Asian Ink Painting-Books and Ideas

There are several excellent books worth owning if one is interested in Asian Art. These are books I have visited and revisited over the years. They are beautiful and  informative and worthy of deep perusing especially if one is working in this medium
Books which help with actual technique include:
The Way of the Brush by Van Briessen. This book both explores the different uses of the brush and styles which have developed over the centuries as well as the spiritual principles which shaped ink painting.

The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting- The wealth of information in this 'how to' manual is incredible!  Written in the 1700's it is a culmination of samples of all the different styles of how to paint and depict nature's objects. It is very clinical so the painter must be ware of not copying directly in order to make a painting. Copying to learn the marks of course is very efficacious.

3000 Years of Chinese Painting and Between Two Cultures published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art contain many reproductions of paintings. By looking through these two books one can see the evolution of painting, the different schools' methodology and spirit and beliefs which engendered this art.

 

I have found absolutely critical to pursuing this medium is practicing all the different ways of depicting objects. Because the style of learning is so prescribed, copying the teacher's work, students tend to emulate that style.While this is not in and of itself bad, if the student does not experiment by applying the specific skills in new ways, work will have the cast of the teacher. 

This is definitely the conundrum of the Asian style of learning. I deeply respect the fact that Asian education perfects the skills of the medium being learned. But the method to achieve this can limit the learner's expression while in this country we tend to 'be creative' before we learn the skills. My goal therefore, has been when teaching is to develop a two fold program teaching the skills while fostering the vision. I have had students of Asian Ink Painting come through the gallery who had never learned the why  or analyzed what  caused what affect. Consequently, they could only repeat the specifics they were taught. I encourage all of you who are learning this medium to  practice the strokes over and over again until they are second nature then dream about how they can be applied to depict the scene which stirs your heart. Play and when you find an aesthetic mark think about how it can be used to depict that scene.

Understanding the Painting.

When looking at an Asian piece analyze how brush strokes depict planes of objects.

Try to determine what was painted first. It will be the object which always comes forward.

Look for the 3 parts of the picture plane, bottom is closest object, middle than top tends to be most distant. Check relative size.

How many values are in the paintings. 5 tends to be the minimum.

What are the negative shapes- the unpainted on areas. Most likely they will not fit into a geometric shape but be interlocking.

How was the brush moved across the paper.Pauses result in softer edges, flying whites are created by a faster moving brush.

Where is the compositional tension?  Many paintings for example, will have elements pulled as far apart as possible yet keep the tension so it does not become two pictures.

How is movement captured.