Bamboo Tutorial continued

The painting I took to class was very two dimensional and lifeless.   Somehow it looked like a manikin.  I suppose it was sufficient for instructional purposes.  I figured since I do not paint bamboo that often, I needed the practice.  I ended up with the one shown above.

I attempted with different ink tones to show the spatial relationship of the different stems and leaves.  The bold ink color of the lower vertical stem gave anchor to the painting and helped to defuse the parallel lines.

My painting colleague had this critique............. a weak left flank.

But I had already mounted the painting.  Any alteration now will disturb the sandwiched starch layer and cause the paper to warp.   Oh what the hell, it's only a piece of paper.

Armed with concentrated ink right out of the bottle, and a very dry brush ( really too dry to paint bamboo leaves, but I had few options), I attempted to build on the left side.

One thing is for sure, this painting has more spunk than the one in the last blog.

I had to do another class demo, so I tried my hands at bamboo again.  This time paying a little bit more attention to contrast and harmony.  The more noded stem has denser and adhering leaves, versus the less noded stem with sparse leaves that hang away from the main stem.  More or Less.

Finally, the painting is cropped and mounted on canvas, and I even made a frame for it.

P.S.  For more material on bamboo leaves, please watch video on my blog on Bamboo Leaves and Pronation published on Oct 29, 2011.

Bamboo Tutorial

I admitted to not being proficient in painting bamboo.  My excuse was that this was not my genre of work;  I prefer landscape paintings.  Thus when I was taking lessons, I skimmed over this topic as much as I could.
Now that I am giving lessons and mentoring, the table had turned. I understood that despite its apparent simplicity, the bamboo painting encompasses a lot of the basic brush stroke techniques and aesthetic arrangement and the importance of ink tones.  It is now my job to try to convey and convince others that the simple bamboo is nothing to sneeze at.

I often expressed my dislike for "stencil" work, i.e. painting with all the rules and prescribed composition that the resulting work lacks spunk.  But how else should I pass on the basics of a bamboo painting?
I needed to demonstrate the nodes on the main stems.  I needed to note that the segments are shorter towards the base.  I needed to point out that the little branches grow on alternate sides of each node.  I needed to explain how the leaves are grouped together.  I needed to .................................

Segments grew longer as the plant grows taller.

I had to deal with this dichotomy of being compliant and original at the same time.  I thought the best way to do this is by showing the real examples of the bamboo, rather than someone else's work of what a bamboo looks like.   So I took a lot of pictures of bamboo, all the while trying to categorize the characteristics of a bamboo painting.

Branches grow on alternate sides of stem

Bamboo leaves

A live model

These photographs were used as teaching material for my adult students.  For my younger middle-school kids I used an actual plant.  The tactile experience, along with the visual cues, help the younger audience to comprehend the subject matter a little better. 

Sample painting I took to class for middle -school kids

Fortune Birds

I am just playing with words in Chinese.  The pronunciation of "SIX" and "FORTUNE" in the Cantonese dialect is the same.  Hence the Chinese Title of " Fortune Birds Singing" rather than "Six Birds Singing".  After all, who does not desire fortune, especially around New Year's time.

I chanced upon this photo on the net that showed some finches.  I liked the photo because it showed the birds in various attitudes of attention.  The picture claimed no copy right and in fact welcome other users to find good uses for it.

So I decided to arrange the birds on a tree branch.

I wanted to capture more than the different personalities.  I wanted to create a subtle tension... the fact that 5  birds have occupied one section of the branch, and the odd bird is off to the side, trying to assimilate, or lure?

So I produced this sketch as my practice sheet.

I painted in the birds first, and completely finish them before I put the branch in.  This way the tree branch can better hug the birds and minimizes the embarrassment of having to make a sitting bird stand!  As a last  step, I used  the brush wash as a final wash for the whole painting, leaving the center brighter, creating a focus area.    Brush wash is used because it captures the colors that I have used, and would be naturally in tune with the painting.  I intend to mount this in the Xuan-Boo style.  I am trying extremely hard to not crowd the painting by adding flowers or bamboos as commonly done.  I want this to be a simple and elegant painting.  Less is More!

As a post-script, when I finally get to make the frame for this painting, I decided to give it an "antique" look.  The painted frame was sanded down to reveal the primer and bare wood.  I admit that this is gimmicky, but it lends itself pretty well to this occasion.  It only took me 7 months to figure this out.

 

Happy New Year Year of the Rabbit

Wishing you a

Safe, Prosperous, and Peaceful

New Year