It must have been 60 years since I last laid hands on something of this nature. We used to have to use them during our penmanship class. As the school day ended, I squeezed the still wet stone into my overstuffed canvas brief and flung it over my shoulder. The left over ink would crawl its way amongst my books, seeped through the canvas and stained the white school uniform I had to wear. Obviously that ink stain stayed forever; my younger siblings had to suffer too because they had to wear the hand me downs.
Memories!
As I was exploring a little more about the subject of ink, I chanced upon a Chinese brush painter by the name of You Wuqu ( 1910-2006 ). Mr. You was well versed in the art of poetry, calligraphy, painting and seal making. What caught my attention was that he championed the splashing ink method of painting ( perhaps splashing water in his case ) because he considered water as a main element in the art of painting. He elevated water to the same importance as the brush and ink; establishing his view on the synergistic use of the brush, ink and water.
I hope to study more about that subject, but in the mean time it was one of his more traditional painting that caught my eye. It was a landscape painting with ink, and it incorporated the 5 basics of Gou, Chuen, Ts'a, R'an and D'ian ( roughly translated as outline, texture, rub, wash and dot ). Perhaps he is more akin to being a contemporary, his traditional landscape is easier to digest and more approachable than the Masters in Song and Ming Dynasties for instance.
I started to emulate this painting with aplomb. I was in the mood.
This is how the painting looked after it dried. The wet version looked more saturated and with less dynamic range. I often overreached my corrections at this stage and painted the dark areas too dark, anticipating a lighter appearance when dried. Also it was easy to pile on indiscriminately, ruining any possible dynamic range.
I sort of did the painting non-stop. I was driven by some unknown urges. Having been satisfied by the initial result, I decided to give it a second try, with a more serious attitude this time.
I commenced by capturing the foreground, using medium and light tone ink. The ink gets lighter on its own, as the brush is depleted of the initial load; and it also gets drier. Thus we have to be opportunistic, in the sense that we have to learn to take advantage of the ink tone and brush wetness at a particular moment. I often committed the mistake ( especially when I was a rookie ) of thinking that each of the 5 steps ( Gou, Chuen, Ts'a, R'an and D'ian) is a discrete stage. It was only through repeated guidance and confidence building that I became more aware of the intertwine and the transition and coordination of one brushstroke style to the next.
In the above example, the process of Gou ( outline ) and Chuen (texture) with hemp style line was carried out simultaneously and I allowed the ink tone to change on its own.
In doing the Chuen (texture) and Ts'a (rub) and R'an (wash) the beginner is often confronted with where to place the brushstrokes. If we have to refer to the original painting with each line, the process became laborious and mechanical. It is permissible to take certain liberties in adding or subtracting from the original. The trick is how to reasonably accommodate our inputs. It is therefore imperative that we have a good understanding of the placement of these brushstrokes.
I often would use my own fingers as a "live model".
In the above example, my fingers are like the lobes of mountains in a typical Chinese landscape painting. The blue lines are Contour lines, they represent large vertical slices of this mountain. They are the contours of the land mass. The tiny yellow lines (my wrinkles) are the Chuen lines, they represent the tiny vertical segments of the structure. They help to further define the contour of the slopes, albeit in a much smaller scale. In this particular example, they are what I would call Hemp, or Hemp Fibre style Chuen. The white dotted lines represent Light Value Lines and normally we do write in a line. Rather, we would use Ts'a ( Rub) or R'an (wash) to render a darker tone , using that dotted line as a reference line to effect a change in light value. Notice that the darkest portions are places just north of the each finger, and the top ridge of the finger is the brightest. Armed with this instant guide, one should be able to map out where and how these lines should be placed properly.
I reloaded my brush with dark ink and worked on the leaves by using the D'ian (dot) technique. and continue on with the landscape, moving to the right, transitioning from foreground to middle-ground.
During this process it's okay to continually add to and modify the previous sections. Again it is vital that we know how dark and how wet our brush is at that moment, so we could best take advantage of it, and make sure that the places we are modifying are reasonably dry such that our brushstrokes are not going to bleed out all over the place, unless that's the desired effect we are seeking.
