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Lotus and Kingfishers in Chinese Brush Painting Technique
Sumi-e paintings of lotus leaves are often executed in strong black ink, but there is a delicious floaty quality to Chinese brush paintings using a combination of indigo blue and yellow, and just a tip of black ink for emphasis. In this case, I used Yasutomo Chinese Watercolors in tubes. The colors are very vibrant, even after they dry, and because they are Chinese watercolors, they will not run on the paper when re-wetted. The paper is thin, raw "xuan" or rice paper. The red chop or seal on the left is called a "mood seal" and reads "the brush dances and the ink sings". The two chops below my Chinese signature on the right are "Wei Jen", my Chinese art name, and an oval cartouche with my Western initials.
Composition Tip: Notice the strong triangles formed between the leaves, the birds and the flower. The triangle is a classical element in Asian compositions. It emphasizes the perspective in a painting and gives a sense of three dimensions.
Triangular Composition
You can learn how to paint lotus and kingfishers in my book "Mindful Artist: Sumi-e Painting" published by Quarto and available worldwide in bookstores and on the internet. See step by step illustrations and useful tips in this popular book. You can also find more lotus compositions in my painting galleries and in my blog posts. Good luck and happy painting!
3 Comments
Lush, yet simple composition. Love it !
Your tip on the Composition helps me to boil down why this simple composition is so appealing.It is, indeed, the triangles that rule! Especially interesting to me that all three of them meet in one place, at the lotus flower, and thereby create a perspective in my viewpoint. Thank you for detailing this.
I thought you would particularly enjoy the triangles, given your engineering background! After a while, it becomes second nature to "know" where to put the elements, just you as probably find in your area of expertise.