Creative Use For Alum

Ever look at a distant object through blinds?

You are aware that something is blocking your vision and yet your eyes are still able to focus beyond the impediment.  This is the effect I am trying to create.  I am still attempting  new ways to dress my Canada geese models.  I've settled for that fluted look, and now I wish to explore those vertical lines some more.  I thought of pulling alum from my trick box.

Alum is indispensable for Gonbi style paintings, as well as in preparing mounting starch.  It is a sizing agent.  I am going to exploit this property, akin to using resist in watercolor works.  While its opacity is nowhere near rubber cement, the subtleties it exude is perhaps better suited for the ambiance of  Chinese brush works.

There are debates as to how much, and what kind of glue, or gum, should be mixed with alum as a fixative agent.  For my purpose, I used straight saturated solution of alum.

I painted with alum on a piece of blank Xuan a matrix of tree trunks and branches  Think of woods after being sprayed with Agent Orange and you get the picture.  After this is dried thoroughly, I began my normal painting procedures.  As the painting evolves, white streaks will show up acknowledging the prior application of alum.  The opacity of these streaks depends on the type of Xuan and the color and  transparency of pigments used. 

ink on back of Xuan                

front view, ink fixes selectively

To make these streaks more interesting, I turned over the Xuan and applied ink at desired locations.
The effect I was trying to create was a foggy landscape concealing the true color of part of the trees.
When viewed from the front now, the white streaks representing tree branches are now black, but with white edges showing, as if encased in frost.  This technique allows one to be as Xieyi as one wishes (the big picture) and yet upon close examination, there are small details that are provoking.  Thus one can see the forest and feel the trees, or vice versa, feel the forest but see the trees.

 Green 3 Label        

To go along with this plot of sensing but not seeing, I used some Green 3 Label to dress up the vegetation in the foreground.  For the most part the brush strokes disappears in the dark landscape, but occasionally one catch a glimpse of the intense bright color of the Green 3 Label.  It also added a subtle green sheen to the landscape.

 Wet wash

 

 when dried

Further adjustment with a purple brown color was made to transition the dark and bright areas better and less blotchy.  I moistened  down the affected areas thoroughly before applying my blending brush strokes.  For this exercise, the retouched areas will look very dark and intense.  It will dry to a much light scale, so experience definitely helps.

finished product