"Building" a wall, continued

Other than these obvious corrections to my first attempt at this painting, I've also done something that was not obvious to the casual observer.

In the version that did not have the ground, I painted in the window lines on all 4 sides.  In fact I also brushed in shading along the left edges of the window to help delineate the opening.  I have in fact debated this with my colleagues and it was agreed that the line was necessary.

But I did not buy into it.  Not wholeheartedly anyways.

I decided to define the left edge of the window by the darkened pattern of the window.  I wanted no harsh confines for that part of the window.  This practice of defining a void space ( in this case, the window's edge ) with values and not lines is similar to how I would paint a stream or waterfall.   I also felt that the eloping wisteria vines was further enhanced by the absence of a line.

I tackled the problem of some of the branches being too thick by painting a shadow on the back of the Xuan.  This added volume without adding mass, and seemed to work.

I had enough quest in me to try another copy.  I painted the vines with more straight lines and less curves.  Somehow I did not like the vines as much as my previous attempts.  I think my anxiety of breaking up the curves into short straight segments go the better of me.  The lines also looked a little anemic to me and lacked that oomph.  Perhaps I should not have done this one?  Was I getting bored?

 I was not going to use color for this series of paintings.  I was going for that black and white graphic look with elegant lines and interesting contrasts, remember?  In fact, light values and the look of graphic design sounds more western than Chinese, but I think the vocabulary is the same, just the language is different.  Well I need to be flexible and see the possibilities.

Out came the color tubes, Titanium White and Green Label Three.  I scratched in patches of leaves. 

For now I'll pin my salvage on the wall and ponder, like I always do. The wall that I am building is now done and we shall see if it will stand up to the test of time.

I am still ruminating on why does the vine want to get out?   Surely road side auto exhaust couldn't be better than the lush flowers and ponds inside?   How does one argue with nature.