Framing My Monkey

With the Monkey painting done, I need to devise a way to showcase it.

I've already decided on using my Suliao Xuan Ban technique, despite the fact that the paper was more like a felt than semi-translucent.  I didn't want the paper to be rectangular.  I wanted a more casual feel.  I wanted a narrow border of gold color for the painting, promoting the regal festivity of celebrating the year of the monkey, in spirit at least.  I would build a wide border frame for it using 4 inch boards.

At first I was going to give my painting a round shape.  But then I  balked at the idea of a round shaped painting in a heavy square frame.  My compromise was to round off the corners of the square painting. 

I didn't want to use scissors to trim my painting in this instance.  I wanted a more organic feel of torn edges.

I wet the line where I wanted the paper to be trimmed with my brush and allow the water to soak in, such that the paper can be torn along that wet trail.

The result was amazing!  It had the feel of hand made paper!

I couldn't find any gold color sheets from the local craft stores, so I made my own.

I picked up some two and one-half inch wide gold glitter ribbon from X'mas fire sale and cut them into lengths.  My idea was to line them up side by side to form a sheet of golden glitter paper.

I used masking tape as an adhesive backing to secure my gold ribbon

here is the finished sheet of gold glitter paper made with ribbons

Then the trimmed painting was laid on top of the glitter paper to tailor for size

My original design was to trim the glitter backing a tad wider than the painting, thus forming a gold border.  I wanted to do that so when I employed the Suliao Xuan Ban mounting method, I would have a clear border around the sandwich, to make the painting appear like a float.

I finally decided against it.  Partly because I was lazy and didn't want to do the extra work, but also this set-up seemed too removed from tradition.  The set-up now involved placing the painting on top of the plastic and the glitter backing behind the plastic.  The thickness of the plastic gave the painting a hint of a float.  I was fighting my own ghosts from yesteryear again.

Instead I scraped off some glitter from the ribbon and sprinkled that on the painting.  That transformation was amazing.  Now the work looked orthodox and hip at the same time!  It just felt right.

I built my frame using poplar.  At first I was going to paint it Chinese Red but it might be too ostentatious for this painting.  I kept it naked and used clear satin urethane as a sealant.

I liked it a lot.

Monkey Business

Okay I've decided to pursue my monkeys in the drawing style, characterised by more lines than brush strokes. 

I did that for a couple of reasons, my inept brushstrokes not withstanding.  I felt more secure in doodling my monkey.  Secure in the sense that I could convey my monkeys more intimately and the process is more fluid.

I also came upon a new kind of paper recently.  This paper had a light brownish color and has visible fibers on the surface.  The paper felt like thin felt (no pun intended) and was intended for calligraphy.
It had excellent absorbency, and revealed richly the  black ink.  I especially liked the visible fibers.  They should blend in amicably with the hundreds of hair that I intended to paint on my monkeys.

Before I put both feet in, I thought I better paint a few samples.  Just to reassure myself, I fretted.

After my practice runs and no disasters were noted, I proceeded to do my monkey business for real.

I basically painted the shape of the head and body with the belly of the brush, with light ink. I did not intend to define them with outline per se, but with hair and shading, hence my notion of a fluid process.

I paid special attention to the direction at which the hair grew.  I thus laid down the main tracks of hair to guide me, such that I wouldn't get lost when I did the repetitious task of painting individual hairs.  It's easy to see the tree but miss the forest!

 

Once I had a few patches of hair the job got easier

As the brush went through different stages of wet and dry, I was able to not only paint the fur, but to perform the Ts'a  and Ren (rubbing and wash)  in a continuous loop, maximizing my brush strokes.

Eventually I had both of them done.

 

 

A little color was then added

My original composition was to paint a huge peach in front of the monkey on the right.  Not just any peach, but the Longevity Peach that is commonly found in Chinese paintings.  The peach, or Longevity Peach is a symbol of good omen and auspiciousness    Chinese often celebrate birthdays not with a birthday cake, but with buns made in the shape of a peach.  But then I said, that's too cliche!

Here is a picture of  the Longevity God clutching a peach in his left hand:

To fill the void space I summoned the help of my seals.  I decided to use the yin seals, where the background is red and the writing is clear.  I wanted the red stamps to add to the composition and to satisfy the need for showing the color red in auspicious matters.  I wanted to keep the painting low key but not subdued.   Thus I needed to place them strategically. 

I stamped my seals on small pieces of paper and moved them around to different locations of the painting to see what would work.

 

 

Framing Suliao Xuan Ban

I  mounted a few of my Ji Mo technique paintings using the Sulia Xuan Ban method that I devised ( see my blog dated September 20, 2015) so it's time to build frames for them.

The reason for employing the Sulia Xuan Ban method is to showcase the translucent Xuan by adopting a float like appearance.  I also want to take advantage of the clear plastic board such that I can display my Ji Mo paintings against a light.  I've done these paintings with that in mind.  I was very cognizant of the light sources in those paintings. 

I was looking for that stained-glass effect with my ink paintings.

I tried to keep things really simple.  I cut a groove with my dado blades in my 1x2 stock to accept the painting/plastic board/backing sandwich.  I tried to dry fit everything for a test run, to make sure my cuts were correct.

 

 

Satisfied that the pieces would fit, I glued them together.  I left one side of the frame open and secured with screws.  This is the door through which  the painting stack would be installed and changed out in the frame.

 

I decided to stain my frames with ink this time around.  This idea came about because my paintings were about Ji Mo ( accumulating ink technique), so why not use ink to the fullest.  Satin urethane was applied  to protect the ink stained frames.

 

There was something very satisfying by staining with ink.  The unpainted poplar stock took in ink like Xuan takes on ink.  I could pretend that I was doing calligraphy and marvelled at the brushstrokes.

 

 

 



 

 

I had some plywood remnants left so I cut them up to fashion some sort of a bracket/stand to prop up my paintings.  Dado blades were used to cut channels to accept the frame.  Ink was again used to stain these stands.

 

 

 

I was pretty elated when I put the finished product in front of a window.  The light that seeped through the plastic board and Xuan really helped to illuminate the light effect I was yearning to impart.

 

 



The clear border around the painting added to the flair when coupled with this back lit environment.
This is a float in the literal sense.