tea dragons

[helenic]

Stef came round on Wednesday to stay up all night making a big painty mess, which is something I haven't done in far too long. I finally got the chance to play with the beautiful set of Chinese watercolour brushes which oxfordgirl and mejoff gave me the winter solstice before last, and which I've carefully carried with me ever since, but been too scared to start using them without feeling like I knew what I was doing. Stef randomly gave me two similar brushes (although without the cunning changeable tips), a roll of linen-soft watercolour paper and a block of ink, which were the missing ingredients I'd been waiting for. She also gave me the confidence to just start messing around with it all, reassuring me that it wasn't sacrilegious to use them without knowing the proper brush forms.



Working with beautiful tools has a pleasure all its own. The ink block is embossed with gold and resisted all our attempts to grind it. We tried knives, a pestle and mortar, even smashing it with a hammer, but it appeared to be made of iron or something. We eventually resorted to tipping a bit of water into a saucer and scrubbing the end of the ink block into the water until we got the dilution we wanted, and then basically using it as a watercolour block. The ink has a dry, musty smell reminiscent of mouldy bread.

I made a pot of fruit tea to drink while we were painting, which had a beautiful dusky dark pink colour in the cup. "I want to paint with it," I said in confusion, "but I also want to drink it!" Eventually I realised I could get another saucer and tip some tea into it. The pink colour it left on the paper was lovely and subtle and changed as it dried, fading from a warm crimson pink to a pale rose.

Tea Dragons
Ink and tea on watercolour paper, 28" x 18"
(with Stefania Bounajuti)

They aren't sure which way up they prefer to be, so I've given each of them the limelight in turn.

Comments

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Oh! Oh! Those are so beautiful!

I think I prefer them the second way up, but it works either way. I think my preference is because of the tree-like qualities of the dragons.

You're probably going to want more money for that painting than I can afford. Darn. But I hope you sell it to someone lovely. :-)

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I agree! I think the dragon who's the right way up in the top image is better executed, so the temptation is to have him in the foreground, but somehow the composition as a whole is better balanced the other way up. It's so pleasing! I want to make more paintings like this.

We hadn't even talked about selling it, tbh, although Stef would probably be amenable. I certainly wouldn't expect to get a lot for it if we did decide to sell it. How much would you be able/willing to pay for it, if you're seriously interested? I might be more easily able to talk Stef into selling it if we already had an offer...

And yay! thankyou :)

[mr_magicfingers]

Chinese ink isn't meant to be ground up, you use it exactly as you did, but usually you have a piece of slate that is carved like a little ramp with a well at the end. You rub the ink up and down with a little water and that creates the ink. I have a beautiful ink stone I brought back from japan to learn that style of calligraphy with. Must pick it up when I next go to Kath's.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Aha, that makes much more sense :) I don't have an ink stone, but saucers seem to be serving fine in the meantime.

Don't think I'm going to actually learn the calligraphy yet ... I'm having more fun just messing around with paint :)

[beeswing.livejournal.com]

Ooh, these are beautiful. The brushes/ink really suits your style.

[aiwendel.livejournal.com]

Nice :)

I got a 'teach yourself chinese painting book (with paints) when I was younger, I remember having a black pan with a hollow in it and putting water in the hollow, so taking paint straight from the block, using it a bit like watercolours, but softening the paint a great deal with water... Having said that I remember having a stick of black that I rubbed into something too, so I might be mangling my memories...
the main thing i remember was the detail in how to use the paint brush to get different effects (fat to thin, light to dark, dark to light, colour to colour etc) with single precise strokes of a carefully loaded brush. It was very effective...

I think I like the top way up best (winged dragon in tree seems to have an up... but now I keep seeing it the other way too!