Beaverton Creek Classic (Coloring)

I felt a little better now that I know how to handle the foreground.

Parallel to the creek runs a trail, partly dirt and gravel, and partly constructed of wooden planks.  This trail starts at the little lookout area and then follows the bank.  I am having great difficulty with painting this trail because I really don't have a clear image as to how this trail should look like on paper.  I just haphazardly plotted the footprint and will deal with it later.

The leaves would assume different colors.  It would be boring if all of them were green. I decided to have green, yellow, red, crimson, and blue leaves.  It is not uncommon for Blue Hue Three (176) to be  used as a leaf color; it is like a punctuation mark!  That and Green Label Hue Three(173).
For these leaves I would use yellow as the base coat.  It is important to write the color in using brushstrokes.  Forsake the temptation to just block in the entire area.  In this particular example, the leaves are little rectangles.  So using the brush tip, start at the point, press and lift at the opposite side.  As we pile on layers of color, the tone becomes more saturated.

The different colors tend to carve out a tiny margin around themselves (perhaps due to brushstrokes not exactly the same as I repeat the process) and give the leaves a thickness.  I would pile cinnabar on yellow, then carmine on top of that, for example.  After the entire painting is done, I would then re-outline the leaves and trunks for a better definition.

I now need to put in the grounds.  What I had was a faint green smudge with  dark outlines.  I would go over the entire ground with brown (684) mixed with ink, taking care to leave the highlighted areas uncovered.  By selectively using different tones of brown, and subsequent highlighting with Green Label Three again,  I can map out the contour and the topography of this landscape and render a three dimensional feel to it.

Stepping back and look at the painting.  On the lower right hand corner I have a tree in the middle of the trail.  Looks bad!    So I decided to paint in some foliage around the base to make it less obvious.  I also embellished the trail with blades of grass or vegetation here and there.  I would probably write in some moss dots too, but I'll wait until the painting is almost done.

Once that problem is fixed, the left side of the bridge looks naked.  I had the small trees there to conceal the entrance, but there was no hint of a path leading to the bridge and thus the bridge seem detached and was not connected to the painting emotionally.  My faithful foliage came to the rescue again.  These leaves could be shrubs, or they could be from the trees;  a little added intrigue for the audience!

I also darkened the sky somewhat, such that it is now connected to the rest of the painting.
A margin of green around the shores to frame the landscape.  I use that as a minimalistic representation of reflections, certainly in accordance with classical Chinese Brush painting doctrine.

to be continued.

Flamingo Tango

One of my teacher accused me of unable to Let Go !  Thus my brushstrokes are not deliberate and feel inhibited.  I was told many times to let it all hang out, because I had to go so much overboard just to reach par!

I was cutting up some paper for calligraphy, which I was in no mood to do.  Why don't I doodle, or just horse around with the brush?  Perfect excuse for not doing calligraphy!

Images of a pair of Flamingo dancing came to mind.

Not bad, I thought.  Then I decided to add in a few black areas to signal the trailing edge feathers.
Us Chinese have a saying:  Painting legs on a snake.........................................  messing up a good thing by being redundant and overbearing.  The black lines were clearly an afterthought, and not syncing with the rest of the brushstrokes.

In my disgust, I grabbed a whole sheet of 4 ft Xuan and repeated the process, except this time I figured a way to incorporate the black areas a little better.

I don't dislike it.  I thought it looks interesting.  I could do a better job on the body!  I thought the body on the smaller piece looks better.

I decided to anchor the birds a little better by writing in some darker ink brushstrokes, being careful to display calligraphic characteristics, especially with turns and lifts.

Heron Taking Off

I was cleaning out the attic when I came across a model glider that my son and I had built years ago.
This baby has a 6 feet wingspan and is covered with blue and white mylar at the wings and white on the fuselage.  Somehow it reminded me of a heron.

I wanted to paint a heron taking off, with its dropped nose and neck.  Now I'm thinking about the supersonic Concorde.  These images are good; hopefully they can help lend some emotional content to the painting.

 front of Xuan                     

Heron taking flight would assume a lower view angle, thus framed by grassy weeds.
I first wrote the lines for the stalks, then I turned the Xuan over and retraced some of these lines with alum solution.  As we recall, alum works as a resist.  The reason to do this on the back side is because it is more effective this way.

tracing with alum on the back

Now I painted in the heron itself.  The grassy weeds now have a narrow white margin provided by the alum, thus making a better separation from the heron; creating a perception of distance.

Painted in the shore line and trees to add a perception of distance.  I tried to highlight the heron by darkening the surrounding with a wash.   The best concoction for this wash is the brush bath.  This bath water is the sum of all the colors used for this painting, and is guaranteed to provide the right tone.

   darkening the surrounding

 

       brush bath used as wash

 

This is what the painting looks when dried.

This is an exploratory piece.  I would like to apply what I've learned from this to a few more?

Beaverton Creek (Classic) cont'd

One of my weaknesses is my tendency to "Tu","Mew".  That can be loosely translated as to doodle, to sketch.  In Chinese brush painting, where Bi-Fa is all important, the fact that I muck up any brush strokes is a cardinal sin.  I don't want to show a wad of cotton, but strands of fibers.

Thus I try to be a little more patient, a little more deliberate, try to coax myself into a calligraphic state of mind. 

I just don't like the result.  The imagery look contrived.  I really have not mastered the art nor the discipline of incorporating technique with thought.  The nirvana for me would be to be able to achieve Xieyi without sloppiness. 

All of a sudden, the Xuan appeared to have multiplied in size.  I'm having difficulty filling in the landscape with mixed foliage.  I suppose I would rely on wash and moss dots at the final phases.

 

My original premise was to lay down a wash of Prussian Blue at the top of the paper to give it perspective and interest, as I did with my Xanadu Fall painting, but I didn't quite like it this time around.

It has been almost 4 months since I conceived of the painting and by now cherry blossoms are in bloom.  Why not embellish it with cherry blossoms then?

 

I think this looks more inviting.                                                                                                          

 

 

 

 

 

Beaverton Creek (Classic)

Having embraced the 2 attempts at painting Beaverton Creek, the thought of doing a third painting in a more traditional style intrigues me.

I've never really been too crazy about the classic style, so this idea actually frightens me.  My problem is that the style seemed so difficult and unnatural for me.  I feel compelled to regurgitate what little I've learned from the fringes of my memory, and that hurts!

But try I must.  Deem it as a self assigned homework. 

Worked out a rough sketch of what the painting might look like.

Right off the bat, I proceeded with something not quite kosher.  I started out with a faint wash of the landscape map on the back of my Xuan paper.  I find this process to be more Xieyi and helps me to assemble the pieces on the front.

Next I tried to sketch in the key landmarks of this painting.  Scattered point perspective enjoys more of a birds-eye view and  is not as compressed as in vanishing horizon perspective.  I need to bring in more points of reference this time.  Thus the bridge, and the tall firs, and the little vista by the banks. I tried to be faithful to the actual flora of this locale, but I took liberty with the riffraff vegetation.  I thought this would be a prime opportunity to employ the different ways of portraying leaves.

Speaking of leaves, I learned that by writing the vein first, it is easier to complete the rest of them.  Notice I said "write".  These simple line should resemble writings more than tracings.

I am actually having problem in developing the painting in this format.  I better stop before I have to perform the invidious task of mutilating the piece.

It's For The Birds

The unseasonably warm weather is going to take a turn for the worse.  The forecast is for the temperature to drop 20 degrees Fahrenheit in a couple of days.  I am just trying to savor "Spring".

 The geese have laid their clutch of eggs.

Having practised my calligraphy today, I decided to follow-up with ink doodling.

 

 

 

framed with mat board

 

 

 

Just for fun !

 

Beaverton Creek (yellow)

The last Beaverton Creek painting done in green was very impressionistic.  I liked it enough to build a canvas frame for it so that I could mount it a la Xuan-Boo style.

In the mean time I want to try my hands on something a little less wild, but still Xieyi.  The image I conjured up was a landscape bathed in a golden light.  Beaverton Creek, yellow !

 back of  Xuan

Again I mapped the landscape on the back of my Xuan.  This  process allowed me more freedom to flick my brush.  I could then concentrate on building up the painting  on the front side of the paper.

front of Xuan

My first step was to add visible branches and tree trunks to the scene.  I punctuated the highlighted areas with tips of branches.  I was trying to achieve the effect which I discussed at my "Visual Acuity" blog.  It is important to extend the exposed tips and branches down, at least in appearance, if not in physicality.  There is a saying in Chinese brush   "bi duan yi lian", meaning the  brush trek is broken up, but the meaning (spirit) still connects.  Sort of like driving down the freeway and using the dotted line to inform you of the virtual divide.  The extraneous branches and stems could be blended in very nicely with the split hair technique.

 

 

A few contour lines and hemp chuen  took care of the foreground, transforming a patch of grey into a bank with rocks and texture.

Looking at the rough draft, I noticed a white right triangle sticking out at the lower right quadrant of the painting.  Somehow there was a white line forming a vivid hypotenuse with the white branches.  This is most awful; especially when you are now aware of this flaw.

My remedy was to fill in the hypotenuse and turn it into a contour line.  I now have a more defined shore lobe extending into the water.

Right now this lobe seemed a little awkward, but I better stop now before I commit some knee-jerk changes.