Finally got a chance to finish this one :)

This is a landscape painting I’m working on in the Chinese brush painting class I’m taking. Thankfully, I remembered I wanted to take some photos of the proccess, so here they are :)

This is where I left off last week. The pine needles are all split brush and the rock on the left is dry brush.

Color wash (still wet)

Color wash (dry)

Color wash on mountain (still wet)

Color wash on mountain (dry)

Here’s a thought: don’t clean up your hobby –or whatever it is you’d like to get done but keep putting off.

Why is it that so many people come home from work and waste away watching tv? I have this theroey that it’s because tv is so easy. There’s no obsticals to overcome, no work to do –it’s already hooked up! If you had to hook up your tv every time you wanted to use it, and then disconnect it and put it away when you were done watching it, no one would bother! :) it wouldn’t be relaxing, it would be work.

So why do we even consider “putting things away”? (especially our favorite things) The act of setting up and putting away can turn something you want to do into something that’s too much trouble to do. (seriously, would you watch tv if you had to set it up and dismantle it when you were done?).

I realized that, after a long day at work, I often just take the path of least resistence, which is tv. This also means a week will go by and I’ll ask myself, “why haven’t I done any of the stuff I wanted to do ( like sketch or paint )?”

All of this clicked in my head for me after I tried out a suggestion from some one in my painting class. “the trick is, you’ve got to set everthing up and then leave it out. Don’t clean anything up and you’ll alway be able to paint on a moments notice.”

And It worked! I’d find myself wandering past my ready-to-go painting desk and spotting something I wanted to try out. I’d make a few brush strokes while standing and find myself sitting down. Then, next I realized, it’s two hours later. Much of the time I’d normally find myself in front of the tv, I now found myself painting. :)

It worked so well that I went out and bought a bigger desk. :)

I signed up for more Chinese brush painting classes! And boy am I out of practice. :) –I was spacing on how to mix my grays :)

I think I’ll be looking back through this blog at all my notes from last time:
http://www.dannyburbol.com/category/art/chinesebrush/

But here’s some plum blossoms any way :)

Enjoy,
~Danny

After working in grays and black for so long, color feels like a breath of fresh air.

After much searching on amazon, I found the set we use in class:

Our instructor showed us the powered color that her master used to use. They are brilliant, vivid colors. Half are from rocks that have been grounded into dust and half are organic –but almost all of them are poisonous. Which makes sense, all the brightest colors in nature usually warn predators of poison.

Because half the colors are minerals and half are organic, if you see ancient paintings, half the colors will still be bright and vivid (the minerals) and half the colors will be fading away (the organic colors).

Another interesting not about these powdered colors is that since they are nothing but dust, they need to be mixed with a type of glue to get them to hold together and actually be usable to paint.

(more…)

I finally got all the stuff needed to paint at home (even if a lot of it is whatever I had on hand), so I thought I’d give you a quick look at what’s involved.

note: I crowded everything in so I could fit it all in the pictures, but you probably want to spread out a little and leave some blank space around your paper so you’re not knocking your brush into other things while you’re trying to paint.

also note: I’m left handed, so odds are, your setup will have all the brushes and ink on the other side of the paper.

Here’s a little more detail:

• Bamboo Brush Wrap:happened to be there so I labeled it… really, it’s just taking up table space.
• Roll of Paper: always good. Note, to get off some nice sections to paint on, fold the paper, make a crease, then run a wet brush down the fold, and then rip it. Try to keep the wet area as skinny as possible (she how jagged my paper is on the right side? I used too much water.)
• Clean Water: try to keep one of your rinse containers clean. This is the water I was using to tear the paper. I’m using a pasta jar.
• Dirty Water: as in, rinse water. I’m using a coffee can, but I’m not sure if it will rust or not, so I’ll probably switch to another jar.
• Light & Dark Gray: I’m using single serving yogurt containers.
• Ink: it’s empty in the picture, but that’s where it would be.
• Brush Rest: there are fancy brush rests, but I’m just using the lid to the coffee can. Basically, the tips are wet and it’s nice to keep them off the table a little.
• Shape Tip: I just wanted to point out that there is a spot on the lid where I’ve been shaping the tip when it’s loaded with ink. You could also use another container or something, but basically, you want an alternative to the dabbing cloth. The cloth will suck ink out of the brush and make it dry as you’re shaping the tip, the plastic lid won’t.
• Dab Cloth: I found a fat stack of washcloths on sale for $2, so I grabbed them.
• Weights: these serve two purposes: keep the rolled up paper flat and keep the paper still so it doesn’t move while you’re in the middle of making a stroke. I grabbed whatever was at arm’s length, which happened to be tea candles and some heavier tea candle holders (in class we literally just use some flat rocks.)
• Felt: the table is covered with some felt cloth. It’s cheap (paid $1 or $2 a yard) and works well.
• Drying: just a reminder, things need somewhere to dry. I let them dry there on the felt for a while before stacking them up or whatever.
• Not Pictured:
  • an eye dropper: if you want to put any ink back in the bottle and your containers aren’t as easy to deal with as my yogurt containers.
  • a masterpiece: look at that terrible bamboo! yuck! :) Yours will be better.

Edit History:

• (02/01/2008): Fixed bird’s belly and added photos of split brush

Split Brush
I said be gentle on your brush when dabbing, and this is no exception. After you rinse the brush, hold it vertically with the tip facing down and touch it to your dabbing cloth. Put a little bit of pressure on the brush so the bristles bend a little, then twist the brush in between your fingers.

The tip will split into many smaller tips.

Touch the brush to the dabbing cloth horizontally to narrow the tip. You should end up with a cylindrical shape that’s spiky on the tip.

Load the brush with ink like normal and go for it.

Make A Bird
Step 1: use a detail brush to make the beak and the eye.
Step 2: use a hard bristle brush, using split brush technique, to make those nice scratchy strokes for the top of the bird’s head and then the top of the body. Notice how we make another stroke in the middle of the body for a little definition in the wing.
Step 3: use a hard bristle brush, NO LONGER with the split brush tip, to add in a line for each wing-tip and then a couple lines for the tail.
Step 4: make a light gray stroke under the head and another under the body. Let them be a little wet, so it’s fuzzy looking on the bird’s underside.
Step 5: use a detail brush to make the legs and talons.
Step 6: make it up! These are the techniques I used for that specific bird in that specific pose, but now that you know the techniques, just go get some reference of some birds and have fun! Just remember, we made the beak and eye first so we could control where we ended up using or not using our wet on wet techniques.

Dirty Water
Take a really good look at the belly of my bird.

The original bird was a lot fatter and cuter. I thought I was being sly by using a brush directly from the dirty rinsing water because I wanted a very light gray belly. Well, when it dried, my strokes completely disappeared (because it was just water!)

Let me tell you, that fat little bird was sooo cute… until I got home. After the ink dried, the fat belly disappeared! And now my bird just has a big head! :)

Lesson: Dirty water is still water! It’s NOT a substitute for your light gray pallet.

Edit: I fixed the bird last time I had the inks out:

Edit History:

• (2/1/2008): be sure to checkout i-paint’s comment about new brush caps.

We have our own brushes now and it leads to questions about how to care for a brush.

The Glue
First of all, new brushes have glue in the tip to make them look all perfectly straight and beautiful when you buy them. This can also be used to conceal the quality of the brush since it looks great in the store and my act different when you start using it and the glue comes out. So just be cautious about that. Expect glue, but try not to get ripped off.

Soak your new brushes in water for about 10 or 15 minutes to get the glue out or they may act a little strange when you use them. For Example, my hard bristle brush was acting like a soft bristle brush (it didn’t have any spring to it, it would bend and stay bent after each stroke).

Use Gently
I found that I was much to rough when rinsing and dabbing my brushes. You don’t really think about these things when you’re using the community materials in an art class or something, but you start to question more once you spend $20 or more on a brush.

When you rinse your brush in between strokes, DON’T push the brush all the way to the bottom of the container and bend or pound the tip. There’s no reason for it. It’s not getting the brush any cleaner and it’s bending the bristles. I found that pounding the brush also made it difficult to get a perfectly thin straight tip.

Instead, dip the brush in the water, don’t touch the bottom at all, and just swirl it around in a circle. Then, *touch* it to the side of the container a few times –don’t *press* it to the side of the contain. After that go directly to your dabbing cloth. Again, don’t press, bend, or pound the tip into the cloth. Instead hold the brush horizontally and touch the whole side of the tip to the cloth. You can also drag it a little and help all the bristles point in the correct direction. Rotate the brush between your fingers and do it again.

When you’re done, you’ll notice that the brush tip is pretty dry, as well as nice and narrow with a pretty nice, if not perfect, tip.

The same goes with your pallet, no need to be rough or over flex the brush.

Make it a habit, be gentle on the brush. I’m a big dumb guy, so I find myself pounding the brush into the rinse water like an ape with a stick. I have to really make a conscious effort to be gentle, but BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I find that when I’m rough on the brush I can’t paint because I’m messing up the bristles and I’m unconsciously tensing up. As soon as I make a conscious effort to be gentle on the brush, the brush works better and I can’t help but relax more, and suddenly I’m painting better. That’s my favorite part so far. When you’re doing it right, Chinese Brush Painting is calming and relaxing.

Putting them away
Rinse the brushes gently under some water, then PAT them dry WITH a towel (don’t DAB them dry ON a towel).

You can leave them on a brush rest to air dry, but ultimately you want to either store them in a roll-up or hang them with the tips pointing down. In both cases, the idea is to get the tip to stay nice and straight.

I did a search on amazon, and here are a couple roll-ups like the one I have:

Note, I can’t vouch for those specific brushes because I’ve never used them :)
Also Note: those links go to “Sumi” Brushes. Sumi (or Sumi-e) is a Japanese style of brush painting. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumi-e

Here’s what the stands look like (sorry, couldn’t find any good amazon links)

If you store all your brushes by jamming them into a can or jar, odds are you’re not doing the brushes much good. If the tip is aiming upward, then gravity will effect the bristles and bend them over time. If the tip is at the bottom, then it’s probably bending under the weight of the brush.

So, if you love your brushes, DON’T use anything that looks like this:

Bamboo is a very common warm-up. My instructor says, if you’re calm and relaxed, paint flowers; if you’re stressed out, paint bamboo. And like everything, you could spend a lifetime perfecting it.

That’s my best so far. It’s not terrible, but it’s not beautiful either. My instructor paints like poetry in motion. Every leaf is breath-taking. I’ll ask if I can post the example she made in class.

Until then, here’s a link to her gallery (no bamboo I’m afraid):
http://www.brushpaintingcircle.com/art/artworkone.html

Okay, moving on: I’m sharing what little I’ve been able to grasp, but DON’T copy me. You’d be dooming yourself to mediocrity. Instead, go find some photo reference and try to paint what you see and throw in these techniques to help get the ball rolling.

Step 1: The Trunk
–load a hard bristle brush with the three tones of gray to make a gradient.
–hold the brush at a 15 degree angle and make a stroke upward. Remember to have a start and end point so you get a bone shape.
–there is a small space between sections.
–as you make the sections of the trunk, lessen the tilt on the brush so the trunk sections get thinner.
–remember the trunk sections are straight, so if the stalk of bamboo curves at all, it’s usually at the joints and it’s usually very subtle.
–after making the sections of the trunk, come back with black and make a connecting line through the joints. Again it’s bone shaped and the points on either end tend to flick upward.

Step 2: Branches
–branches are just like the trunk technique.
–keep in mind, branches only shoot out from the main trunk at knots between sections.
–keep in mind branches have the same basic direction as the trunk (upward). So don’t make them shoot out at a 90 degree angle, make them 45 or 30 degrees upward.
–don’t forget to add a line thought the knots of the branch sections (or two dabs when the branch gets thinner.
–as the branches get to be extremely thin, the last section can be a pointing stroke.

Here’s some branch practice I did. Note: the pointing technique should only be used for the LAST section of a thin branch. Mine are WRONG (red arrows). See how I used pointing stroke after pointing stroke and they don’t seem to hold together as one branch, verses the thicker branch (blue arrow) which have a thicker start and end point between the sections… those endpoints and the bone shape are key.

Also note, these branches don’t have the line and dabs at the joints, so don’t forget about those.

Step 3: Leaves
–The technique is simple, but takes much practice to master.
–we’re going to be varying pressure, so you should use a *hard bristle brush* (you will find it pretty hard to do with a soft bristle brush)
–use black ink or a little dark gray + black ink.
–hold the brush at LESS THAN 90 degree angle in relation to the page. (it’s tempting to do center brush, but you get better results if you tilt a little in the direction you plan on travel with your motion)
–it will be one stroke that has a nice almond shape.
–when we make the stroke, the motion is in a straight line, starting with the base and ending with the tip of the leaf.
–the pressure gives us a thicker base and then we fade away to the tip.
–remember to re-shape your brush tip before each stroke

Here is just a little of the many, many leaves I did. I’ve made blue arrows to the only two that are even close to correct. However, as always, let’s identify the mistakes.

Near the bottom middle, we see a lot of fuzzy fat leaves, my brush was too wet.

Near the bottom right, we see leaves that have mult-pronged tips. At first this might look like my brush was dry, but it turned out, I forgot to reshape the tip of my brush (so the tip was not perfect before I started, and only got worse with each leaf).

Characteristics of a Bamboo Leaf
–long and smooth. My biggest problem was that I kept making leaves that were too short, and as soon as they are too short, they also tend to look too fat.
–the leaves are usually found in bunches of three, but don’t make them look like chicken feet. Vary their size, direction, length, and starting points.
–There are two types of bamboo leaves, young and old.
—-Younger leaves are thinner and tend to point up (or in the direction of the branch they came from). They also appear near the end of the branch (last/thinnest sections)
—-Older leaves are bigger and wider and tend to hang down. The appear close to where the branch breaks away from the trunk.

in this example, everything is just too wet. Everything blurred all over the place. On top of that, my leaves are so perfectly symmetric along the branch that they just look fake. And in some places the leaves actually shoot out at 90 degree angles, which looks even less natural.

Also, because my leaves are mostly not long enough, they appear fat and stubby.

in this example, all my leaves point up (no 90 degree angles). I varied their size some, but not their direction, so they all look like young leaves, which looks out of place and wrong.

Also note: on the bottom left, again I forgot to reshape my brush tip, and my leaf tips are not a single point as a result. However, in that same spot, we can see how varying the starting point can look more interesting and less like a 3 toed chicken foot.

This one remind me of a fern instead of bamboo. There are just so many leaves of such a uniform size on each branch that it looks like a different type of plant.

However, there are a few older looking leaves on the bottom left branch that are not a bad variation (if only I had used them more).

Step 4: Stem Detail
–if you varied the placement of your leaves well, they should appear to be growing out of thin air in places. Use a detail brush to draw very thin lines from a knot on the branch to the base of the floating leaves to get them connected correctly. This detail add so much.

Step Zero: Composition
Composition is a whole subject unto itself, so let’s not get too deep into that. Basically, we’re just looking for a nice balanced final painting. And the only way to do that is to plan ahead (which is why I called it “step zero.”)

Scroll up a little and look at the previous example (with the 6 in the bottom corner of the paper.) Doesn’t it look out of place? It’s just a bamboo trunk shooting straight up out of nowhere. Then there are lots of branches and leaves on the left side, and not so much on the right side. It feels unnatural and out of place.

A common layout is to have a bigger bamboo trunk a little off center, then a smaller one off to the side and a very small one on the other side.

I’ll leave you with this last example. Again, it’s not the best, but it shows progress and I’m sure you can appreciate what went into it much more now here at the end, compared to when you first saw it at the beginning of this post.

In the previous post, I had a picture of two shrimp which I used as an example for various types of brush stokes. I realized it had some misleading text jotted down at the top, so I’ll just explain how to make the shrimp so no one gets frustrated by trying to follow that silly text.

Here’s the shrimp again:

Step 1: the body
Use a soft bristle brush. Load it up for a gradient, but make it mostly lighter gray (that bottom, bbq’ed, shrimp was a mistake :) Make a dab for the first bigger section of the body while holding the brush at 15 degrees or so.

Note that the soft bristle brush will stay bent after the stroke. Keep it bend and make the rest of the body sections using the curve of the brush to cup the curve of the last dab on the paper.

Hold the brush with less and less of an angle as you go so the body sections get smaller.

Step 2: soft brush extras.
–Add a few tail dabs at the end for a tail
–make lots of little feet (I forgot to do this on the top shrimp)
–with black ink, make some wet on wet dabs down the back of the shrimp.

Step 3: hard bristle brush extras
–use pulling strokes to make the area in front of the mouth and the arms. (remember bone shaped strokes)
–use a detail brush and pointing strokes to make the whiskers
–don’t forget dabs for the eyes (I forgot this for the top shrimp as well)