Chinese Ink Painting

So. After going to the art class to do pencil sketches for months, my teacher (陈老师) finally convinced me to pick up the calligraphy brush again and learn Chinese ink painting with him. (I was in calligraphy club for 3 years in primary school...we did mostly calligraphy though, and I've only painted bamboos before.) It felt really weird working with Chinese ink again--I almost forgot how difficult it was to control the brush and the ink at first, especially controlling the amount of water to mix the ink and paint with..my first few attempts were either too dry or too wet:(

So here are the few attempts and 'paintings' (they are more of practices than actual paintings) I've done in the class in chronological order..words are written by my teacher..my calligraphy has failed me too many times:

Bamboo
Chinese Ink Painting
2011

As you can see, I had used too much water at first, so the bamboos at the back were really smudgy. But after going back to practicing the leaves and branches for a long time, I decided to rescue this piece. It certainly look much better now, though the stems are still too thin.

Orchid 1
Chinese Ink Painting
2011

This was the result of painting before I've practiced well. The forms are awkward and there was too much water. Heck, it doesn't even look like an orchid..well, at least I've learnt not to rush the learning process of Chinese painting.

Orchid 2
Chinese Ink Painting
2011

Orchid 3
Chinese Ink Painting
2011

I personally loved this one the best...it's the evidence of my hard work:) Since I really liked painting orchids (especially the leaves), I had practiced this one really really hard. And I think it had certainly paid off! I am most proud of the flowers, since it was pretty challenging to get the colours and shapes right- it needed a certain amount of lightness. The darker leaves were added by my teacher, since it was just a practice, he was just correcting me, but I'm still quite disappointed that it's not entirely my work...No matter what, at least I've learnt something from it--contrast! 

(I've done another one after this in colour, but I've given it to my teacher, I think.)

Fishes 1 (三余)
Chinese Ink Painting
2011

This reminded me of the '留白' principle from the SoVA assignment! Anyway, I've learnt that in Chinese painting, most of the fishes should swim 'upwards', as a symbol of good fortune or luck, if my memory did not fail me.

Fishes 2
Chinese Ink Painting
2011

Again, just saying that the fish on the left was by my teacher..this really shows how much I have to improve on. I admired the way he painted with such ease, and how the fish looks so lively and like it's really swimming. Not like mine, which kind of look like fishes, but they still look too 'painted-on', and not alive.

Cherry Blossom
Chinese Ink Painting
2011

This was the last painting I've done before stopping class. 

I loved painting the flowers, but the branches was really hard to get right...but I think after so many practices..it looked ok:) Though I would still want to practice more in the future to get a more bark-like texture, which might be able to achieve with a drier brush.

As for this, I learnt about the composition for these type of subject matters. Since as for the previous few, I had been pretty much following my teacher's examples, he would usually show me how each of the parts are done and how I should compose my painting. But as for this one, his composition..was too complicated, and also due to time constraint that day, I came up with my own! And I think that it had turned out quite alright:)

Of course, these are definitely not good enough, since I was still having some trouble controlling the ink and the brush, but I think that I did improve a lot since the first day I started Chinese painting in that class, in both the ways I handled this medium, and the confidence I gained holding a brush after so many practices. And since I am on the topic of practice, one thing I've learnt was definitely the importance of practicing. Because each time I make a mistake in painting something, I would learn something new, be it the composition, the colour or the way I applied the paint:). Also, I think that the sense of accomplishment I felt after finally painting something that looked fine was really worth the effort put in during the practices. 

So, if I have the chance, I will practice more in the future, and continue to improve!:D Oh and practice calligraphy too!--I want to be able to at least write my name myself without destroying the whole painting..