of zebras at the Washington Park Zoo and I proceeded to plan this painting.

The second insert is the finished product ( before it is mounted on Xuan paper backing and framed ) and I named it 15 Zebras. It measures 26 x 17 and was priced at $ 475. My intention was to paint a herd of zebras, but only their striping would show. I wanted to show only the upper body of the animals, asserting that the limbs would be hidden by tall grass on the Serengeti. I wanted this presentation to take on a contemporary, quasi abstract kind of feel.

I started out by trying to emulate a famous Chinese horse painter by the name of Hsu Bei-hung.( see top insert ) but somehow the horse's body does not translate too well into zebras. I started to sketch with my brush, using ink only, and I did quite a few models. When I was researching through pictures of this animal, I noticed the brown stripes amidst the black ones. Oh xy?! is what I uttered, now my images would be too busy....... would not be that high contrast, austere look that I was hoping for. Now I would have black and brown stripes!!!! I settled on using the brown color as my shading.... and it seemed to work for me. I cut off a piece of my studio practice piece ( close-up of two zebra heads ), cropped it and sandwiched it in a glass block frame.

Now that I have a better grasp of what I am painting, I started to paint in earnest. After I was done with it, I hated it. It was too austere...... too much white spaces... so destitute. It literally slept on my floor for 3 mouths. So many times I had the urge to cut it, crop it into smaller piece(s) to salvage it. After all, I've spent many a sleepless night planning this nightmare.

Finally a good friend of mine gave me some inputs.... "why don't you paint in some grass?" What on earth ?? This is like putting rosary beads on Buddha.... how dare you.

A couple more weeks went by..... end of September was drawing near, I could smell October.... I could taste Portland Open Studios, oh what the hell, I've got nothing to lose, so I begrudgingly dappled on grass, and brown shading, and wait a minute, now I see a "S" pattern to the composition ( in retrospect, I should have done a "Z" formation for zebra ) so now I am legit, I know how to frame my composition !

With renewed zest, I darkened the stripes on the front pack, I really emphasized the manes of those animals to make them stand out from the back, to create distance. I used brown shading to add to the roundness of the animals' bellies. Named my piece 15 zebras. I wanted the visitors to count out 15 animals in this painting.

Sure you can pick this painting apart... some might even say the zebras look like asses, or worse yet, there is a lack of "Chinese" flavor in this endeavor. All points are well taken... my response is....I had FUN doing this. This Prozac worked for me.

OIL, ACRYLIC, OR MIXED MEDIA

I had mentioned that I am experimenting with making some of my works have an "oil painting" feel and I had posted an example on my last blog. Here is another example of that. I am biased of course, but this is so far my favorite. The subject matter and the composition is akin to the western painting feel and this piece of work lends itself very nicely to this transition. I took this picture off center to show the gleaming quality of the paper/canvas/varnish.

For those of you who are familiar with mounting Xuan paper, you know it is delicate work. I shall describe a little bid of my process of mounting Xuan paper on canvas.

When we mount paper on paper, the difficulty of the task is to be sure that all the wrinkles are out so that we have a piece of perfectly smooth and taut painting when dried. As we lift the wet Xuan papers with glue applied, we just have to be careful in the lifting process, so that we are not tearing off the corners by mistake ( I've done that, and I found out how many swear words I know). Papers you can lift, but how do you lift a framed canvas ?

As you recall, my first experience was with the work submitted to the Audubon society when they asked for a 6x6 work on canvas. Since the framed canvas is small, I could easily lift the entire frame from the mounting surface without too much problem. As the frame gets bigger, the task becomes exponentially more difficult. A large, wet, flat surface creates so much suction and the fact that is frame is rigid and not flexible like paper, makes it almost impossible to lift the canvas frame. What I have done is I used small piece of clear acrylic ( any hardware store should have it.... this is better than glass because it is light, and safe to handle) and as I am ready to lift the canvas frame, I turned the whole thing over, i.e. so now the clear acrylic is sitting on top, over your painting, which is wet and glued to the canvas frame. Now I can slide the acrylic off the painting, with care of course. The clear acrylic allows me to see if I am sliding too fast to create tears in my work. The acrylic also has a little flexibility in it, so I can bend it a little bit to break the vacuum.

After the acrylic is removed, then I worry about brushing off any inadvertent air pockets and now I shall wrap the edge of the Xuan paper around the canvas frame to give it that wrap around look.

After drying the painting should be flat and taut, no different from Xuan paper on Xuan paper.

I now brush on either satin gel or gloss varnish according to my desire.

The problem now is what do I call my work, or how do I label my work. Is it oil, acrylic or mixed media? Any suggestion??????????

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

I had a pretty successful open studios with the Portland Open Studios tour. My number of visitors were down from last year, but interestingly enough, a lot of my visitors this year are people in the trade. I actually learned at lot from my visitors.

As was publicized in the Asian Reporter, and I had posted in my blogs, the new "direction" that I am exploring, is to mount Xuan paper on canvas. I feel that this allows me to exploit the dispersing and diffusing property of the Xuan paper and also the texture of the canvas. My signature piece this year was "Come Up Here" and it was a compilation of these 2 substrates. I have also posted a piece titled "Snow Scene", where I was also trying out my ancient secret Chinese solution, and that work was also done as Xuan paper on canvas. Both of these pieces were sold during the open studios, and this format was received with positive feedback.

I had expressed the wish of finishing my work with some coating so that it will have an appearance of an oil painting. Well I've received numerous suggestions and I've been experimenting with these suggestions and the results are fantastic.

The bottom image is a close-up of the varnished Xuan paper on Canvas. It absolutely has the feel and look of real canvas work. The top 2 pictures are side by side comparisons. The one in the middle is the original painting. The one on top has the varnish finish. Notice how the coating brings out more color depth and detail. I LOVE IT !!

Beyond Exposure, Understanding

All of us have been exposed to Chinese Brush Painting. So what is Chinese Brush Painting. Does the painting have to look "Chinese"?? Can a "western" motif painting done with Chinese brush be called Chinese Brush Painting?? How do we appreciate Chinese Brush Painting??

Chinese Brush Painting is an art of form and lines. Well that sounds pretty generic. Chinese Brush Painting is all about " Be Fa", the method of the brush. It is closely linked to the practice of calligraphy. Chinese calligraphy is not just a bunch of symbols or characters, but each stroke has characteristics of "press", "turn", "lift","hook" etc. Each line is like a human body, it has a head, a body, bulky at some places, and skinny at the other places. A bad line is like a bad body shape...... that's the only way I can explain it. With these attributes, then you assemble the lines not only in the form of the character that you intend to write, but assemble it in a pleasing manner! There is a belief that if one cannot do good calligraphy, then one can never be a good painter. Perhaps that's why I am having a hard time with my paintings...... I am a disaster when it comes to calligraphy. You rarely see any writings on my work This is in stark contrast to a lot of the current pseudo Asian art, especially in mixed media, collages, where people clip off prints or newspaper with Asian characters ( Chinese, Korean, Japanese) and paste them into their work and pawn it off as "art". As far as I am concerned, this is a huge disrespect and shows complete lack of understanding of Asian calligraphy. Calligraphy on Chinese Brush Paintings usually involves the title of the painting, and perhaps a poem about the painting. There could be narrations on the occasion for which the painting was done.

Chinese Brush Painting in the classical sense involves a lot of "rules" and "formulae". For example in the Flowers and Birds genre, we are taught how to paint bamboo, chrysanthemum, peony, ,orchid, plum, blue birds, etc, etc. There is a certain, dictated method and strokes that one does these themes. Go to the library or bookstore and look up Chinese Brush Painting and you'll find all kinds of prescribed methods of how to arrange rocks, how tree branches should be arranged. In other words, there are "poses" that we subscribe to. None of the teachers that I've ever had showed a real example of the subject matter. Sketching is totalling absent. The down side of this training is that all works look alike, they are all "templates". A lot of the Chinese Brush Paintings in the "tourist" districts fall into this category. It is exotic, yet familiar, easy for the palate. Unfortunately this has led to the wrong impressions about this form of work. Again I would have to equate this to when the uninitiated considers " chop suey" as real Chinese food.

When I say Chinese Brush Painting is an art of lines and forms, then one has to appreciate it from that perspective. I'll use some landscape topics to illustrate my point.

The insert where there is an example of 2 rocks, the top one is done with quite a few different techniques, and compare that with the one on the bottom . Both have shading applied, but the top one is definitely more interesting. These 2 are basically of the same form and line frame, but because the characteristics of the lines are different, hence the effects are different. The bottom image resembles line sketches. Lines that are uniform, uninteresting and lifeless. Yes, there are those of us that considers pixels as an art form, therefore one can argue that an image from newspaper magnified a hundred times to show extreme pixelation as a piece of art, and therefore lines, no matter how mundane, serves the purpose. Well, I beg to differ.

Now look at the other 2 images. One is the image of a rock laden with lines, boring lines. The other one employs the brush to do its thing, giving "life" to the lines. Can you tell which one is which? And which one do you prefer??

These examples are devoid of color on purpose, to emphasize the one most important aspect of Chinese Brush Painting. It is not about color, it is all about the characteristics, the persona of the lines and brush strokes. It is about "Be Fa". It is about painting, not drawing, lines with feeling.

It is about whether the brush stroke is heavy or light, fast or slow. Is the line painted with straight tip, side tip or broad tip and how wet or dry is the brush.
Again, using a stringed instrument as an analogy, many people can enjoy violin music., but it takes knowledge of the techniques of vibrato, fingering, harmonics, double stops, staccato,
playing at the frog or at the tip, whether it is up bow or down bow to truly appreciate the virtuoso.

Maple Bridge Mooring At Night

When I was preparing the "One Person One Stroke" project, I was using a painting from the late Master Qian Sonyan (1899-a985) as an example. I had tried to paint it just to show my group that it is a "do-a-ble" project. I just dug up my copy and mounted it.

I am posting all 3 versions for you to observe and appreciate.

The one on the bottom is the original work by Master Qian.

Top left is the group effort version.

Top right is my rendition.

Click on the image to enlarge them, and pay attention to the line qualities. See if you can pick out the differences.

Xuan Paper Delight

The title of this blog sounds like one of those dishes you can order from your local Chop Suey joint....... Yuk !

Anyways, in preparing for the Portland Open Studios event, I am trying to "merchandise" my goods by providing alternative ways of "packaging" . Here again, I am trying to exploit the translucent property of the Xuan paper.

I have done these small 5x7 paintings and instead of the traditional mounting on Xuan backing, I just slip them inside a 5x7 glass block or acrylic block. This way the painting can be viewed from front and back. This is especially interesting when the frame is placed against a window, and it offers a different flavor when viewed in direct light or in transmitted light.

The top 2 pictures are frames placed in front of a shop neon, hence light is transmitted through the Xuan paper. The bottom frame is the same painting

viewed through normal, direct lighting.

Camera work here does not do justice for discerning the different effects. I think the photo voltaic activity tends to average out the curve too much...... but you can still see the difference a little bit.

Xuan Paper on Canvas

This is another attempt in painting the Columbia River Gorge, the same vantage point as the "View from Woman's Forum State Park". I moved the furniture in the front to give it a cleaner look. I decided to clawed the edges of my Xuan paper to give it a "custom" look. I inadvertently splashed a couple drops of ink on the paper ( my friends say this is my trademark....being sloppy. Guess I should change my name to Joe) so I covered them up with flying geese. It works !!

Readers of my blog would recall this image from my "RICE FIELDS" post. This is the mounted version. I mounted my Xuan paper on a 18x20 canvas. If you click on the image to enlarge it, you can see the texture of the canvas coming through. My technique enables me to exploit the transparency of the Xuan paper and fortified it with the texture of canvas.

When I attempted this painting, I only had Mt. St. Helens in mind. I wanted to paint the meadows coming back; in contrast with the downed timber. After I was done with the meadow, I ran out of steam, so I kinda blocked in the rest of the painting....... I guess technically I would have classified this one more like a water color than a Chinese Brush Painting.

This painting tried to emulate the antique style of the more traditional, classical Chinese painting with faint, almost monochromatic color scheme. This one was one of my practice pieces, but Portland Open Studios is staring me in my face ( October 17,18) so I might as well include it in my portfolio.

View from Woman's Forum State Park

This is the finished piece of the sketch from the last paint out. Let me begin by saying that I don't like the painting as a whole. I can't quite put my finger on it. Perhaps the frame needs to be wider to capture the grandiose feel of the Columbia River Gorge, ala a wide angle view. I was trying to make the foreground darker and present the effect of looking into brighter skies to show the depth and I failed miserably. It all has to do with my bad habit of laying down too heavy a stain to begin with. Patience is a virtue I must learn. The overall effect of the painting looks "dirty", the lines were not deliberate enough. I guess I have gone over these lines one too many times !!

But aside from that, let us look at other merits of the painting.

The cliff rocks showed up quite nicely with that 3-D effect. This was helped by the dark and dense vegetation around the rock formations. The branches and leaves on the fir were done with an old brush that had lost its point, and is perfect for this "split brush" technique. I had to go over the green parts quite a few times to give it the required color saturation, so that we know these are objects in the foreground.

The mist not only softened the harsh hill lines laid down initially, but it helped to create the meandering effect of the river. The gorge itself is very wide, but such a wide body of water would make the painting less interesting. Depth is achieved by the detailed depiction of the cliffs and the saturated color of the trees, contrasted by the lack of details on the distant hills.

I have moved the protruding rocky formation in the distance to the middle of the painting and made it darker so that it would give us a distant focal point to look at. I decided that the body of water was too bland, so a few sail boats/wind surfers were in order.

Chinese Brush Painting embodies the philosophy of the Ying and Yang, and in the Chinese lingo, it is coined the "Shu" and "Mi". "Shu" means vague, empty, light" and "Mi" means solid, heavy and real. In short, it demands contrast; the solid and real versus the vague and emptiness. The artist is judged not only by his/her skills in the brush strokes ( brush line and point quality, as in calligraphy), but also by how he/she manages the opposing forces, the dark/light, hard/soft, tall/short, motion/stillness etc. This sounds like mumbo jumbo to the un-initiated, but it is after all, a philosophy, a discipline.

Landscape paintings perhaps do not demand strict adherence to this philosophy as floral/birds paintings do, but somehow the artist still has to manifest it; if not in the whole painting, at least in each sub-groups of artifacts. Thus the distant rocky formation is darker than its surroundings, albeit a distance away and should be lighter. The two trees in the original draft now numbers 3 !! A third, faintly visible tree is added to balance the "Mi" with the "Shu". So within that group of 3 trees, there is a relationship, a differentiation of solid vs vague. The brush marks on the bottom of the trees are left not filled in, to contrast with the colored vegetation on the right. So, are the trees the on the same level of brush marks, or are they on a slope beyond the brush marks??

This is for you to figure out, or is this really important ?!

EXPLOITS

Today I need to vent. Sorry, nothing about paintings here. Thank you for your indulgence.

I am incensed about what happened to me the last couple of days, but perhaps I am more infuriated by how people "PRETEND" their "INTENT", and hide their personal agenda under the buzz word "HUMANITY"

The founder of Coloredpencils was calling for artworks for Midland county clinic ( clinic that serves refugees and immigrants of Oregon) to buy. This founder needed digital images of 3 art works, priced very attractively as the Clinic had only limited funds to procure art works. These images should be accompanied by the artist's bio, photo, price and size.

I submitted my works as per request and received the following e-mail. The founder needed my ethnic background and family history. Went on to say that the works will be displayed in clinics that served mostly immigrants/refugees community and that "WE" must make connection somehow here.

I can understand the desire to have certain genre of work to appeal to a specific audience, but I do not understand the need for me to reveal my family history. So my answer was that I am Asian and I do not share my family history with strangers. I further stated that art itself carries a voice, which transcends all racial barriers. Art is a medium where the artist can bare his/her soul. Any attempts to pigeon hole an artist on racial grounds is not acceptable. I therefore would not be part of this propaganda and withdrew my bid for the Midland Clinic.

For this I received the following response:

"by letting newcomers know a little of you we showed them that it wasn't bad to have to immigrate here.......We want to show them that many of us, our grandparents, and parents are adjusting and doing well. We want patience ( SIC) from afar to feel at home and inspired by many whom(SIC) arrived and thrived. We handpicked the most talent (SIC) artists and we used art that familiar(SIC) from home by our own people (not white American who try to do our native art) to heal patiences' (SIC) hearts while the doctors care for their bodies. Thank you for submitting your amazing art work. We regret that you no longer wish to be part of this humanity work."

How noble a mission ! So these refugees must look at their own people's arts to feel at home.
Should we have arts from Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, Philippines, Russia, etc etc to shore up the Clinic? I certainly did not know that selling art works to these clinics is considered " humanity work."

As an immigrant myself, I loathe the idea of these condescending attitudes. This new shore is about new opportunities, new surroundings and an opportunity to acquire new knowledge. Whereas I shall seek my own comforts and familiarity I'll do it on my own terms. I especially do not need these faux do-gooders to help me, all the while fulfilling their own agenda, camouflaging their own shortcomings. These are your closet racists; snakes in the grass.

An interesting side note, the solicitation was facilitated by an Asian Art Association for which I am a member . Incidentally, we have several "White Americans" in our club. Had any of these "White Americans" submitted their works, would that be an automatic rejection?  Think about the implications!

Paint Out at Woman's Forum State Park

At the location paint out, I was demonstrating how I do my drafts with ink.

The points that I emphasized were that we did not have to paint everything we see in the frame, and conversely we could add objects to the frame, as per our mantra gather what you see, note what you know and paint what you like. In this sketch the trees on the left were borrowed from another frame, and the rocky cliffs were presented at a different angle from the real scenery.
I wanted the trees to frame the left side of the painting, and I wanted to
give more weight to the rocky cliffs. My drafts were to be done with medium light ink, but for the purpose of demonstrating, my lines were way too dark. I painted in the rocky surface to show the group how to render a 3 dimensional feel using the Chinese brush, and how to lay down contour lines. I did the trees this way because I was trying very hard to steer the group away from painting fine needles on the firs, as was usually done in class. My mission was to show the group what Xieyi style painting was about....( paint the meaning/feeling), so we could dispense with a lot of details. The distant ranges were all done too heavily...but that was good too, gave me an opportunity to show how to amend an otherwise failed painting.


Traditional Chinese Brush Painting does not place too much emphasis on
light values, and here is how I differ.
I use shading to augment the "chun"
I rendered on the cliffs to give it that 3-D look. I wanted to leave the tree trunk and the cliffs light to create perspective.
The "way too heavy" lines were remedied by painting in mist using the wet wash technique. I've lengthened the small flanking tree a little bit. Notice the upper trunk is not done with solid lines. They were done in an interrupted fashion, and yet one could clearly make the visual perception of the trunk. It is important because the smaller tree is farther away, and clear solid lines would not have shown distance between the two trees. This "broken line" technique is very important in Chinese Brush painting, and is considered one of the virtues of this art form. This is what Chinese meant by " broken lines, connected meaning/images"

One thing I needed to point out is that the addition of color helps to integrate the painting, but color itself cannot cover up flaws. In all my paintings, coloring is the last step; after all the contour lines, "chun" lines and shading is completed.

I shall go over more in the next posting with the finished painting

Renee's Watercolor Works

As I had mentioned in my last blog, our on site paint-out was hosted by Renee Lin, a fellow art club member and an accomplished water color artist. She has travelled all over the world to paint, and is currenty enjoying her solo exhibition sponsored by the Beaverton Arts Commission.

Renee is kind enough to give her consent to allow me to post her plein-air sketch on location that day.

Readers of my blog can now appreciate the 2 different art forms;
i.e. water color and Chinese Brush Painting, albeit with slightly different subject matters.


I also found another piece of Renee's work on
snow. Her painting was done in 2004. Again, I thank Renee for letting me post it here.
Readers can go back to my blog on Snow Scene and see the different effect rendered by my
ancient secret solution!!

Crystal Springs Pond

I've taken a little hiatus the last 2 months. I had to cover for vacations, plus I took a vacation also, visiting places like the Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, the California Red Woods and the Oregon Vortex.
Come October I shall have the Portland Open Studios event, which means I better get busy and get some works ready for the show.
In July our little art club did an off location paint out at the Crystal
Springs in the Rhododendron Garden. One of our members is an accomplished water color artist, and she was showing us her craft. I am hoping to get her painting of that day and post it here. Hopefully this will happen in the near future.
Right now, I just want to share with you my rendition of the site. I am taught 3 mantras for on location painting: 1. Gather what you see 2. note what you know 3. create what you like. What that means is that if you just paint exactly what is in your view, then you might as well take a picture with your camera. You need to compile all the different surroundings, views from different angles ( note what you know) and re-arrange the different elements into a cohesive painting of interest.
Here I was captivated by the low hanging branches of a tree, forming almost like a canopy of an amphitheater. There were lots of ducks frolicking, but they were not at the location that I had preferred. So I decided to fit various groups of ducks into this amphitheater and showcase their activities. I had all the branches swaying to the left with the longest branches to the left, to create motion; thus the canopy is heavy but not suffocating. The center pair of ducks were chasing and evading, to contrast with the others who were being nonchalant. The one on the right was made to be a female, with light brown color to contrast with the bright green necks of the male. Instead of painting in the true color of the leaves and reeds I chose to adorn the painting with a warm brownish hue. The tunnel vision like bright center helps to focus on the subject matter and to create energy. One thing I don't like about this painting is the water.... it looks awkward to me now. I wish I had kept it simple, without the crisscrossing crests.

The branches are done in the "double outline" fashion in the Chinese Brush Painting doctrine. The outlines were further emphasized with ink and Burnt Sienna.
Foliage on the branches were given different shades of brown and yellow to create clumps of leaves, following the morphology of the branches.
I could not decide on whether to paint the lower left duck male or female, so the plumage on that duck was somewhere in-between. Oh well!
The color of the rock and the duck which sits on it was left pale to denote foreground.


The branches are now augmented with side branches to make it look full. Otherwise the tree would not look natural.

The water reeds gets several build-ups of body., all the while leaving gaps and empty spaces to show reflected light.




The painting starts out with basic skeleton of the tree canopy, the reeds and the position of the ducks.

Note in subsequent steps my attempts to create motion and serenity at the same time, by selecting a warm temperature and a narrow range of hues., coupled with light value control

SNOW SCENE

I am having so much fun with my

Ancient Chinese Secret Solution that I am itching to try different things with it, especially when given the proper provocation. The opportunity came when I was shown how to use the alum solution to paint. I did not agree with the application of the technique, nor did I like the paintings, so I've been experimenting some more on my own.

I used straight alum solution. There are a couple of things that I am doing differently this time. Number one, I am painting on the back side of the paper first. Number two, I am mixing ink and color to the alum solution for subsequent detail work to create the layered effect.

So I started with the snow on the trees. Turning the Xuan paper over, start laying down the alum solution where the snow is. Of course I have to have an image of the trees first. While the patches are still wet and can be easily spotted ( unlike the ones I did on the Speedboat painting), I started to layer over different ink tones ( mixed with the alum solution). When these are close to being dry, I turn the Xuan paper over to the proper side, and lay down alum solution with blue (or ink) for detail work. The snow on the ground is done with big fat brush, side tip fashion. I did the water with dark ink to bring out the contrast and make the snow stand out more. Again, the final touch is to use my brush washing water as a wash for the entire piece. Sure it dulled the snow somewhat, but I think it added that intangible dreaminess to the work. What do you think?

MY SOAP BOX

Recently I had a chance to do a bit of Chinese Brush Painting demo at a trade show. The audience is obviously polite and enthusiastic, but the most frequent observation, before I started my demo, is that " Oh you do water color". In submitting work for juried events, the pigeon holes are whether you do acrylic, oil, mixed media or water color. Whereas these are the western ways of categorizing based on the medium one uses, the Chinese Brush Painting often separates the medium to water/ink or ink/color, and whether it's on Xuan or silk.  The ink and water plays off the intricacies of ink tones and the techniques in arriving at those tonal varieties. The terms splash ink, break ink, building ink are all techniques that we study, and appreciate and can be readily identified in an artwork.  Chinese have a saying that ink should have 5 colors.  Ink and color involves using both ink and color pigments.

Then we have the different genres of painting, i.e. figure, flower/bird, landscape. Within these categories, there is the distinction of Gongbi (precise, tidy style) and the Xieyi (brush strokes with expression) styles. The works that I do are all Xieyi style paintings.

I am not a "water color" artist and I am certainly not qualified to discuss water color techniques. But once "water color" is mentioned, then all the principals of western art applies, i.e. color wheel, light values, composition, "pigment sedimentation"?? comes into play. Whereas in my learning of painting with Chinese Brush, the craftsmanship, i.e. the use of the brush, assumes utmost importance. The characteristic of the lines, whether it is continuous, broken, moist, dry, straight tip, side tip, the different dotting techniques, and "chuen" techniques, all seem to play a more important role than what "medium" one works with. I am certainly not down playing the importance of the medium; after all, we do have a variety of pigments, papers, brushes for different thematic subject matters, and even different inks for painting or calligraphy.

I am using an analogy of comparing the same music played with different instruments. The melody is exactly the same, and most people do enjoy music, but it requires intimate knowledge of the musical instrument for one to truly appreciate the differences. If the listener knows nothing about string instruments, then techniques such as vibrato, pizzicato,harmonics would mean absolutely nothing. This person would not appreciate the need of playing with finger position vs. playing on an open string.

I am not trying to be a snob here, but for a person to appreciate Chinese Brush Painting as an art form, one should be equipped with discerning knowledge and not assumptions. If I might use music to illustrate my point again, there is a famous Chinese violin concerto with the title "Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto" and obviously it was written for Violins. Well the same piece has been adapted for performance with Erhu, a Chinese two-stringed bowed instrument, and the effects are very different, albeit the same music. It is the instrument, Violin vs. Erhu, Chinese Brush vs. ??, that makes the difference, and to equate Chinese Brush Painting with water color is a mistake.

I fervently hope that for those of us who are new to Chinese Brush Painting would stop looking at the art form as "water color". It is about the calligraphic brush strokes and how to appreciate them, and not about tribalism as some might counter.

Okay, I feel much better now.

SPEED BOAT

I showed how I laid the ground work for this painting using my Secret Ancient Chinese solution, to establish the wave crests, followed by meticulous filling in with different ink tones to construct the "waves". Then I painted in the boat and the human figures. Before I go too far with this, I must first declare that this is not an original composition. I was trying to emulate the work of another artist and I have stated that with the labeling on the painting itself. What I was trying to explore was to employ my own method to create my style of "wave" effect. A few more flicks of the Secret Solution to the left, and then painted in the boulders and by george, if the water wasn't pounding on them rocks!!!!

In the process of painting in the waves and having the crests show, I rendered too dark a color. This gave the painting a nasty, fierce look but I would have preferred a lighter tone.

After looking at it for a week or so, I decided that the only first aid I could administer was to add a little bright color to the painting. I made the front and back person wore red hats, as if they were the guides and the middle couple were the passengers.

I must say this was a fun project..............

When I have time I would try this one again, with a lighter tone, and different figures.......

Toying with Ancient Chinese Secret Solution

Ever since I had some success with my Ancient Chinese Secret Formula ( refer to my blog on "SPLASH"), I've been itching to embark on another project using the same technique.

I found the work of a contemporary Chinese artist and I liked the way he represented a boat slipping through white waters so I decided to emulate his painting.

I am faced with the challenge that what I am doing is Xieyi, the painting style where expression and ambiance assumes utmost importance. My downfall is that often I am so caught up in details that I lose sight of the big picture. So how do I re-create this energy of white waters amidst all the intricacies of painting waves.

I know I wanted to use my alum solution for the white, foamy part of the churning water, so I started out by positioning the boat on my paper, and penciling in the crests of the waves.

The reason I had to pencil in the highlights is that once this solution dries, I don't know which spots I have laid the elixir, so it would be very difficult for me to draw a cohesive painting. I also mixed some salad dressing with my secret solution to give it a thicker consistency, so that it is more visible.

All this time I am taking extra precaution to be not too cautious!! What an oxymoron !!!!!!

I don't want the water to look or feel static and stagnant. I want it to come alive!

I now wet the entire paper with light ink solution. The areas where I laid the secret solution now shows up as white greasy marks. This is almost like working in darkroom in photography, to see the image emerging from your developer. Here is an exercise in patience and creativity....... to define the outlines and the shapes of the white waters.

My solution laden spots did not show up prominently enough so I decided to augment them by laying on more layers of that solution. I raised my paper against the light so I can see those bare spots better, and I went to work on adding extra layers of this solution to those areas.

Now that I have the white foamy crests down, I need to darken the surrounding areas to create the contrast. I am having problem visualising the "structure" of these crests. I know I can treat them like rows of hills, as if I was doing Xieyi landscape painting. So leave the ridge bright, "chuen" the rest, and shade the valleys..... piece of cake. Alas, I have never seen so many little hills undulating and moving in front of me........ it couldn't be the Syrah that I am drinking, could it? Information overload, my hard drive hangs!

One Person One Stroke Finished Product

Ta Daaaaaaaa Here's the finished painting.

It is safe to say that every one of us had a Great time and new gained confidence.

We learned that we need to go over the painting many times, and that it is an evolving process. We were faced with a "boo boo" when the left support of the bridge was deemed out of scale and had the wrong orientation.

What did we do? We extended the foliage to cover the "boo boo" and this is a hands-on experience that is invaluable.

We retained the original title of the painting, but in place of the poem that was on the original work, we had everybody sign their names.

The following link lets you see some of the highlights of the event

http://gallery.me.com/akwan#100012

Rice Fields finished product ?

Received word from Portland Open Studios that I am " IN " this year, suffice to say, I am elated. Went through my pile of paper on the floor, picking projects that are half done and see which one might have potentials to be Open Studios material.



Back to the Rice Fields again. Like any good Chinese Brush Painting student, I finished composing my work, did the necessary "chuen", laid down my shading with light ink etc. We were taught that coloring does not make your painting "better", it merely brings into life what we have laid down on paper. In other words, everything needs to be finished first, and coloring is the last step.

After several layers of colors and washing, I ended up with the painting on top. I must say that I did not like it at all. I have tried to soften the roofs by applying a dark plum color to it, using side tip brushing. This did make the roofs less "harsh", less "rigid", but the entire housing compound seemed totally detached from the painting. It lacked "connection", it did not belong. I looked like an island in the sea. The trees and shrubs/woods at the bottom of the painting look like two flat ribbons. The rigid lines at the lower left corner of the housing compound looked out of place, and wanted to lead you away from the painting; a most uncomfortable feeling. Perhaps the corner is too harsh?

I let the painting dry and looked at it for a whole afternoon, thinking. Trying to understand what I have put down on paper. It finally dawned on me that I was too busy recording, and forgot about creating.

I started to back lit the trees, because light is coming from behind the paper.

I high lighted the shrubs and trees into distinct clumps to add dimension and shape to the "flat ribbons". I re dotted the dark areas with ink and dark plum ( I love using dark plum color; it helps to transition between dark and light areas ) to make the high lights work. All of a sudden the foreground looked a lot more interesting. The void on the lower edge of the painting was meant to be just voids, because I did not apply color there. But because of the color

bleed from applying the dark plum and green pigments, the bottom "void" took on a feel of a glassy surface of a pond. So I added a reflection of the tree on the right, to make it look like a pond.

This was a happy coincidence. The pond was not in my original thoughts. It just happened, and I think it added a lot to the painting. Now I have a foreground, the edge of the pond, then the commune, then the fields, then the distant hills, then the smoggy skies. All of a sudden, everything seemed "connected" I also softened the lower left "corner" by adding a couple of trees on site and by laying down reflections of the houses on the flooded fields. I also darkened the lower fields and gave the entire painting a green wash to integrate the colors.

Doesn't the painting look a lot better now?

Rice Fields

Bought some new paper lately, Korean Hemp Paper and I've been itching to try this out.

The paper is very unlike the Xuan paper in that it behaves almost like sized paper. Has a waxy feel to it and does not absorb water readily. I found that out when I splash some brush washing water on the paper ( my bad habit) and I was able to blot it up.

I wanted to paint the rice fields in China, flooded with water and surrounded by columnous hills that are quite characteristic of the southwestern part of China and Vietnam. I also had photos as references for this endeavour.


The composition is not your typical Chinese painting with the scattered focal points. My painting here has a vanishing point, definitely speaks of the western genre. I wanted to have a play of light values, by showing the reflections of the distant hills in the flooded rice fields, such that the massive fields behaves almost like water surface. I wanted the geometric array of roofs of the village commune to be contrasting with the strange looking hills in the background.

I painted the distant hills with wet wash, and when they are almost dry, I went over the contour with darker ink. The ink diffuses out and gives one the effect of vegetation. If I was to add silhouettes of trees etc on the hills, they would look too deliberate, and takes away the Xieyi feel of the painting. The fatal mistake I made in this painting is that I was " filling in " the roofs with concentrated ink, almost like painting by the numbers. Whereas this looks neat an tidy, but is totally devoid of any artistic feel to it. This is what happens when we use a 2 dimensional photograph as reference. Somehow we still need to portray a 3 dimensional look. I've often talk to other beginners about the shortcomings of looking too closely at a photograph, and this is a good example of what NOT TO DO. We need to be able to digest the image and translate into our own interpretation.

Two Ancient Pieces

I took one of my finished works to Hong Kong for mounting. Our local craftsman here lack the skill in silk mounting. Just got this back in the mail and I was so excited that I had to post this right away. Showed a head shot to reveal the size of this painting.



This piece of work is suppose to emulate the old classic style of Chinese Brush painting. The emphasis is with the lines, with scant use of color. My theory is that in the old days, illumination


is not great in a typical Chinese dwelling, even during daytime. So color scheme is simple and sparingly used. Artists showed their craft by displaying superb line qualities. Moist vs. dry, side tip, straight tip, fleeting strokes and hesitations are all used in a harmonious way to illustrate the aesthetic qualities of the painting. The "chuen" ( rubbing technique) is typically the "hemp" style, i.e. ala hemp fibres.

The land masses on the left has totally different characteristics from the right. The left is of multi-lobed hills, so the " hemp chuen" is used to define the quality of the slopes, the convolutions of the hills. The "hemp chuen" gives a rounded, definitely not jagged feel to the land features. The right hand side speaks of drama. Bold, protruding granites form the main features. Here the "chuen" is more of the "axe" type. Bold, discrete side-tips with lifts to give the harsh texture. Of course shading adds to the strong 3-D feel of features to the entire land mass.



The left and right is joined by a transitional spit, via a bridge. The willows on the spit bends to the right, answering to the left bending willows on the right side of the painting. Water space is left blank, with a very faint hint of the same brown color of the hills (integrating the overall color scheme of the painting)



This painting failed in the sense that the color was too heavy and too bright. I would have preferred a more subdued hue, especially that awful green with the willows. The mountain streams should be left with just a hint of color. The plateau on the left, behind the ridges is showing the wrong perspective..... showing too much of the top. The shore line on the right scurries upwards instead of staying at horizontal...... I must be tired.



Well, these are areas that I need to correct, if I have to redo this painting. I actually have sized another length of paper and I wanted to paint this again on sized paper, to see if the sized paper would give the painting a less saturated look, therefore coming closer to the "antique" feel of the painting.

ONE PERSON ONE STROKE PROJECT

On April 18th, I shall entice a bunch of Chinese Brush Painting enthusiasts to embark on a group project. I shall name this project One Person One Stroke. These people love the art of Chinese Brush Painting, but feel shy about painting anything of substance. I suggested this concept of a group painting. We shall each take our turn to lay down a few strokes, thus none of us would have to bear the entire cross. I wanted us to copy some one's work to begin with., working with a template, if you wish. I wanted our group to understand what the painting is about and why are certain things done the way they were. For without comprehending the meaning of the painting, then our copying would be in vain; we would not learn anything from our people's work.

This piece of work is loosely translated as Night Anchor by the Maple Bridge. The Maple and the bridge is self evident. The maple is done with the "dotting" technique and is ideal for a group of 12 to 15 people, for each of us would have ample opportunity for "dotting". The dotting involves different ink tones, and different color hues, would be interesting to see how it progresses.

The bridge seemed simple, yet is difficult to master. First of all, the aesthetic proportions of the structure is difficult to achieve. If one magnifies the image, one would see that the lines are not solid, continuous lines. They are undulating, broken lines. Solid, continuous lines lack character, and look stagnant, as if they are formed by moulding. Chinese Brush Painting is all about the quality of the lines, so this is something we need to address.

Where does the " night " scene come from?? From the reflection of the moon in the water. By painting the moon as a reflection in the water, the artist makes the audience think, therebyentertains the notion that this night scene is more poetic. It can also be said that if the moon was in the sky, then the upper portion of the painting might be darker, and creates a sense of heavy on the top, not a virtue of a good painting.

Anchor is evidenced by the 2 boats that are tied up by the bridge, only half exposed.... adding to the security that these boat owners must have sought. Anchor can also be evidenced euphemistically by the birds that are resting at the tree branches on the right.

The maple trees are not all solid with dotted leaves, but spaces between branches are quite evident. This is what is known as "breathing" in Chinese Brush Painting.

The reflection of the bridge in the water is handled in a very low key fashion... barely a hint. It just adds to the dreaminess of the work, and harks a nocturnal theme.

I am really looking forward to the finished product, painted by a group of students, many of us are novices. I shall post the finished painting when we have it.

ABOVE THE CLOUDS

I've decided to try the Portland Open Studios again this year and try my luck again. Above The Clouds is one of the entries I submitted for jury. The subject matter and technique is quite traditional Chinese Xueyi Landscape, using the wet wash method for clouds. One thing to note is the choice of color in this painting. I've conveyed a fossil-ed feel to the rock columns to show the hardness of the masses. This is done to offset the relative lack of "chuen" (meaning rubbing, usually to impart texture) on some surfaces. I've used a little titanium with the opaque greens to make the trees really stand out, to contrast with the hard landscape. I've also positioned the gazebo on the lower peak on purpose. The upper peak had steps along the flank of the hill, but leads to no obvious structure, unlike the hill on the bottom, where the serpentine trail leads to the gazebo. Perhaps the vista on the top hill is obscured ????

How "Splash" was created

As discussed in the last posting, I am experimenting with my techniques/methods. I am trying to describe water sprays/splashes when it hits a rock, a boulder. I am trying not to attenuate the energy of that flow. So I employed my own SECRET ANCIENT CHINESE recipe of a masking fluid and delivered it onto the paper in a controlled and deliberate fashion. Now I can fill in the background, first with light tones to define the splash, then gradually building up the peripheral barriers to the water. This was a challenging and yet fun project, it all started when a classmate of mine and I were small talking about masking fluids, and whether Chinese Brush Paintings utilize it or not.