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Watercolours Difficult? - Pah, see here . . . (1 Viewer)

I take it all back. I now see that watercolor is 'easy as pie,' to quote an American idiom I never quite understood.

But he really is a virtuoso with a brush. Not a moment of uncertainty as he goes about his business. I sometimes wonder if it's not best to set very strict limits on the time devoted to a watercolor, say 15 minutes or so. Who knows what the results might be?! Perhaps I'll test that out this week, though not necessarily show the results......
 
note to self.....must throw the acrylics away now.....

superb stuff, totally inspiring, yet also a little discomforting to see how easy it looks! Must get the old aquarelles out again!
 
I'd love to see a video of John Singer Sargent at work on one of his outdoor paintings. I'd be surprised if he didn't work at a similar speed and with really rich results!
 
Thanks Tim. Not quite as good as seeing a video of JSS at work but I knew that wasn't going to be making an appearance. Some beauties in there!
 
I love when he says..."now here...you don't need painting techninique, just faith...!"

I'm off to church to find some, it's been a while....
 
solitaryVSong said:
But he really is a virtuoso with a brush. Not a moment of uncertainty as he goes about his business. I sometimes wonder if it's not best to set very strict limits on the time devoted to a watercolor, say 15 minutes or so.
Click to expand...

I guess others will know better, but I think that is how Chinese watercolor painters do it. "... go straight for it. don't hesitate" seems to be the way I've seen artists here do it - very bold approach.
 
It is beautifully fluid but such work must take a lot of thought before hand methinks. I mean there is no room in there for sudden blotches is there?
Fantastic to see though, thanks for the link............:t:
 
Gretchen said:
I guess others will know better, but I think that is how Chinese watercolor painters do it. "... go straight for it. don't hesitate" seems to be the way I've seen artists here do it - very bold approach.
Click to expand...

Many, many, many, many years ago I took a course in Chinese brush painting at City College of San Francisco. I'm not sure how much that relates to contemporary Chinese watercolor painting. But back then you would practice and practice over and over how to make a mark that would look like bamboo or a bamboo leaf. It was an odd combination of spontaneity and extreme control. One reason I say extreme control is that the paper you used was so absorbent that it seemed to leap up 1/16 of an inch and grab the ink right off the brush before you put it down! But it also meant that all but the surest stroke resulted in one big blob. So if you weren't bold you were in big trouble.

The other part of this tradition I believe is that you, at least when I studied it, were supposed to study certain classic books on it as well as nature directly. Somehow or other over time this all resulted in an extremely quick but sure painting that captured the essence of nature. I still have my textbook on it but haven't looked at it in many years.

It is the oddest combination of boldness, spontaneity and discipline, much like this painter I think!
 
solitaryVSong said:
Many, many, many, many years ago I took a course in Chinese brush painting at City College of San Francisco. I'm not sure how much that relates to contemporary Chinese watercolor painting. But back then you would practice and practice over and over how to make a mark that would look like bamboo or a bamboo leaf. It was an odd combination of spontaneity and extreme control. One reason I say extreme control is that the paper you used was so absorbent that it seemed to leap up 1/16 of an inch and grab the ink right off the brush before you put it down! But it also meant that all but the surest stroke resulted in one big blob. So if you weren't bold you were in big trouble.

The other part of this tradition I believe is that you, at least when I studied it, were supposed to study certain classic books on it as well as nature directly. Somehow or other over time this all resulted in an extremely quick but sure painting that captured the essence of nature. I still have my textbook on it but haven't looked at it in many years.

It is the oddest combination of boldness, spontaneity and discipline, much like this painter I think!
Click to expand...

Well curiosity got the better of me and I had to go find my old Chinese brush painting textbook: The Way of Chinese Painting based on the 17th century manual, The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting. My book is a tiny little paperback and the illustrations aren't much to speak of. Still the bird paintings are really impressive!! So one more book worth looking at: The Mustard Seed Manual of Painting.
 
solitaryVSong said:
Well curiosity got the better of me and I had to go find my old Chinese brush painting textbook: The Way of Chinese Painting based on the 17th century manual, The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting. My book is a tiny little paperback and the illustrations aren't much to speak of. Still the bird paintings are really impressive!! So one more book worth looking at: The Mustard Seed Manual of Painting.
Click to expand...

Ken, I am quite fond of traditional and modern Chinese paintings of birds, though I've forgotten what I used to know of artists. I'm not familiar with this book, so thanks for mentioning it

By the way, I agree with your previous observation that those quick and bold watercolor paintings by Chinese artists are the result of practicing the same thing many times, with a great deal of discipline, to some extent (though of course in Chinese art as others, there are surely different schools).
 
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