I had forgotten about these drawings I did many years ago. I took two sessions of Sumi-e, the Japanese brush art. It was mainly copying from the masters and I know that by the standard of this art, these are not so good, as my Japanese teacher would tell me. But I learned a lot about the brushworks, the contrast so different from the western paintings, the composition so graphic.
J’avais oublié ces dessins fait il y a pas mal d’années. J’ai suivi deux sessions de Sumi-e, l’art du pinceau japonais. C’était surtout de la copie de grands maitres et je sais que d’après les standards de cet art, ces dessins ne sont pas trés bon, comme le disait mon professeur japonais. Mais j’y ai appris beaucoup sur le maniement du pinceau, le contraste si différent de la peinture occidentale, la composition si graphique.
14 responses so far ↓
LEONA // July 8, 2009 at 6:13 pm
Good thing you found them, they are beautiful!
CaptElaine // July 8, 2009 at 9:31 pm
Oh I think they are fabulous… I especially like your crane…. very nicely done.
Phyllis // July 9, 2009 at 2:49 am
To me these are lovely, so in spite of what flaws you see, I’m very happy you discovered them and chose to share.
Louis Dargin // July 9, 2009 at 6:36 am
Those paintings are quite good, especially for having taken only two lessons. I believe you should pursue Sumi-e and Chinese Brush painting more. Perhaps you should try the bamboo.
benedictedelachanal // July 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Thank you all very much for your nice comments and encouragements.
These drawings are exercises to me, because I was copying from books and trying to reproduce the same effect. It was very interesting to learn more about the technique.
I did try bamboo too, but when the teacher told me that normally you do two years of trunk before trying the leaves, I got discouraged!
Kay // July 9, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Lovely brush work…glad you found them.
alethakuschan // July 9, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Le prof japonais etait un peu sévère — un peu comme ça:
alethakuschan // July 9, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Alors, l’etudiant est plus fort ici quand il joue le role du critique.
alethakuschan // July 9, 2009 at 5:57 pm
PS
Two years of trunk before trying the leaves? (Does that rule apply for the tree, too?)
Louis Dargin // July 9, 2009 at 8:02 pm
I paint the bamboo, and learned to with sweat as I had no natural artistic skills, but you definitely appear to be a natural at Sumi-e. I do not understand why you should paint the trunk for two years before trying the leaves. The trunk is actually rather easy to paint or write.
benedictedelachanal // July 10, 2009 at 8:17 am
Aletha, j’ai beaucoup rigolé! Mon prof japonais n’était pas aussi démonstratif mais il y avait un peu de ça!
I see that the 2 years delay brings questions. The teacher told us that in Japan there were classes only on bamboo and first doing trunks, and then when mastered ,graduating to leaves. It looks very simple but in simplicity it is very hard to obtain nuances.
Louis, where can I see your bamboo?
I have also to say that I took 2 sessions of 8 courses, not 2 lessons, it was not clear in the text.
Louis Dargin // July 11, 2009 at 12:46 am
I have not painted any since the last three years or so. I have done quite a bit of practicing, and have probably gotten a lot better. I do not have a web site, but if you were to give me an e-mail address, I could send images of three of them. I will also send one of a peony that I painted and really like.
smartpeopleiknow // July 18, 2009 at 10:55 am
Good/not good is a binary thing. FWIW, I prefer to think of most things people do as being on a spectrum of goodness. Compared to Shakespeare, with Shakespeare being “good”, most (all?) playwrights would be “not good”. But of course we would miss out on alot of wonderful plays if playwriters thought that way.
I think your work is really good, and like all artistic work, will only get better! So keep up the good — no, great! — work.
benedictedelachanal // July 20, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Thanks Bernie, I like your tech vocabulary, binary thing. Spectrum of goodness is interesting too, but I think that art brings a first emotion in the binary thing, it is a yes or a no and then the reasoning comes and apply the spectrum of goodness.
Thank you for looking and commenting and ranking me not too low on that spectrum.