A Dog Day Afterenoon

I am finally back home.

All the travelling was fun, but like everything in my life I was rather passive about it.  I worry about expenditures, scheduling and travel companions.  Well it  just happened this time.  I wasn't planning on these trips.   Something that didn't "just happen" for a while was my painting.  I was not motivated.  Obviously doing brush painting on the road is not like rendering a pencil sketch.  To be honest, my heart really wasn't in it.  Strangely enough I don't feel too guilty about the hiatus.  Perhaps the stars had planned the absence for me, knowing how passive I am to seek it.

Well someone did nudge me a little lately.  Chinese New Year is approaching and I was asked to do demo again, as a program in a couple of the Lunar New Year celebration activities.  This will definitely help me get back onto the saddle.  The stars will not abandon me!

It is time I fill my brush wash basins with water and cut my Xuan into smaller pieces for my prep works.

This is going to be the year of the dog.  I've tried to paint dogs before I embarked on my journeys.  I was goofing around and tried painting on photo paper.  I quite enjoyed the process and the result wasn't too offending;  I was gratified by how vivid the paintings looked.  Yet I wanted to attempt a more traditional approach, and most of all, something simple.

In order to do a demo in front of a group, chances are 99 percent of the audience are novices.  This is not the time nor place to talk about techniques or aesthetics.  The process needs to be result oriented.
It needs to be fun, simple and guarantees a result; a presentable finished product.  In this case, the painting of a dog.

I thus gathered my thoughts and turned on my TV.  I am one of those lucky people who is not perturbed by noise.  The noisier the environment, the better I am able to concentrate.  I don't know if this is what happens when one lived in an urban jungle, or the fact the I grew up inhabiting a 500 sq.ft. flat with 6 other family members.  I often found myself studying not in the library, but a noisy restaurant; a bowling alley; a mall.  Silence scars me.  My mind wanders in the absence of stimuli.    I hate to admit it, but I sleep with my radio or TV on quite often.

I started to doodle with the TV chattering in the background;  trying to reacquaint myself with my brush and my Xuan.  The result was disastrous.

I had no control of the brushstrokes.  I had no control of the water content of my brush.

I was reminded, and humbled, by the fact that good calligraphic strokes are the basis of Chinese brush painting.  If I am still fighting this nightmare how am I going to sail through my demo and how do I expect the general public to do that?

Then I thought I would do something that employs more of a wash than just lines.  Everybody can splash, right?

That wasn't too bad.  It had spunk.

How about this one?

I was really trying to stay away from painting anything that came close to being a Shih Tzu or a Pekingese because I was trying to get out of the stereotype.  I was trying to not paint something banal.

I picked up a couple of New Year's greeting cards from a bookstore while I was travelling.

I am in no position to comment on the technical meritsof these cards, but I must admit that I was a little turned off by the dogs on them.  They seemed vapid and without a soul.  The same reason I am tepid about my dog paintings in the past blogs.  I know this is purely a very subjective opinion from me, but the question I asked myself would be: do I want this animal to be a representation of the auspicious year to come?

Puppies are so cute and I recall this little poodle mutt that I could relate to.  Perhaps I should paint something with a emotional content.  That is my motivation.  Now I have a beacon to guide me.

Well nobody said it was going to be easy.  But look at those big eyes and the tongue hanging out!
I might be onto something.

But seriously, I began to work on this feeling that I had.

It's going to the the year of the Dog.  Man's Best Friend!  A dog is loyal, trustworthy, always of service.  I need to be able to sell this as the harbinger of good fortune for the year to come.

I know the sketches looked rather haphazardly done, and they were, but I was really anxious to put down what I felt about the personality of the dog.  I could clean up my brushstrokes as I became more comfortable with myself.

Of course the motivation for my painting all these are always on my mind.  I have a job to do, and that is to allow an average person to successfully paint a dog.  I am challenging myself to paint something that can easily be converted to sort of "painting by numbers" and yet possesses a suggestion of artistic merit.  I am sending my hippocampus into overdrive.

What I need is a stencil.  A template.  Something that is repeatable.

I proceeded to work on this premise.  I drew an outline around my animal.

I wanted to explore the feasibility of such a template.

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.

Xuan vs Presentation Paper

I happened to have some presentation paper (Epson) laying around so I decided to try to paint on it.

In a sense the presentation paper is more akin to normal paper, especially the way it curls when wet.

Then I wanted to paint the same dog on regular Xuan.  Anticipating that it would be difficult, for me anyways, to have good control of the void space, I decided to not incorporate the negative spaces into the animal.  Except, perhaps, by the trailing tail, hinting at the presence of a body.

I think the Xuan version is more fluid, allowing a more intricate transition of tones.

Another Try At Glossy Photo Paper

Adhering to the dictum "strike it while it's hot" I attempted another dog painting on the HP paper.

I chose to do just a headshot this time.

Painting on photopaper is almost like doing watercolor on glass.  The surface provides no traction at all, so the tactile feel of the brush is sorely missing.  Water coalesces at its own will, yet the track is revealing as it pertains to how the hair in the brush is lined up.  In fact, when I find any traction at all, that's an indication that the coating on the paper is getting gel like and is ready to peel if I'm not careful.  It makes the task of rendering a tonal difference from a single stroke almost impossible.  It forces me to pay attention to my brushstrokes.

so the trick is to add each layer laboriously, all the time being mindful that the previous layer could be peeled off because the surface coating is weakened by the wet brush.

Painting on photo paper

I was toying with painting on photo paper in my last post.  I really don't have a good reason for why I chose to do that, perhaps subliminally I knew I was doing a portrait.

Anyways I was a little astonished at the result.  The finished painting seemed to have the pop that I've not seen from using Xuan.  Perhaps the photo paper was designed to reflect more intensely from the ink or pigments?   Same reason they make projection screens with different gains for a variety of venues.   The paper I used was HP premium plus photo and proofing gloss.  I'm not trying to endorse or advertise for HP, but I should let people know in case they want to play with it too.  I suppose any photo paper would do the trick;  I'll experiment with matte photo paper when I have a chance!

I thought I would paint something cute and cuddly; like Pekingese, or is it Shih Tsu.   I certainly am pretty naive about the different breeds; as a kid I would generically grouped them as lion dogs, because they look like lions with manes.  In fact I think the word Shih Tsu sounds very close to the phonetic sound of  the word lion in mandarin.  Perhaps it was a mis-communicated lost in translation. Oh for heavens sake, a mutt then.

I started out by claiming the rough shape and features of the animals.

I was using tea color and a dirty brush that was not totally devoid of ink.  My sloppy trait!

Working to define the snout and the eyes a little better, and adding facial hair to help define a 3 dimensional topography

I tried to use plain water to wash off the ink a little around the snout and the eyes to create the pupils etc.   It appeared that I needed to reinforce the highlights more by using titanium white.  I also inadvertently let some water dripped onto the front leg of the dog on the left.  As I was trying to remove that water, the surface peeled off like a face mask, resulting in a blank spot.  Obviously how much water I allowed on the surface affected the final result.  Too much water resulted in a peel off.

I then dressed up the dog on the right with titanium white mixed with tea color and vermilion, and improved the pupils and the nose

extending the work to the left

This is when I decided to get cute.  I thought I would add just the slightest hint of shadow to the duo.
The slightest!

So I diluted my brush wash, dipped my big brush in the container, gave it a good whirl, allow the brush hair to soak up an ample amount of liquid, hoisted it from the container and flung the brush onto the photo paper.  Just the slightest hint of a shadow!

I was so pedantic.

I thought I was doing a wash on Xuan.

I had forgotten that too much water on photo paper actually peeled off the surface if I laid a brush on it again.  I was amnesic about the hole I created to the dog on the left.

When I tried to dab up the excess water, I created 2 peeled streaks on the photo paper; on top and under the 2 dogs.  A hasty attempt to dry the area further actually ruined it more.  A track of what seemed like eraser debris is formed.  Whatever was the coating on the photo paper was now like soap scum on a bathtub.   The only difference is I didn't know what kind of detergent to use to rid of it.   I should have quit when I could.

In disgust I threw the piece onto the floor.  I wanted to stomp on it.

After sulking for a couple of weeks I decided to hide my mistake.

I remembered the masterpieces of paintings or calligraphy of ancient times had all these seal chops on them, as they were passed from emperors to emperors, connoisseurs to connoisseurs.  Those were stamps of approval.  So why can't I do the same?!

I took out my chop collection and unabashedly sealed my own fate. [ pun intended ]

I should work in a junkyard as a salvager.

Farewell

April 29 1922                                                                                                                  March 10 2017

as the number of my teeth dwindles
my capacity to understand expands
I can feel, at last
what permanence is like

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.