Putting On Make-up

I was desperately trying to find something to do; to get myself back on the routine, as a way of dealing with jet lag.  I was  even more determined to not do what I needed to do, for the fear of opening up a Pandora's box.

I needed to get organized for an upcoming show.

As I was sifting through my pile of unframed pieces, I came upon this black and white rendition of
Lan Su Chinese Garden, a classical Chinese garden built with the corroboration from the city of Suzhou.

It wasn't a bad painting at all.  It was done with a black and white theme, adhering to the classical ink and water wash theme.  That was my intention at the time the painting was conceived anyways.

There are several flaws that I need to mitigate now that I have re-examined the work.  The painting needs an area of focus, an area of interest.

The red circled area (the Taihu rock) could use a more three dimensional feel.  The yellow circled area lacks definition and seemed incidental.  The blue circled area screams for a better association with the rest of the painting.

Instead of amelioration with ink alone, I am asking for help from the color department.  I am constantly reminded that this is a painting about a classical Chinese garden and I don't want to make it audacious.  So Less Is More, that's my mantra.

I judiciously used Prussian blue ( toned down with ink) and tea ( yes tea ) to reveal the bright and dark areas of the Taihu rock ( red circled area), leaving sufficient void space to illustrate the highlighted areas.   The presence of color helped to bring out the structure.

I selectively filled in the yellow circled area with Prussian blue, tying it together with the Taihu rock, setting the stage for the immediate foreground.  The vignette corner was kept untouched, to further bring contrast and focus to the courtyard.

In the blue circled area, I darkened the the top and right areas of the painting to increase the contrast.
I also darkened the white board below the soffit overhang, just above the lattice work.  The original white bar was too glaring and did not fit in with the overall value of the pavilion.  In fact I found that a distraction.  The negative space suggesting a small tree was further accentuated by darkening the surrounding area.  The same treatment was applied to the mottled leaves above the ridges, making the flying roof ridge more dramatic.  The void area to the left of the pavilion was kept to create depth and separation from the background.

Finally tea (darkened with ink) was applied to the bottom of the rhododendron plant to the right of the Taihu rock. giving weight and a presence to the plant.  The same color treatment was applied to the plant at the lower left hand corner, making the foreground of plants and rocks a lot more cohesive.

In the end, I do like the new look of my painting.  It's like putting on a very light make-up and eye shadows to a beautiful lady.  She retains her calm and elegance and ever so slightly catches you with her glimpses.

Bamboo Leafs Tutorial and Brush Pronation

As I am forced to deal with how to paint bamboo, I am increasing frustrated by my own ineptness  in rendering a good painting, and the difficulty in explaining the mechanics of the brush stroke, especially with regards to the leafs.

As I thumb through the "How To" books of painting bamboo, there are vast examples of how to paint and group the leafs in an ethereal array.   Sadly, very few of them reveal the underlying brush stroke.

I could only hark back to my days of learning bamboo.....center tip, center tip, fast, sharp strokes.
Fine!  I get all that, but how do I add variety to the shape of the leafs??  My  relentless practice just adds more clones  to my collection, neither rhythmic, nor eclectic.  My teacher just kept saying, watch me, do as I do.

So what does pronation ( and supination) has to do with painting bamboo leafs?

Everything !

When we hold our brush vertical with the plumb line, anything added pressure will force the belly of the brush to sit evenly on both sides of the center line.  Thus a rather symmetrical leaf shall appear.
If we hold the brush with the shaft pointing towards our body, then more of the brush belly would be making contact below the center line.  Thus a leaf with a skewed right flank will take shape.  Conversely if hold the brush with the shaft away from our body, the result is a leaf with a skewed left flank.

This discovery prompted me to think in terms of pronation or supination.  Evidence of those is very apparent in how we wear out the heels of our shoes.    A pronated ankle causes the inside edge of the shoe heel to wear out  (most evident for people afflicted with  Knock Knees), and a supinated ankle wears on the outside edge of the heel.  Supposedly one could tell an introvert from an extrovert just by looking at the heels of their shoes.  Anyways, when the palm is twisted towards our body, that is the supinate position, and pronate is when the palm is twisted away from our torso.  Therefore for a right handed person, a supinate  grasp of the brush will result in a bamboo leaf with the fat side to the right of the vein, and a pronated angle of the brush will have a heftier left side.

The significance of pronation and supination  that if we want bamboo leafs  to look lively and natural, we should paint them as clusters rather than individual leafs.  Let me be more succinct, we are going to paint 4 leafs in a cluster.  As we embark on the first leaf (positioned to the extreme left of the cluster), our brush is in a natural supinated position.  As we move over to the next leaves ( to the right ) the angle of the brush is incrementally decreasing towards vertical plumb ( true center tip ) and progressing towards pronation as we drift to the right side of the cluster.  My assertion is that we should try to paint the leaves as a combination of multiple related, continuous strokes, separated only by lifts of the brush, but no hiccups in flow.

The last picture posted above is an example of painting the leafs in groups of 3 or 4 and allowing pronation to occur naturally, thus the body of our brush strokes exhibit different profiles of the leaves.  As the ink soot leaves the brush the strokes become lighter and dryer.  Exploit this trait to lay down  the fainter brush strokes, which help to create depth.
The following is lifted from a "How To" book on painting bamboo leafs and is just a small sample of the hundreds of possibilities of arranging and writing bamboo leafs.  The problem with this rote learning, as I come to realize, is that we are so bound by these prescribed imagery that what we do at best is regurgitation of a lifeless pose.  What these illustrations do not tell us is the assembly of  dance movements that lead to these poses.  If only we can paint the leafs not as individual blades, but as a community, and allow our wrists to go through the various and natural angles of pronation and supination, to imitate the natural growth sequence of the clusters, then our efforts shall be a rewarded with dynamic strokes.

The embedded video shall illustrate my attempt at painting the bamboo leafs pictured above, and some of the points that I have opined.  Granted the leafs do not look that good (just a frustrated painter, but my theory is still sound ) nonetheless the final product is not without emotional salvage.

Pronate, Supinate, do not Regurgitate ! 

My new mantra.