Chronicle Of Shadows: Coming Full Circle

Forget all the preconceptions of how the painting should look like.  I thought I would take the wait and see attitude.

Since I had memorized the painting now, I knew where everything belonged.  I just wanted to bide my time, follow the basic composition and see how things would develop; by themselves.  I wanted to assume the role of a facilitator rather than a planner.

For this I used the semi-sized Xuan for reasons mentioned before.  I decided to paint with the Je Mo technique.  This translates as the technique of accumulating ink.  The process involved repeated application of ink, sometimes as dry brushes, sometimes as wash and the resulting painting is blessed with intricate depth and intimate details.  I was also hoping that by employing this non-hurried approach, my lines would not be chiseled in stone, but would be a fluid entity and could be modified, revealed or masked as the situation demanded.
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As I said earlier, I was the facilitator this time around.  After the trees were populated, I started to manage which branch would look better as a negative space and which ones needed to be enunciated better.   As I manipulated the background I was constantly changing the position of some of these limbs.  Before I realized it, I was adding hints of trunks and the presence of an orchard in the background.  The execution was almost dream like and I was aware of it, but not noticing.  I tried not to fight it too much.  After all, I could always mask or wash what I deemed bad, but I did not want to discount my vulnerability.

Once I filled the backstage with  muted chatter, I needed the main stage to have a voice too.  This somehow led me to paint in the two paths.  The broad one was in the original painting and survived.  The one in the back was an afterthought.  The kink at the junction added interest to the layout.  It fitted well with the composition.  But then again those need not be paths.  They could be streams too ?  They're whatever you want them to be.

I decided to put the shadows back in, but not entirely, and only in a subdued fashion.   I left the paths clean on purpose.  I suppose this was my way to distinguish this as a painting and not a photographic recollection.

I liked this rendition a lot.  Perhaps it was more endearing to me due to its many distinctive traits of Chinese brush works.  Perhaps I spent so much time evolving with this particular version that we had grown fond of each other.  Perhaps it was the decision to go back to basics.

To chronicle the efforts so far with this subject matter, I've assembled the different versions here

I can't believe I stuck in for so long.    I'm not a persevering person. 

Chronicle of Shadows: continued

After a momentary hiatus I picked up where I left off with my "shadows" project.

I stuck with the semi-sized Xuan, judging that this paper is more forgiving to repeated overlays. I certainly needed that security blanket.  Also the ink would not be an absolute lack, but more like charcoal, and I like that.

To put aside any worries about brushstroke and what not I decided to go for broke.  I picked a brush with broken bristles.  It would not form a tip even when wet and felt more like a broom than a brush.
I proceeded very quickly with the painting.  I could almost do this with my eyes closed now, having done it for so many times in the weeks prior.

I thought the lines flowed rather freely and were quite spirited.  I thought I hiccuped when I got to the shadows, having lost some of that initial ruthlessness. The lines became more calculated and contrived.  Brown was haphazardly slopped onto the paper with my broom to form the horizon.   I don't know if it was the void spaces within the brushstrokes, but this wild, unrefined rendition had a certain sweetness to it.

Since I had my color out, might as well use them.  I avoided getting technical with brushstrokes by not employing them at all.  My next attempt was done using a flat brush, mosaic style.

I didn't even consider the shadows, the foreground. They were not in my cross hair at all.
Interesting.  I did it to let out steam.  And for experimentation, of course. 

Now that I had dealt with my anxiety, it was time to get serious.

The following attempt was done with first painting everything with ink, then covered with Chinese color No.3, Scarlet.

This color overlay on the semi-sized Xuan imparted a mahogany look to the trees.  Most interesting.  I tried to jazz up the painting by doing a charcoal outline of the limbs.  I did this to better define the spatial relationship of the branches and how they interact with each other; who was in front of the other.  I did it also to make the edges of the limbs more interesting.  The brush painted an inherently even keeled swath, even when I tried to mix in side-tip with center-tip.  By outlining using the double Gou technique, I hoped to amend the parallel lines appearance of the brushstroke edges.  I used charcoal because the paper became more sized after each coloring.  Any subsequent brushstrokes would lose their details because the water content from the brush would just sit on the paper, pooling and corrupting the edges.

Other than the technical interests of the painting so far, I still find it un-inspiring.  I was watching a mannequin.  All the right appendages, but lifeless.

I thought I knew exactly what I wanted to paint when I first started this project weeks ago.  Little did I anticipated  the ambivalence I encountered once I laid hands on it.  I was lost.
It was too picture like, too austere, too graphic in appearance, too......   I even tried the minimalistic approach, sort of.  I thought color might bail me out.  Nothing worked.  Somehow I was trapped inside a drain pipe and couldn't find my way out.

Chronicle Of Shadows

I was just strolling around when the shadows from trees caught my attention.

It wasn't even late in the afternoon, yet the shadows were long and interesting.  Intrigued was I.

I finally figured out that I was on the high point of a slope, thus the shadows were casted against the incline, as if it was a cinema screen.  I perceived a strong composition of patterns.  A lattice work of bright and dark, and nothing else.  I wanted to see if I could translate that onto paper.

I chose the raw Xuan as my paper, I thought I could more faithfully record my brushstrokes.  Using the green I had left over on my color dish, I carved out the path that I was on, and tried to describe the slope.

Yes that would work, I uttered to myself.  But it was missing something.  Too realistic perhaps?

I proceeded to simplify things by eliminating certain data points.  I also changed paper.  I used the semi-sized Xuan now.  I thought shape trumps brushstroke details in this case.

All of a sudden the personality changed.  It no longer resembled a photograph.  It was less cluttered  and allowed the viewer to fill in the pieces.  The painting was actually more verbal with less words.

I liked the way I depicted the background, so I wanted to explore further by giving it more structure in the form of more distinct brushstrokes.  I wanted to see if the lines left by the bristles could add to the strong lines presented by the trees.

I was paying more attention to my brushstrokes with the trees now.  I told myself that I was writing and not painting;  all the time being acutely aware of center tip and side tip.  Center tip for the "bone" structure and side tip for the "pose".

I also painted in a wash to help gather the tree shadows, to offer them a stronger directional feel, emerging from yonder and spreading wide pass the viewer.

What would happen if the background was less rigid?  If I used only a scant side tip sweep?

I must had been over-consumed with these thoughts of brush strokes, whether the shadows ( and the branches for that matter) should assume variations in ink tones, if the treatment of the negative space was correct etc that I began to resent the work.  It wasn't my style to paint the same painting repeatedly.  I get bored very easily.  That showed in this attempt.  There really wasn't anything to like in  that painting, and the brushstrokes were especially horrid.

I was actually vacillating between  whether this should be a painting or a wood cut.  I initially thought my first attempt was too "photo" like and was missing that je ne sais quoi quality of a painting. The more I looked at it now, the more I am convinced that this should have been a print, or some sort of a graphic design rather than a painting.  I was beginning to waver about what this piece of work should look like and what my heading should be.  I lost my bearing.

After a few days rest, after my turmoil had subsided just a tad, I tried one more time at this.

I changed the perspective by ridding the vast bottom void space and allow the muted slope line to divide the frame.  I also did away with the shadows, which were my focal point to begin with.  I un-invited my guests of honor. 

I shall digest this for a few days and see what shall come next.