Asian Ink Painting-Other Techniques to Try

As with all mediums there are wonderfully kinky techniques which can be used to create different affects.So it is with Asian Ink painting. Here are ones I have learned and discovered:
1. If using suen paper, both sides become the canvas. Paint the picture first then when the ink is dry, flip the paper over on the felt and play with painting on the back. Washes can be done this way as well as depicting specific objects. Washes can include diluted ink, vegetable color, tea, coffee, coffee and cream, wine ( I like a Merlot myself.) These washes will make the painting on the front of the paper pop.

2. Take a small piece of screen and load it with paint. Flick it with your finger. This is a lovely way to create random leaves. It takes some practice managing pigment/water ration, density of pigment on screen so it does not goober and color placement so that mud is not created!

3. Paint a wash on the back of the paper, then as it is drying flip paper over and apply ink or perm. white
( No bleed) or if you have access to it gofun- ground sea shells mixed with nikawa. This is how the scales of fish, the luminescent white of lotus and peonies is created.


4. Charging the brush with a variation. Charging the brush means to put different moisture and pigment contents into the brush in order to have hard and soft edges and differenng values in one brush stroke. This is done by dipping the brush in water, then 3/4 into a different value, 1/2 of the tip in another and the tip in dark drier ink. Take out extra moisture from the BASE not the tip ( because the base is the well) What also can be done is putting pigment on only one side of the bristles then as the brush is manipulated across the paper that color will come up intermittently.

5. Cream as well as alum make  good resists each of course creating distinct effects.