A Landscape Sketch

I was commissioned to do a landscape painting.  I started to do some sketches and I would like to share one of them here.

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.

Continue To Break It Down

Using the systematic approach of knocking off a small portion at a time, I had the main features of the landscape painted in.

Don't be afraid to build on the features when you feel that the brush has the right tone and wetness.
I must emphasize again that the Gou, Chuen, Ts'a, R'an and D'ian steps are not discrete and separate events, but rather a mix and match affair.  It's a continuous train of thought.

I then transferred my attention to the backdrops.  In a traditional style of landscape the background could be quite similar to the foreground.  The artist however needs to bring out the elements of the 3 perspectives that populates a traditional landscape painting.

Height Perspective- demonstrates how tall and mighty and stalwart the mountains are
Depth Perspective- leads the viewer deeper into the painting by revealing the little ancillaries,
                                huts, steps, hidden falls and streams etc.
Level Perspective- describes the distance from front to back

In Mr. You's piece, he used a waterfall in the backdrop to steer the viewer beyond the huts and trees in the foreground.  The stream and steps and huts on right side yonder were his effort to lead the audience past the immediate trees and hut in the foreground.

Thus the stacking of the mounds and hills followed the Height Perspective, and the strategic placement of the stream, huts, stair and waterfall satisfied the Depth Perspective requirement.

Judiciously  building up the hills to the right of the waterfall by accentuating the Chuen and Wash brushstrokes.

As more and more information was added, the painting took on a 3-dimensional appearance.  There was a tremendous amount of satisfaction to see the paper slowly transformed from lines of ink to something that seemed to have substance and life; booboos notwithstanding.

Chinese landscape paintings are known as Mountain and Water Paintings by literal translation.  Obviously mountain and water features are the main characters in the plot.

simple and repeated Hemp Fiber Chuen brushstrokes helped to define the shape and texture of the flanks of the mountain.  The conifers in the front had different leaf brushstrokes from the dotted leaf brushstrokes in the back hills on the right.

A waterfall is typically painted as a void space, with edges not defined by visible lines, but tone values between the ink and the void.  A variety of leaf brushstrokes defines a mixed cultivation and the practice is a textbook standard.

Steps leading up to a platform on a precipitous is again very cliche in landscape paintings.  The assembly helps to reveal the Depth Perspective by including lots of vistas along the way as the viewer scans the composition.

 Mr. You defined this hut by using mostly a negative space with a few heavy lines below the roof to add shadow and suggest structures.  I really appreciated the effectiveness of this style of painting a building.

The brush wash had by now attained the right ink tone to paint the far far away hills.  I soaked my brush generously from the brush wash bowl and laid it flat against the paper and splashed on semblance of distant peaks.

Now the remaining perspective, the Level Perspective, which describes distance, had been captured.

This is when I needed to stand back and try to give my painting a critical eye, and tried to mitigate the obvious mistakes that I could detect.  In the final analysis, I was not unhappy with my efforts this time around.

I thought I was able to write down a lot more information on paper, to the point that my first attempt looked almost incomplete.  My patience and a more studious approach did pay dividends for me.

It was interesting to note how different the two paintings look when placed side-by-side.