Don't look a gift horse in the mouth

Yes this is an interesting western proverb.  I had to ask for explanation when I first heard it.  This was not something that was taught in my English classroom when I was in school.

So as the horse grows older, the teeth get longer.  By looking in the mouth of a horse one can tell how old or young the animal is.  In other words, don't scrutinize a gift or be ungrateful; all gifts convey a good will.

I suppose a horse does not have facial wrinkles or nasolabial folds to reveal the age, so the marker rests on teeth.  What else can we describe a horse with?  I myself am quite intimidated by horses.  They are huge and they kick.  Their neck muscles are so strong that they can sideswipe me with ease.  I have actually fallen off a donkey during one of those National Park excursions.  My donkey was having a bad day and bucked me off.  I fell off my ass on my ass, pun intended.  The fall was enough to break the viewfinder of my camera.  Fortunately I was wearing a helmet.  

Yet horses are beautiful animals.  The musculature on a horse is well-placed and in harmonious proportions to the body, unlike the pumped up looks of body builders of our own species.  I want to try to paint them, properly that is. 

When I tried to do figure drawing, my instructor loaned me a pristine copy of an illustrated book on human anatomy, muscle anatomy to be exact.  Apparently it was seldom handled.  Perhaps students did not want to invest the time to study human musculature just so they could paint bodies. That was before the advent of the computer or the internet, unlike these days when all kinds of references are at the fingertip.  I grew up with black and white cabled television with a dinner plate size screen.   Thermal-paper copy machines were the rage; replacing carbon copy papers on the typewriter.  Yes I am a fossil.  The idea of studying human muscles was to help with the articulating of  the human form.  I found out that's how Da Vinci acquired his acumen on human figures.  Strangely enough, the muscles of a human body did not intrigue me that much.  The only muscle that I was interested in was the sternocleidomastoid when it was attached to the clavicle, especially those of the fairer sex.  My friends tell me that is a fetish.  I am not so sure about that.  That's why when I painted Rusalka I was so intent on accentuating that muscle.

I don't need to find a book on equine musculature from the library anymore.  A couple clicks on my computer gets me what is needed.  The following is a photo I plucked from the net, and I labeled the muscles that I was interested in bold letters, for my own consumption.  It is not my intention to infringe on other people's copyrights.  My agenda is to study the shape and placement of these muscles.  To me, these are the interesting attributes of a horse.  If I can pin them down successfully with my brush, then I would have fulfilled my goal of painting a horse properly.

The sternocleidomastoid muscle in a horse is not as pronounced as ours.  Perhaps horses turn their head more as a function of the neck than just the skull.  The massive brachiocephalicus bears out my hunch.  When I see a sweaty horse with a shinny coat I am often only aware of the deltoid, the triceps and the quadriceps.  They cast beautiful shadows on the body.  If the horse is presenting in a frontal view, I see the two balls of pectoral muscles tucked between the two front legs.  To me, these features define a horse.  My task, therefore is to try to manifest these features on paper.

As I have nothing to lose but everything to gain, I am not afraid to experiment a bit.  I shall just wield my brush and see what happens.

How about a different pose, just for the heck of it

I might as well try to study all the muscle groups before I cherry-pick my markers,

Then this crazy idea comes to mind, what if I do the whole animal in charcoal and then use the eraser to highlight the muscles and make their presence felt,

Interesting!

Better yet, what if I try my ink and brush now over this eraser augmented charcoal horse,

Love it.  Raw and spunky, or should I say unbridled.  

I've had fun with my painting exercise.  Will definitely explore this topic again in the future. 

I've heard of lost-wax technique in casting, perhaps this is my lost-charcoal technique!

On my rostrum

I have been invited to conduct several painting classes for our local classic Chinese garden. This came as a genuine surprise to me. While I may be enthusiastic about Chinese brush painting, I certainly do not fit the bill as being erudite. Perhaps it is my affable disposition.

The Garden is situated in Chinatown, a neighborhood that is often associated with negative connotations. For some reason that is beyond my comprehension, Chinatowns invariably seem to be located in run-down areas. In our case, the homeless and drug problems further exacerbate the fragile existence of this place. A fence enclosure provides some distance from the random rocks being hurled at the windows, and visitors to this attraction must be buzzed in. It is not uncommon to encounter homeless individuals relieving themselves on the street in front of visitors, blocking their path.

Despite its small footprint, a mere city block, the Garden was constructed with craftsmen from Suzhou, a city renowned for its formal gardens. Therefore, it is certainly not a copycat or imitation facility. It strives for authenticity. 

My job is to introduce Chinese brush painting to novices.  

I stressed that I won't be conducting any plein air paintings.  The small plot of the Garden means that skyscrapers form the backdrop around the Garden.  Everywhere one looks, one sees city buildings competing with the classic architecture of the Garden, and is most disconcerting.  Thus I am hoping to coax the class into internalizing the features of the Garden and then distill that feeling into a painting.  In other words, compose our own canvas, or in this case, Xuan paper.  Additionally, perhaps more importantly, the painting needs to be able to be finished in an hour, give or take. 

I've taken liberty of utilizing a file photo of the Garden

The photo is probably ideal for plein air setting, but feels non-Chinese, if there is such a thing.

I lifted part of that photo onto my composition, 

Then I incorporated an example of a willow from Mustard Seed Garden.  I intend to borrow from my own journey in Chinese brush, having to study that compendium as part of the rote learning process.

Below is the new layout for the Garden

So this would be the distilled version that I shall attempt to paint.  Simple lines that even a novice can handle.

To translate my thoughts into executable plans, I need to make sure it's feasible, even in haste.  

Nothing fancy, just lines one can write.  

In the mix would be a few examples mixed foliage, as illustrated in the Mustard Seed Garden.

another try,

I think I succeeded in transforming a photograph into something more like a painting, a painting with a Chinese persona.  

The first painting looks a little busy, and the willow is a bit loud and does not yield to the background.

Thus the entire painting looks flat, as if everything is on the same plane.

The second one looks more poetic for sure.  There is contrast in scale and multitude, and a quiet elegance to it.  To fortify the relationship between the lonely willow and the buildings beyond, I am adding a boatman traversing in a boat.  That boat is plucked from the Mustard Seed Garden. The viewer can fill in the blanks with their own version of the story.  Where did the boatman come from, or where was he going to.

Since one of the brushstrokes that I will be covering is D'ian (dot), I decide to work another iteration with the impressionistic portrayal of waterlily, or duckweed, depending on the context. These are simply darker dots written within lighter dots while they are still moist.  

Okay class, here I come.