Prepping For A Demo

I was asked to do a Chinese Brush painting demonstration at one of the local venues.  I told them I would, and my topic would be landscape paintings.

Landscape painting is among the most difficult genre to master.  Needless to say it requires expert brush skill, but it is often laden with so many rules and doctrines, to the extent that it smothers creativity.  Chinese landscape paintings are in essence impressionistic abstract paintings that portray a a state of mind, a philosophy, rather than an object.  It is this ether that gets lost in the process.  I suppose one could describe a well manicured garden with all its physical attributes, design elevations and its eclectic collection of flora but it is the enjoyment of the garden, be it rests merely on the surroundings, or otherwise the sentiments it evokes, that ultimately establishes the garden.

I am certainly no expert in this area, and that is exactly why I wanted to take up this self imposed challenge.  I wanted to approach this demonstration from the standpoint of a student.

A student must do homework, and I need to have a clear road map in my mind as to what I plan to present, so I settled down to devise my program.  My experience with these demonstration sessions are that they are always fluid.  Some audience members are surprisingly well versed, whilst others are totally uninformed and I need to be able to talk at both levels at the same time.  We could be examining one topic and it quickly digressed to something else.  That is the reason I need to be more than a one trick pony and have an arsenal of useful skills and information that I can retrieve from.

Students of classical Chinese Brush are aware of the two main styles of painting, namely the Gonbi and the Xieyi; where the former is a more formal style with distinct outlines and filled in color and the latter is more expressive brushstroke ( especially broad side-tipped used to describe surfaces) format.  Landscape paintings demand a good understanding of the Ji Ben Gong ( fundamentals ) which deals with Gou, Chuen, Ts'a, R'an and D'ian ( outline, texture, rub, wash, dot )

Landscape paintings are often a combination of the two, although there are works that are predominately one or the other.  I shall start with the study of the more brushstroke-weighted ( surface weighted) one.  Here the brushstrokes represent a shape, a landmass in this case; and also the light values and shading.

I reached into my tools bag and dug up an old model that I fashioned with foam core board

using charcoal I rubbed the contour onto my Xuan ( I must emphasize that this is not the traditional way of doing Chinese landscape paintings, but strictly something I devised to help myself and others understand the brushstrokes)

I started on the left side and built my backdrop of a trail with steps using light and medium ink

Using dark ink, I sought out the areas that are shielded from the light and did my side tip brushstrokes

As the ink is depleted gradually from the brush, take advantage of that by laying into areas that require a lighter value.  A clear understanding and concept of how the rocks are presented helps to write in these brushstrokes.  In an ideal situation, the charcoal contour lines should not be visible at all, since they never existed to begin with.  They are only "cheat lines" to help the student visualize the structure.  Thus I was trying hard to conceal these lines.

Moving on to the right side, I inserted the rest of the backdrop

Voila, the completed sketch

Before I proceed to my next etude, let me just say that I am not too happy with the above rendition.
The more brushstroke-weighted (surface-weighted) style is supposed to be more spirited and free and yet I don't see that at all.  I believe the culprit is in my charcoal sketch lines.  Those were supposed to guide me as to where to write in my brushstrokes but they ended up being quite restrictive.  I was trying to conceal them as well as follow them and thus my brushstrokes looked more like tracings than actual strokes.  They lacked gusto!

While my scheme MIGHT help us understand where to wet the paper with ink, it also created a rather rigid image.

I turned my attentions to the more traditional method of painting landscape, half Gonbi, half Xieyi.
This process begins by establishing outlines of hills, rocks, trees etc., anything that is in the foreground or middle-ground.  These areas enjoy a more rigorous and detailed description from the brushstrokes.  Thus the process of Gou is the first step.

As the ink gets depleted from the brush, which also gets drier as the writing continues, we need to strategically start writing in areas that demand a lighter tone, also the process of Chuen and T'sa as the opportunities present.  In other words, Gou started out as a single minded procedure, but as the brush changes its characteristics then we take advantage of the situation by incorporating Chuen and T'sa.  This concurrent administering of the 3 techniques gives the painting a more cohesive feel.

The background, or objects far far away are always depicted with the broad strokes without Gou lines. These are suggestions that something exists out there.  The broad side-tipped strokes are used.

After the basic skeleton is acquired, it is time to employ R'an, to add shading and establish the darker tones.  R'an can be most effective and dramatic when corroborated with the Chuen that is already in place.  It really defines the faces of the rocks and the texture.  It helps if we can hypothesize and visualize where and how the light illuminates the formations.

Using burnt sienna, or tea, we judiciously color in the highlighted areas

Write in the darker areas with indigo and ink mixed.  Do this before the tea or burnt sienna dries so the transition of color is smooth and is easier on the eyes.  Also use a non transparent color like green label one to write in the flat land and shore  at the base of the conical pillars.

Close-up of fine tuning the rock face

The reason for using a non transparent color of the shores is so that when we put in the reflection of the pillars in water, the gouache like color is not covered, retaining the integrity of the shores.

D'ian is selectively applied to hide bad lines, or to accentuate a contour line, suggesting vegetation in the crevasses, tree stands, blades of grass along the shoreline or simply as decoratios to take up space, like a potted plant in the corner of a room.  Obviously tree leaves are prime candidates for its application.

The brushstrokes need to be lively and expressive, despite the fact that they seem like mere dots.

The finished painting

which is loosely based on this scene from Guiln

I feel a lot better now.

I feel like I have given the impending demo an honest preparation.

I feel like I have gone to the confession booth and have all my sins absolved.......

Painting a dog at the cultural fair

The day of reckoning is finally here.  The cultural fair is here.  Time to put all the hype and theory into practice.

The event was preceded by a news promo blip from a local TV station.  I had my 5 seconds of fame.

The day started off with the set-up, when the facility was still dimly lit and cold.

Before long, people were filling the chairs, eager to start painting the dog.  I am just going to shut up and post the few photos I had.

It was a grueling 5 and a half hours of almost non-stop talking over the drums and cymbals of the lion dance, and being on my feet the whole time.  I had my past job as a pharmacist to be thankful for;  I was used to be on my feet 12 hours a day.

I must emphasize again how positive this whole experience had been.  Not because it worked out beautifully.  Not because of the accolades that the project received.  It was the pure joy and satisfaction and pride that the participants showed.  Every one of them effervesced with such new found confidence.

I added a new element to my program this year.  I brought along a chop and let the participants stamp their own seal of approval.  The wording on the chop says " Still Having A Heart Like A Child".   I thought it was fitting for a painting of a cuddly dog.  This simple act of stamping not only validated the works as their own, but it also decorated the painting with that familiar Chinese veil.

My only regret is that I don't have more pictures to post.  I was too caught up at the moment and not much free time to hit the shutter.

Rehearsal

The demo event at the cultural festival is fast approaching and I would be less than honest if I admit to not having any anxiety.  I know I have a plan, but unlike working at home, out there anything can happen, including boo boos. For all to see, nonetheless.

Just received word today that a local TV station will be filming a little segment on me as part of the festival promotion.  If that doesn't stoke my fire, I don't know what will.

To assuage my trepidation I decided to run through my steps in painting my dog again.  I call this a step by step rehearsal, to have some discrete and concrete ideas on what each step would be.  I am doing this for my own benefit.  I can't be mumbling and be taking too much liberty in which part I would be painting next, as if I was at home.  I need to be able to parlez my scheme and the group audience need to be able to follow me in an orderly fashion.

For my TV appearance, I decided to use a Xuan that I use for calligraphy mostly.  It is quite absorbent and does not bleed too easily.

First step is do record my template on the Xuan, rubbing out the silhouette with charcoal.

Then write in the eyes, nostrils and the mouth using dark ink.  The voids in these small areas are important.  They represent the glint in the eyes, the nostril openings and the tongue.  So try not to fill everything up.

Keeping the brush which is drier by now, and employing side-tip, block in the dark areas between the front legs, below the belly and in front of the hind legs and the junction at the butt and the upturned tail.

Wash out the ink somewhat from the brush to achieve a lighter shade, write in a big mustache beneath the eyes.   Join the nose to the lips Write in the chin. This helps to define the snout of the dog.

Write in a lone ranger's mask around the eyes.  Now the dog has a face.

Write in the right leg ( left on paper )

Write in the left leg ( right on paper ), leaving a big "S" void, hinting a highlighted contour of the left leg.  Write in the chest area with a darker shade to bring out the chin.

Try to leave a gap at the bottom of the eyes.  This void describes the highlighted profile of the snout, and gives separation between the muzzle and the eye sockets.

Using a light shade with a side-tip, lay the brush down and execute big bold strokes to round off the hind quarter.... and accentuate the "S" void to suggest the front left leg.

Write in the tail, leaving the top margin blank, to suggest the back lit areas of the tail.
I forgot to round off the lower lip of the dog by writing in a lighter margin beneath the lower lip.
So I'm doing that now ( red circled area )

Using a light wash, go over the edges of the animal where the charcoal was.  This helps to set the powder and one can use a darker wash at the bottom to cast a shadow from the animal.



I've also tried the same painting using different kinds of Xuan;  not only as a chance for further practice but I wanted to see the different results

my calligraphy Xuan

my regular Xuan

my semi-sized Xuan

on canvas

I used the calligraphy Xuan because it is more forgiving with regards to water content of the brush.
I thought the semi-sized would be the easiest but the result was disappointing for me.  The painting looked harsh.  I liked both the regular Xuan and the calligraphy Xuan in this exercise.  The one on canvas turned out really nice.  That was a complete surprise.

So is this dog going to be the harbinger of an auspicious year to come?

Wish me luck.