I have a strange notion about our affinity for a particular place, a particular scene, a particular subject matter.
What motivates one to sketch or take pictures of a particular frame, person or subject matter? Most of us do not wantonly record anything and everything. Something has to emotionally appeal to our psyche before our finger is lifted.
I submit that when we take in something, or when something interests us, it is because that something fills our void. Not just any void. In other words we have hidden somewhere in our basal ganglia trophy cases destined for various specific collectibles and we might not even know about their existence. It's like a grand scheme of jig-saw puzzle. The moment one of these pieces shows up, our brain fires and commands us to capture it. I believe we sketch or snap pictures to fill our pre-wired circuit board with desired components so we can get that board running. We in fact already have a picture or painting laying dormant in our head. We are constantly searching for those pieces of information to complete our grand jig-saw puzzle. It is as we were given an extensive order list and it is our job to conquer that list. Obviously the reverse can be said. We are inspired by such events, thus nurturing new ideas and perspectives. By documenting these tidbits of new information, we expand our repertoire. I suppose this is like debating whether the chicken comes first or the egg comes first.
So one particular spot in this nature reserve fits in my trophy case labeled "Geometric Lines".
This jig-saw piece has multitude of vertical lines, trees, intercepting the horizontal lines of the path that criss-crosses the woods. Normally intersecting lines are difficult to handle, especially in Chinese painting, but I find this particular piece exacting. My challenge is to establish a spatial relationship of these lines so they only appear to intersect on paper but not in space.
That brings up another dilemma. What I pictured in my mind does not jive with the common notion of Chinese painting. Contrary to old teachings, shading and lighting will play a vital role in my concoction. I shall however, stick with the fundamentals of Chinese Brush painting. My brush, ink, Xuan and calligraphic brush strokes. I am not going to worry about which pigeon hole I got put in based on the style. The shackle is off.
I used charcoal to rough in my basic composition. Blasphemy, some might say. To which I retorted: Why Not ? If it helps you, use it ! Some of us have a perfect draft in our head but I'm not one of them. One strong stand on the left contrasting with weaker ones on the right, garnished by horizontal lines, depicting the boarded path. I'll be using an exaggerated perspective to glorify this space, to help one realize the ambience of the woods.
I stepped off the wrong foot from the very beginning. Instead of mapping the underlying features, I was drawn in by my OCD and started to grow my bush in the foreground.
I extricated myself from that and started afresh.
This time I mixed in some alum with my ink. My intent was to have any excess alum to leak out as a barrier to subsequent coloring, thus forming a border along each brushstroke. This renders a boneless style of painting into a boned one, although the outline now is a clear line instead of a solid ink line.
Using the splash ink technique, I established the features in the background before filling them in with details.
Mixing a little tea with my ink imparts a warmer tone. I used that to manipulate the different parts of the
painting.
My goal was to create a feeling of being in the woods, where it is cool and sheltered, yet there was sufficient clearing for light to filter through to highlight the paths. It is these highlighted paths that creates the illusion of depth and draw us into the painting. Again the alum did its job by imparting an aura around some of the branches, as if viewing a back lit photography.
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