I did the sketch based on scenes from Huangshan, one of the most picturesque mountain on this planet. Its jagged rocky spires dotting a sea of clouds is the classic view that many hoped to be a witness of. I did the sketch in black and white, with just ink on regular raw Xuan. I decided to punch it up a little by working it in the splash ink, high contrast style.
I realized that I skimmed over the right third of the painting. I probably was in a hurry to finish the sketch so I went back and added a few details. The other possiblity was that, and I'm rationalizing here, I was already prepared to fade out the background, to demonstrate the level perspective in the classical Chinese landscape dogma. In hind sight, if that truly was my intention, albeit subconsciously, a sliver of mist separating the right third from the middle would have been more poetic. The following is a photoshop rendition of what could have, or should have happened?
Anyways I emphasized the break of the upper right quardrant from the foreground to establish the level perspective. I did that by darkening the areas immediately adjacent to the misty gap and let the tonal difference do the job of sepearation. In the process I also left an errant ink drop on the upper left corner. I suppose that's where my chop would go if I ever decided to turn this into a finished painting one day. Wink Wink. I need to remind myself to finish the details on the lower left quadrant.
Here's an example of a dry rub ( not referring to Memphis or Texas barbecue, sorry). This dry rub is another technique to impart shading, texture and also works like a dry wash in this instance. It can look really good if done right, but it's extremely harsh on the brush. We normally reserve the worn brushes for this practice.
The dry rubbing around these protruding mountain tops gave the illusion of cloud and mist blanketing the valleys and granting a few of the spires to surface.
