I got together with some friends and got a private watercolor lesson.  It’s pretty surprising to me because we’ve been doing chinese brush painting for so long.  Chinese brush and ink *does* have colors that are much like watercolors.  (the "ink" in brush and ink is the black and grays… not the color) 

So we found ourselves with many familiar concepts but the biggest difference is that Chinese brush and ink is done on rice paper and watercolor is done on watercolor paper.  The paper ends up having a huge impact.  Rice paper absorbs and spreads the ink and colors, but watercolor paper doesn’t (or doesn’t any where near as badly). 

With rice paper, you lay down a stroke and that’s it.  You get it right or you fall back on changing that stroke into something else.  With watercolor you can use a sponge to actually pick up the color off the page.  It’s so effective that it’s like having an eraser or an undo button.  You can also use the sponge to blend things together and smooth out hard lines.  On top of that, you can purposely come back and hit a hard line with water blend it.

For Example: at one point, my birds in the sky were nearly black.  So I used the sponge to pick up most of the color and make them look more distant.

You can also see the effects of blending verses not blending by looking at the greenery in the forground compared to that mountain in the back on the right.  The first has much more texture and abrupt color changes while the one in the back is more smooth.  I personally am used to seeing the more abrupt colors when I see people watercoloring.  I didn’t know you could purposely make such smooth transitions without being forced to fallback on a wash.

It was a fun experience.  The same, but different.  Maybe I’ll take some more classes in 2010. :)

I’ve been taking night classes at the San Francisco Art Institute. This week, some of my work will be on display in the Diego Rivera Gallery!! :)

Diego Rivera Gallery, December 14-December 18

San Francisco Art Institute
800 Chestnut Street
San Francisco, CA 94133
( map )

The work is slightly abstract, which is something I don’t normally like, but somehow I got wrapped up in it :) I’ll *try* to get pictures :)

There’s actually a lot of artists on display, so it should have something for everyone’s taste. And the campus is beautiful, so don’t hesitate to wander around the courtyard or go out to the open area that has a spectacular view of the city.

~Danny

Finally got a chance to finish this one :)