Project Discussion: Asian Brush Art

[jerrydreesen]

A new project has been announced in the WetCanvas! project system!

Title: Asian Brush Art
Project Leader: jerrydreesen
Relative Difficulty: Irrelevant
Type Restrictions: Any Type
Medium: Any Medium
Subject: Not Applicable
Days open for signups: Always
Maximum participants allowed: Unlimited

Description:

In response to comments made by a number of members on the New Member’s Forum I decided to offer a project that would give artists an opportunity to share in the wonderous world of Zen, Chinese and/or Japanese Brush Painting.

Chinese Brush Painting is an art form that has gained a great deal of popularity in recent years. Its emphasis on simplicity appeals to many who wish to explore traditional Asian art and the philosophy that fosters it.
There are two basic styles of Chinese Brush Painting, "Gonghi" or meticulous, outline or contour painting. The other is "Xieyt" or free style. This style is more spontaneous and lends itself to various interpretations of the genre. Although Chinese and Japanese Brush painting has origins from ancient times, modern techniques and experimentation such as digital enhancement and mixed media are giving the genre new life.

Procedures and Goals:

Post your brush painting
List what tools you used:
Brushes, Paints, Paper etc.
Did you use computer enhancement?
Critique other's work and discuss your own work with other members in this project.

I’m hoping that members will share their knowledge of this art form by posting their work and giving a little C&C to those of us who are learning modern brush painting.
I am relatively new to this and want to learn as much as I can about it.

The following are a few books I have that I recommend as an introduction to Chinese Brush Painting:

1. An Introduction to Chinese Brush Painting; Pauline Cherrett (ISBN 0-7607-5847-6)
2. Chinese Painting Techniques for Exquisite Watercolors; Lian Quan Zhen
(ISBN 1-58180-00-2
3. Chinese Brush Painting, A Beginner’s Guide, Pauline Cherrett (ISBN 0-8069-5509-0)
4. The Sumi-e Dream Book, An Impressionist Approach…; Yolanda Mayhall
(ISBN 0-8230-5023-8)
5. The Sumi-e Book; Yolanda Mayhall (ISBN 0-8230-5022-X

I invite traditional and experimental works here, including all interpretations of sumi-e as well as modern impressionist brush work.

Let’s see what happens!




Additional Information:

For more information on the project: Click here!

Remember, in order to help keep the discussions on projects organized, you should post your questions, suggestions, and comments on submitted work here in this thread. By doing this, we allow other non-project efforts to not get "pushed down" by a swarm of project-related threads.

[AJR]

Regarding this entry --> http://www.wetcanvas.com//Community/...entry_id=40111



Just love it! And brilliant for adding in how you accomplished the finished piece of work.
Alright, you have sold the project to me! I am signing up for it!
Could you give a brief description of the different type of forms of art work, like what is the difference between Chinese brush work and the work you have published. This has me still confused.

Amanda

[hlee]

A leisurely pose for the cat, with a paw dangling. I particularly like the thick stroke suggestive of water just beneath, the way it varies in tone as would reflections.

[AJR]

Regarding this entry --> http://www.wetcanvas.com//Community/...entry_id=40124



Thank you so much for including the detail of how you went about the drawings and the problems you have found. I am learning alot from it.
I have a book on Chinese brush painting and have the equipment (brushes, inks,paper) but found it hard to fully understand. But the way you are explaining it helps soooooooooo much!

Thanks once again

Will be trying soon.

Amanda

[Godzoned]

Regarding this entry --> http://www.wetcanvas.com//Community/...entry_id=40124



Hlee you continually surprise me with your art skills. Awesome!
Also love your poinsetta.

[Godzoned]

Jerry-
You work really fast!
You've only just joined WC and working this site like a real pro!

I've always liked this style...... I'll join up and have a go....

Oh no another addictive project

[jerrydreesen]

Regarding this entry --> http://www.wetcanvas.com//Community/...entry_id=40123



hlee
Thanks for sharing this haiga (flaws and all). I appreciate your detailed explanation of your effort. The red and black color scheme is very "fifties" IMO, which, of course, I remember fondly I'm curious if you applied the background wash first, then overlayed the petals. You could, in this instance, because they are the same color. By applying the wash first, your petal color wouldn't be lifted but rather more saturated. In my view, the petal outlines are OK as is, but I agree, thinner, a more delicate stroke, would have been better.
I'm curious,too, about your scanning.. Since I generally only display my work on-line, I scan my work and use photoshop often to enhance the contrast, compensating for the transparency of my paints. Is that what you did?

Cheers,

Jerry

[jerrydreesen]

Regarding this entry --> http://www.wetcanvas.com//Community/...entry_id=40124



hlee

This is more in the sumi-e tradition using black ink and hand written text.
Did you use the traditional ink stone?
I will admit I am not that familiar with the names of brushes, etc. I need to learn that.

I very much like this.. your strokes are confident and have good movement.
I agree it's a bit crowded...White space is as important than that occupied by paint. I would like to see you write your haiku in the samr direction as the painting....

Thanks for sharing..

[weckster]

Regarding this entry --> http://www.wetcanvas.com//Community/...entry_id=40131



You are a bit harsh on yourself Deb!!! I think this is quite beautiful. I particularly like the (untraditional) blue with the daffodil....there must be a lot of them out in your part of the world. I seem to remember masses of daffs in Christchurch in the spring....reminds me of them.

[hlee]

Thanks AJR and Godzoned.

AJR -- I'm a complete newcomer, so take any lessons with a big pinch of salt. The mistakes I made - or at least the ones I know of - are subjective. Loosely, the term subjective here is like stepping back and following every line/wash again, and feeling their weight within the composition, within the scene. Example, in the poinsetta, the outline of the petals were two dark and thick, giving it a boldness (while others could argue a lyrical quality) that would be far from a petal's softness and delicacy. Come to think of it, it's not even a poinsetta, LOL.


Thanks, Jerry, I have much to learn from you indeed.

(Haiga 1) You're very right about the wash. Doing the wash first would've made life easier - just watercolour common sense - except silly me didn't anticipate it until after the red blobs for leaves. I was hoping to convey water through a few brushstrokes for waves, but then saw that would've cluttered up the space even more, so washed over it instead.

As for the scanning... my scanner usually outputs a brighter image than the original, so it was just a matter of adjusting the contrast level (specifically the midtones to make the image overall darker) in the scanning program. Of course, you could do that just as easily in PS.

(Haiga 2) lol I wish... just watercolours. I'm not familiar with brushes either, but have found a squirrel mop to be surprisingly good with broad lines (as you can load it up nicely with your wash), a small rigger brush to serve well for handwriting/thin lines until I can get some half-decent sumi-e brushes. Agreed -- surrounding space is essential to giving the right impact. Shouldn't have been so greedy with the tree branches.

Interesting point regarding the haiku. As you probably know already, poetry in Japanese or Chinese traditionally went vertically and read downwards and across from right to left. With English and alphabets, that's not so easy to do, hence written sideways in the two practice pieces. I suppose writing horizontally would make for easier reading, but somehow also appears to take up more space. Just a personal preference thing, I guess... unless there's a rule dictating otherwise?


By the way, more links, the first seems to be an extensive tutorial, and the second another artist's gallery, hope they may come in handy:


http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Gallery/9679/lesson1.html

http://www.perspektiv.net/sumi-e/e_sumie.htm

[hlee]

Bold blue strokes there -- the third stroke to the right in particular smooth with lots of pigment. A jolly good idea having the lines of haiku curve gently with stem and leaves. A little tight, but then one can only fit so much into such a small thing as a bookmark. Keep experimenting!

[hlee]

Much improved here -- even though "improved" sounds a little pretentious, as though there's a standard to compare with. Digression aside, the brushstrokes flow smoother, and taper nicely to sweeping points too. Interesting counterpoise to the leaf. On one hand its face seems to "look" towards the right, but the stem is like a continuation of an 'S' curve (from the stroke that defines the left edge of the leaf) and hence like the supporting body.

Good job!

[Godzoned]

Originally Posted by hlee

Much improved here -- even though "improved" sounds a little pretentious, as though there's a standard to compare with. Digression aside, the brushstrokes flow smoother, and taper nicely to sweeping points too. Interesting counterpoise to the leaf. On one hand its face seems to "look" towards the right, but the stem is like a continuation of an 'S' curve (from the stroke that defines the left edge of the leaf) and hence like the supporting body.

Good job!

Thank you

[jerrydreesen]

Regarding this entry --> http://www.wetcanvas.com//Community/...entry_id=40131



Godzone

Well, we do tend to be our own harshest critics...

Actually, I like this...neat idea, the book mark. I've done that myself.

I think your brushsrokes are well placed and I really like the text mimicking the leaves... A very good start, IMO...go get it back

Jerry

[jerrydreesen]

Regarding this entry --> http://www.wetcanvas.com//Community/...entry_id=40136



Debbie

This, IMO, is the essence of the Chinese Brush techique. Simple but confident brush strokes with adequate white space. Quite nice.
I like also the color blending...

Jerry