I am an enthusiast of Chinese Brush Painting and I would like to share my trials and tribulations in learning the craft. I want to document the process, the inspiration and the weird ideas behind my projects and to address some of the nuances related to this dicipline. I hope to create a dialogue and stir up some interest in the art of painting with a Chinese brush on Xuan. In any case, it would be interesting to see my own evolution as time progresses. This is my journal
I publish my blog on the topic of Chinese Brush painting, but I have to delve into something very personal this time and it has nothing to do with painting.
Today is my birthday. What is significant is that I am not going to encounter this ever again. I was born on November 11. So regardless of what convention you use, date first, month first, or year first, today is 11-11-11, and I am going to publish this at 11:11. Pardon my pensiveness.
My personal experience, and those of other novices whom I have dealt with, is that when we see
skinny lines, we automatically dialed down our grip and turned our brush into a point rather than a brush. The result is the deposition of lines with a boundaries, but possessing no souls.
The concept of transmitting energy through the brush, penetrating the Xuan, past the felt pad, past the desk top is obscure but not mythical. I suppose this is analogous to martial artists focusing past the pine board and punching through. My mantra is let our brush make love to the paper, not just tickling the surface.
For my own practice, I chose to do a still life of a wicker basket. The orderly array of weaves, thrown into this parabolic contour of the container, reminds me of something that the architect Frank Gehry might try to do.
It is important that I still try to write these lines instead of drawing them. I tried to use a dry brush with varied ink tones to render the 3 dimensional appearance. The shading effect is achieved by using the belly of a dry brush. This is a good way to ruin a brush, but is a necessary collateral.
This kind of shading speaks of the T'sa technique mentioned in my prior blogs. It puts down texture and changes light value. The highlighted areas are void spaces.
This is a wonderful way to practice brush stroke, especially center tip stroke, without getting bored.
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.
I had painted the Canada Geese a few times before. Back in 2003, before I started to actively pursue painting, I did a family portrait of Canada Geese using water color. In fact I used that painting as my litmus test. That was the permission I gave myself to find teachers who could show me how to paint.
Eight years later, I want to try my luck again at using Canada Geese as my main characters. I am intrigued by the long black necks of the geese. Their necks telegraph so much motions and emotions. Sometimes agitated, sometimes embracing; sometimes curious, sometimes alarmed; yet always interesting. I thought their necks represent a perfect challenge to depict using Chinese calligraphy strokes. I would need to find a way to "write" their necks with meaning and strength. It is with this intent that I embark on my new journey.
First I worked up a general sketch. I've done a painting on zebras ( see my Horsing Around with Stripes blog) and I liked the general composition of that painting. I am going to arrange my birds in that array again.
I worked up another model employing colors that reminded me of patina. I defined the bodies as if they were commas, dashes and dots.
Well, that looked interesting but somehow it lacked the wow factor. I know this was just a quick model, but I can't put my fingers on the missing link.
Xieyi literally means to write with meaning or expression. The Xieyi style in Chinese Brush painting prides itself in the artist's command of the brush, thus the aptitude to "write" the painting with a freehand, allowing utmost expressiveness.
The concept of expressiveness in a brush stroke seems rather subjective and ill-defined. Allow me to draw an example with the human face. How could the same face portray happiness, ecstasy, mournfulness, sorrow, despair, resolute, anger, frustration, spite, respect, admiration, solemn, disregard, evasiveness, malice, anticipation, frown, et cetera, et cetera.
I am told there are close to 100 muscles controlling our facial expressions. The permutation of these muscles, either as group or individually, is astronomical. We need not understand fully which muscles are involved, and yet we definitely know when someone is pissed at us. The same is true with Xieyi paintings. Wherein the parameter for being "expressive" is obscure, the observer holds the dictum " I know it when I see it".
Painting is an expression, our way of communicating with an observer and we all want to be understood. Our innate fear of failure (to communicate) makes us afraid to let go of whatever we are able to cling onto, somewhat similar to people in abusive relationships. Our faithfulness to rote learning and emulating often rob us of spontaneity. We try hard to be perfect and take solace in mimicking the shape rather than the spirit of the brushstrokes, and there is nothing Xieyi about our work. This is the shackle that I try to be rid of.
The same painting done with expressive brush strokes.
An honest account of a dragonfly.
Same dragonfly done with expressiveness...... a little more Xieyi.
A good brush stroke is comparable to good bowing on a string instrument. When I watch Itzhak Perlman or Yo Yo Ma perform and see them using full bows from tip to frog with their eyes closed, I often wonder how much of that is from muscle memory (rote) and how much is from sensing the
interplay between the string and the horsehair, and using these full breaths to complete their musical sentences. Their cues on the stroke is no longer visual, but tactile. In calligraphy equivalence, we say a stroke is "delivered".
Xieyi does not mean an awkward semblance, but a genuine love-making between a brush and paper.
I was demonstrating how to paint insects; not in the capacity of being the principal in the painting, but rather a supporting role. In my scenario these insects would occupy the role of an ancillary chop, to fill a void without destroying the ambiance of the painting. If done correctly, this space moderator would add to the flavor, as in the use of fish extract in Wonton soup.
The first piece was initially a sketch done at a local nature park. The fern struck me as a ideal subject to learn to "write" a painting. The fronds present themselves as broad stroke lines that taper and convolute with grace. At best, that was almost like a botanical study with calligraphic overtones. I therefore used this sketch as an example of salvaging an otherwise plain painting by adding a little interest to it.
The other piece was a sketch of peony. The original sketch had the floral petals "gou"ed (outlined) . It was an exercise in still life sketching with a brush. I took liberty with the sepals and leaves, for a more cohesive presentation. The coloring of the petals was an afterthought. Unfortunately this is where I biffed. I did painting by the numbers. The outlined planogram tempted me to fill in the boundaries with color. I committed the cardinal sin of blocking in with titanium and not using it as a transitional member. Thus the whole thing as a rather "plastic" feel to it. Perfect candidate for OPERATION SALVAGE. I used it as an example of how to revive your dead painting by adding a smidgen of interest to it, in the form of a grasshopper.
Unto the bad painting, a shtick was given, or was it a straight man?
As I mentioned in the last blog, my painting on silk was not colorfast and I had to display that behind a glass pane, which is kind of a pain for me. The reflection off the glass really bothers me and I can't afford museum grade non-reflective glasses.
I thought of using Scotchgard. Unfortunately my local arts supply store does not stock it and a quick visit to Target found them out of stock on that item. Just my luck.
Was cleaning out my garage one day and behind a box of medicine vials, masked by cobweb was a can of Camp Dry. This aerosol can must be 20 years old at least. It is a product used to water-proof boots, tarps etc. for outdoor activities. So I decided to give it a try. What the heck, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. This whole thing about painting on silk was an experiment to begin with.
I wiped clean the aerosol can, followed the direction, 3 applications with 4 hours drying time in between. I sprayed generously onto my painting, not even bothering to test for discoloration or anything.
To my utmost gratification, the result is awesome. Not only is my painting repelling water like a shellacked hull, but the product also made the painting look richer. And the best part is, no glares!!
A good friend of mine , a Hua Yu ( meaning members who paint), gave me a roll of silk for me to paint on. My friend does beautiful Gonbi style paintings, and she was showing me her paintings, and relating how different brands of color and gouache work on silk. She must have sensed my eagerness to try and graciously let me have some.
Unfortunately I always thought I knew better. This is my Achilles Heel. I felt that the silk that was given to me feels too synthetic (feels crispy and looks shiny) so I was determined to find "real" silk.
A few phone calls later checking into the usual craft stores and fabric outlets, I located some silk at the local Mill End store. So here is my friend who knows a lot about painting on silk, and yet I wanted to be my own trailblazer. I must also clarify here that this is not an original work by me. I was trying to emulate some ancient painter (Ming, or Song Dynasty??). I am sorry I can't remember who the arts was, so enthusiasts could trace back to the original and learn from the master also.
My nightmare is about to begin.
The silk I purchased is brown in color ( I want to do paintings with the antique look), soft and feels heavy in the hand. I couldn't wait to take out the fabric from the plastic bag and began to write a few words in ink on it. To my horror, the ink just ran off the fabric, like water on the back of a duck. They must have used something in the dye to render the fabric water repelling, so the silk went into the bathtub, and I poured in a generous amount of denatured alcohol, and Resolve, and detergent. Whatever it was in the fabric, I was determined to extricate that. My bathroom permeated with the scent of alcohol, reminded me of a clinic; a clean smell. I am glad I am not a smoker.
Well that trick did not work. I remember my friend telling me that she had to use a gum and alum solution to size the silk before she paints on it. To me, this was counter-intuitive. Sizing would add to the water repelling property.
For some reason this worked, albeit just a little bit. The fabric would take on ink now, but it required several passes before the ink stroke registered. I like the fact that the pigment in the gouache seems to migrate to the edge of the stroke, leaving a natural border to the stroke. I don't know if I could attribute this artifact to the silk.
Since I had to make overlapping passes with my brush, any brushstroke qualities became virtually indistinguishable. The texture of the silk fabric, tandem with multi-layered strokes, made the lines take on the air of a charcoal drawing .
Bamboo stems, which needed to portray the bouncy tensile, showed instead a string of splinters, reminiscent of a bad whittling job.
This absence of brush stroke would absolutely ruin the bamboo leaves. The blades had to suggest an edge, a point, at the very least. I remembered the "Magic Brush" I bought in Hong Kong. It has a very soft (felt) tip, behaving much like a fine brush, and is fed by disposable ink cartridge. I bought it for use for my plein aire sessions, but it fit the bill quite nicely here. Whatever the cartridge holds, takes to the fabric pretty well.
The final obstacle came when I was trying to mount this silk painting on canvas and discovered that ink and color was coming off the fabric. Back to the drawing board, literally!
