Continue with my alum solution painting

After further treatment to the background to make the white pop a little bit more and decided that this is the side I preferred as the top, I arrived at a point when I was ready to paint my elk in the middle, as I did the last painting.

But then I noticed the void at the bottom left.  I needed to address it.

Should I treat that as mist and paint that accordingly?  If it was mist, I would have liked it to appear at a few more locations to permeate the entire woods.  I looked for additional locations where I could plant my vapor.

I struggled with that thought for a few days and decided against it.  I wanted something fresh.

Let me transform that corner into a riverbed.   I could say that the trees ended at the banks of a river or a creek.

Using alum solution I painted in the bank, flanked by rocks and boulders in the middle of the stream, again covered with snow.

 I decided to use ink to represent the water ( at night, in the dark?).  I enjoyed the contrast of the dark water against the background.

The effect was pretty stunning visually, I told myself.

But this attempt had me discombobulated, sort of.  The bottom left drew so much attention now and seemed disconnected with the rest of the painting,  especially the vertical void in the middle.  The path I had allocated seemed out of place now.

My remedy was to extend the water into the middle of the painting.  I painted in a couple of rocks to establish the other bank of the water.

Again using ink to depict water, I extended my river across the middle, and the tree at the center became the foreground, partially blocking the view of the water.  Working from the back of the paper I took out the path in the center by painting in more trees, and tried to hide the rest of the voids as an amorphous vapor.

So now my painting became a snow covered woods along a river or creek.  This was very different from what I had planned originally.

I was not ready to give up my animal.  I thought I would try a different species.

How about a mama black bear with her cubs?  That would be cute.  If nothing else, they could make the painting more personable?

It should be clear by now that the way I employed the alum solution was to exploit the way it interacts with ink and Xuan.  I should also make it succinct that I was using both sides of the paper during the course of the painting, to the extent that I often get confused myself and couldn't decide which side showed more nuances.

To illustrate my point, I hung my painting against a window and took pictures of both sides:

In the end, this one gets my nod.

More Alum

Having time to step back and re-examine my last painting, as I was having problem deciding which side would be my "top side", I've decided to display the animal with its head pointing to the left side of the paper.

I prefer this orientation perhaps due to the slight slant of the road edge, giving the frame some direction, for which the animal is responding to.  It's hard to say;  it's just a feeling.  I also thought that the straight lines of the lodge pole pines are less obtrusive.  The same lines seemed a lot darker on the other side of the paper;  perhaps that was the side I painted on.  I am thus in effect looking at the back side of the painting now.

Looking at what I wrote in the last blog, this is exactly the case.  I started the painting by painting the elk with its nose pointing to the right of the paper.  I am therefore using the back side of the painting as the top side now.

I am having second thoughts about my added brushstrokes to the snow covered path.  My intent was to describe the undulating surface of the road but I fell victim to the equally spaced rhythmic strokes of my brush.   Instead of random irregularities of the road surface, I've made it out to be a mogul jump event now.  I regret that I've over-produced this piece of work, as a sound engineer might have said.  Whereas at a sound studio one could take attenuate or even delete individual tracks, that luxury is non-existent here.  Oh well.

So I thought I would give painting with alum another try.  It was definitely excited about exploring the nuances of painting with alum.

For this attempt, I decided to be a little bit more methodical.  I wanted to paint the same scene, but instead of placing a lot of dots and dabs of alum solution, I tried defining each tree.

Basically I was treating the snow laden branches as petals of a flower.

Using a light ink wash, I covered what I have laid down to help reveal the white patches and margins left by the alum solution

The back side of the panting after the initial ink wash

The alum solution in the brushstrokes helped to fix the ink before it migrated out too much into the Xuan, and also made the paper less permeable to future coatings of ink.  Thus by judiciously manipulating the tone and placement of additional ink, the appearance of snow was achieved.  

The above was the side I painted on.  

Picture below was the the back side of the same painting.  A little bit subdued and dreamy when compared with the painted surface.

Painting with alum solution

Those of you who followed my blog know that I've on many occasions used alum solution for my painting.  I've affectionately called alum solution as my Ancient Chinese Secret Solution.  I believe my first attempt was marked by my "Splash" painting.  I've also tried to experiment with egg whites and epsom salts but was disappointed by the results. 

The role of alum for me has been relegated to a supporting cast status.  I intend to give it a major role in the sense that my painting would be dictated by the artful utilization of alum.  I plan to use alum as my "color".  Alum solution is used to size Xuan, the paper we paint on.  My friends who does Gongbi style brush painting use alum as a mordant when they paint on sized Xuan or silk.

I like alum solution because it works as a masking solution for me.  I know watercolorists use a solution that dries to form a rubber mask to conceal void spaces.  I am referring to the Resist solution.  One can paint over such areas and then peel off the rubber mask to reveal the protected area.  The fragility of the Xuan absolutely prohibits such practice.  The rubber mask would destroy and tear the paper when attempting to lift it off the surface.  The fact that alum imparts some impermeability to subsequent coloring could be attributed to the fact that it acts as a fixer.  It fixes the ink or pigment that is mixed with it.  Because the ink or color is fixed before the brushstroke dries, and as the rest of the solution in the brushstroke continues to slowly migrate through the fibers in the paper, a clear margin forms around the imprint of the brushstroke.  This clear margin is exploited to give the effect of  back-lit subjects.

I started by exploring the nuances of painting with alum solution.   I scribbled various lines on my Xuan, employing alum solution along with various tonal colors of ink.

Notice the clear demarcation around the individual brushstrokes.  

Then I tried something with a little more drama.  I used a very wet brush loaded with alum solution with ink on the tip of my brush.

All those brushstrokes were meant to be contiguous, and yet there were clear margins around each brushstroke.  

The above is the backside of my doodling.  The photo itself does not tell the whole story.  I believe the smartphone has built in level adjustment, thus making the image more vivid than it truly is.  Nonetheless, I think the effect of the demarcation is even more pronounced than the front.

What I wanted to paint was a snow scene.  I would attempt to paint my snow with alum solution.  Instead of reserving a blank space for snow, I used alum solution, combined with various shades of ink, to paint the appearance of snow.

First I started with the element of interest in my painting.  Following the rule of thirds, I folded a line that is one-third the height of my painting and that's where I spotted my elk.

A close-up of my animal.  The presence of alum solution in my brush rendered each brushstroke distinctly.

My next task was to see how I could effectively portray snow covered trees.  I decided to model the trees after the firs and lodge pole pines that are so prevalent here.  I began my trial and error by using simple dots.  Dots of different shades of alum solution.  Note that I painted on the back of my paper.  The fact that the images on the back side looked better than top side gave me that direction.

I tried using two brushes.  One with alum solution and the other with ink,  I wanted to see if I could effect a more realistic representation of snow covered trees.  I painted the darker poles on the top side of the paper,  hoping the interplay of front and back side would add to the ambiguity and therefore the nondescript feel of snow covered trees.

So far I was dotting my "snow" and painting in the tall poles of fir.  The vertical lines of these fir trees should give my painting a structure.

The above was the back of the snow brushstrokes but the top side for painting the tree poles.  Confused?  That was my premise.  Exploiting the translucent Xuan by employing  both surfaces as my canvas.

For the other half of the painting, I changed my method of painting.  I painted individual trees and tried to assemble the additional members in a cohesive manner.

Close-up if my snow effect.  Notice the translucent dabs formed by footprint of my alum solution.

The same image on the reverse side of the paper.  Again, it seemed to present the feel of snow better.

So this is what I ended up with

I can't remember which side is the front or back now.

So is this a painting about a snow covered woods or about an elk?  I'm re-living my moments of painting my Korean Maidens.