Moleskine Rabbit

Once again, no time to grind ink sticks to a rich black and make the seven shades of gray.  Patiently grinding sumi-é ink is one of the most meditative and helpful practices I've found to center oneself for artwork.  But I have to live with my Western schedule, which sometimes means exchanging Eastern ink sticks and brushes for pencils and brush markers.   

I should have been more attentive to the limitations of the priniting in my Western dictionary.  The second character of the calligraphy was printed with an ink flaw which colosed it at the top, and I copied that mistake on to this page.  My daughter corrected me, but saw the dictionary mistake only after I had already copied  it onto my drawing.

I have a reason for making these sketches, beyond the calming joy and satisfaction the process brings.  They are seeds of a larger project which I will tell you about when the time is ripe.

If you are interested in sumi-é, I suggest you begin with looking at lots and lots of artwork until you begin to notice the subtleties that make each painting completely different.  

This isn't something to undertake if you plan to treat it casually.   It is most advantageous to have a sensei, or master teacher, if you are lucky enough to find one.  

If you plan to study from a book, the best book I know of for a comprehensive study is The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting.  

Also very good, Wang Jia Nan and Cai Xiaoli's book Oriental Painting Course: A Practical Guide to Painting Skills and Techniques of China and the Far East is one that I have read and refer to quite often.  

It is futile to study the technique without also practicing the way, as this type of art eminates from and communicates an unbroken inner energy, or "chi".  Without "chi", or with broken "chi", there is no life to the drawing, no matter how skillfully rendered.  

I recommeded a film to watch, and I posted the trailer to it in yesterday's blog post, HERE.   It's a documentary of a Japanese-American master painter, and one of the most uplifting movies I've ever seen.

Comments

[Monica Smith]

we download the movie on Netflix and found the story very interesting. Also loved his painting and Oh the cats.
Thanks for the referral.