Waste Basket Diving

If I throw away my booboos before the painting is completed then I am really not honest with myself.  I am an amateur trying to explore the many intricacies of Chinese brush painting and I must capitalize on the opportunity to learn from my mistakes.  To assume that every piece I attempted is worthy of the wall  is a unrealistic fantasy.

I caused big holes to appear in my attempt to paint my "mosaic" piece.  I tried to avoid the mistake of rendering the paper too brittle by the use of alum solution yet I failed.  I think my mistakes could be attributed to the thinness of the paper and my stupid idea of ironing the paper.  Could I be using the wrong alum solution mixture?  I am told the ratio of gum to alum should be 2 to 1.  I seem to recall that my solution has more alum than gum.  I used animal skin gum by the way.  I've been using that on my double Xuan and so far I have not been penalized for using too much alum.  My frayed edges from the gold speckled paper was my first mishap and the first hint of any bad side-effects from my solution. I am convinced now that the more robust double Xuan saved my skin in the past.  

So instead of trashing my "mosaic" piece due to the holes, I am going to continue my project.  

I proceed to make the darker areas much darker than before, to contrast with the lighter areas.

Now I need to work on the ducks, to make them more appealing?  I also need to go over my many wriggly pieces that depict the shimmering water.  The Number 3 Blue Hue (176) is my first target.

I then work on other colors.

Since I do have a fair amount of void space to begin with, the holes caused by the ironing mishap actually could pass under the radar.

I suppose I shall find out more about the appeal of these holes after the painting is mounted.  

I am just glad that I have fulfilled my New Year's resolution at least, by initiating and not giving up on  a tedious project.

Paint for the waste basket

It's time to put my game on, tackling my mosaic project.  I really can't let a 9 nine old show me up, can I?

I am using a semi-sized Xuan because it is thin enough to facilitate the copying process.  I will need to trace my stencil with a brush only this piece of paper.  I suppose I can trace it out with pencil first to get all the pieces and then cover up the pencil lines with ink brush once the painting is done, but I don't have the patience for it.  The bottom line is I hate to do the same thing twice; tracing my stencil is already a chore for me.

I already do not like what I've done so far.  I suppose I am treating this initial step rather lackadaisically, I am using left over ink/color to do the tracing.  The outlines are of different colors and darkness.  I have not forgotten the proposed silver color for water from the 9 year old kid.

I have this image of a pond with an subdued ambience, interrupted only by flashes of reflected light.  I am going to color in my two ducks first.  I also pick out a few spots to apply the same color as the ducks.  There really are no rules, just a notion.  Perhaps use silver as my flashes of reflected light?  But I don't have any silver color or paint.

Using the same logic, I pick out other pieces of my "mosaic' and address them with different colors.

I am assigning a deeper, darker color to the right half of my composite.

And a lighter color to the rest of the painting.  I suppose I've decided silver is not feasible for my set-up. 

What is glaringly apparent now, aside from the fact that there is not enough tonal difference between the darker and lighter tones, is that the colors are extremely blotchy.  This is beyond any doubt a failure.

I mentioned in my previous writing that I wanted to do this painting using the Gongbi techniques.  One of the hallmark of a Gongbi painting is that alum solution is used to size the paper so that the color flows and mixes freely, without being streaky.  I was assuming that my semi-sized paper would have cut my some slack and present me with a more uniform color field.  This is not the time to see brushstrokes.

I suppose I am doubly disappointed by the fact that this is not my first rodeo with semi-sized Xuan.  I should have know better to pretreat the paper with alum solution so that streaks would be minimized.

My electing to not apply the alum solution first is not entirely baseless.  I recall vividly how the paper of  my summer pond painting became so brittle that I cracked the edge of the paper like an egg shell with barely a nudge from my brush.  That paper was the gold specked Xuan, which is a heavier paper than this translucent semi-sized Xuan.

Hence my hesitation.

There is this saying in doing Gongbi painting, "3 applications of alum and 9 applications of color".  Watercolor gets muddled under repeated applications.  The alum solution is applied in between the repeated coloring process to seal in the original layers and prevent mixing, thus keeping the the palate clean.  The transparent watercolor allows the bottom layers to come through, achieving a visual mixing of colors rather than a physical mishmash.  This "shielding" is sometimes achieved by coloring on the back of the paper, allowing the translucent Xuan to act as a barrier that mitigates mixing of colors. 

Well it is not too late to treat my entire painting with alum solution now.  New color, or tones can be applied over the dried alum treated paper and if done right, should be devoid of streaking. 

I am going over the lighter tone of green again after the alum solution is dried.  The blotches are mostly gone.  What the picture shows actually is just lighting artifacts resulting from a non-flat paper surface.

It is interesting though that the brownish hue is gone, replaced by a greyish green and I am using the original wash.  The two tones of green are even more similar now.  I need to make my dark green areas much darker in order to achieve the separation.

Before I attempt my darker green, I am reminded of the repeated washing of color resulting in the undulating surface of my Xuan.  I am going to iron my paper to get a flat paper surface.  This should help to minimize the pooling of the watercolor at the low points.

Guess what, the paper is too crispy (from the alum solution) to withstand the ironing.  Part of the painting ended up on the bottom of my iron.  There is now a gaping hole in my painting.

The funny thing is, I am not mad at all; just astonished.  I'm astonished that the paper becomes so brittle even after one application of the alum solution.  I suppose I shall be keeping a mental note about this for a long time now, especially when using the thin semi-sized Xuan.  Keep my iron locked up!

I've been told many times that one should proceed to paint with the attitude that one is doing it for the wastebasket.  This is one way to alleviate the pressure that one puts on oneself.  There is nothing to lose!

I believe I am literally doing a painting for the wastebasket.