THE LONDON CHINESE BRUSH PAINTERS GROUP Newsletter March 2012 The Chop above translates as Share one s Treasures the motto of our group! Kaili Fu Eagle and Pine 1
Eagle and Pine The eagle is painted entirely in ink and it is important to get lots of tone change into the ink strokes to create this lovely dramatic effect. Particularly the inside of the front wing and the outside of the one behind need different tones. The head and body are roughly egg shaped and it is important to draw your eagle out first to get the correct proportions before starting in ink, you could do this on a separate piece of paper or as a faint under-drawing in light pencil or charcoal. A common mistake is to make the body too short. Make sure your brush strokes for the long feathers are very free, using the whole arm, not flicking the wrist. Head - Kaili uses a variety of brown brushes for the eagle, start with the head be careful where you position it so you don t run out of space for the wings. With a fine brush and dark ink put in the beak and then the eye, then with a slightly lighter tone the leading edge of the front wing. Front Wing - Change to a larger brush, load with light ink then darker ink then tip into ink, using a sidestroke, paint the primary longest) feathers of the front wing, working from outside to inside, curving the strokes in as you move down the wing. For the small feathers near the leading edge of the wing spread the brush a little, make sure the brush is fairly dry and add feather strokes dab and pull the brush with a light caressing movement of the brush, now add more ink and use a similar stroke for the slightly longer secondary feathers at the base of the wing, and up to where the primary feather line ended. Body Chest feathers, load the brush with light ink and tip into darker ink, press the brush to slightly spread the hairs, use the same feather stroke for the chest and back you can see these strokes in the close up photo above of the head. Add some darker feathers behind the eye and in front of the leading edge of the front wing. Now add some lines for the legs and dark feather strokes for the base of the tail. Back Wing Load the brush as before for the primary wing feathers but with darker ink and use a similar technique for the back wing. Add some quick dry brush strokes at the top of this wing, near the leading edge working from inside to outside. Tail and Claws - again using a similar technique to that for the primary feathers add the tail feathers in dark ink working from outside to inside, make sure you use the whole of the brush for these side strokes. Add some dry brush strokes at the base of the feathers working from inside to outside. Add some paler ink on top of these dry brush strokes. Use a fine brush and dark ink for the claws. To fill the gaps between the feathers on the eagle add some pale ink brush strokes. Pine Branch using medium ink and a central stroke, outline the branch, holding the brush right at the top and add dots for texture. Load the brush with light through to dark ink and add in the groups of pine needles. From the tip to the base of the needle, first put in 3 central, fairly straight strokes then more curved strokes on one side then the other. These strokes need to come from the whole arm, not the wrist. Overlap the groups of pine needles. Kaili added an additional pine branch to the top right of the picture or you could add some calligraphy top left. With fairly wet pale burnt sienna colour the branch with sidestrokes from outside to inside, leaving some white paper. Wash some indigo over the pine needles and a light ink wash over the beak. 2
Pine in a simple landscape 3
The pine tree is placed off centre in the picture (top left). The calligraphy on the completed picture is enlarged beside it and reads, from top to bottom, green pine tree. Pine tree (bottom left picture) using a purple dragon brush (brown brush with fine tip) load with mid-tone ink and tip into dark ink, starting at the top of the tree outline the main branches down one side of the tree, then down the other, with a central stroke. The trunk should be thicker at the bottom. Now use paler ink and a dry brush for the markings on the trunk, and add a few dots. Rocks - (bottom right picture) These are formed in 5 stages: 1. Outline 2. Crevices 3. Texture 4. Wash of ink then colour 5. Dots Outline the hills and rocks, overlapping them. Use a dry brush and different tones of ink for shading on the rocks. Put in the crevices with side strokes. The direction of crevices should be slightly different for each rock but consistent within the rock. Shade the area immediately behind an overlapping rock to bring the front rock forward. Now leave these to dry. Pine needles technique is as above for the pine branch in the Eagle picture, overlapping groups of pine needles, so as not to make them look sparse. Groups of needles will have differing ink tones as the ink runs out on the brush, use the paler tones for the pine needles at the back of a group, and those behind branches. Group the pine needles in a half moon distribution along the branches, making the group sizes different. If a group looks unfinished you can improve it by adding some twigs underneath and to the outside of the group afterwards. Needles are approximately the same size at the top and bottom of the tree. Rocks continued - now add more texture to the rocks with dry brush work and adding a light ink wash at the base of the rocks, add stronger ink to the wash on the rock behind where the rocks overlap. Bamboo use medium tone of ink for the stems and darker for the small leaves, as the ink becomes paler on the brush put in the more distant leaves. Finishing add an ink wash on either side of the tree trunk and between the roots, leave the water white with a few lines to indicate the flow of the stream. Wash over the pine needles with a mix of indigo and ink. When the rocks are dry add pale burnt sienna and indigo washes sparingly and some burnt sienna to some of the pine branches. When the painting is dry cover the picture with a tea-bag wash. Anush kindly made A4 colour copies of Kaili s lovely pictures for us to work from and sold them at 50p a copy for the Moon Bear Charity. We still have some of these left to buy (from both the February and March workshop) in the group cupboard, so if you missed out and are attending future workshops you can collect them and give the money to me (Fiona) or Anush on the day. 4
Errors in the Workshop Programme The workshop dates in the annual programme are wrong for Maggie Cross s workshops in September and October. The dates should be September 8 th and October 13 th please change these dates in your diaries, calendars, electronic devises. Workshops are always on the 2 nd Saturday of the month except for July and August when there are none. Apologies for the confusion AGM highlights The membership fee will be increased to 18 starting on 1.1.13, was decided by majority vote. This is to help fund exhibitions, group outings etc. Workshop fees will remain at 25. New booking procedure decided by members see details below The group will have an exhibition next year. Judy Wright will chair a sub- committee for the exhibition please let her know if you would like to be involved in the exhibition and be on the committee. Anush has taken on the role of Treasurer as well as Chairman, in the absence of any volunteers many thanks to Anush who works so hard to organise the group. Welcome back to Judy Wright as a committee member. We raised 280 for the moon bears this year. 190 was from raffling one of Maggie Cross s lovely paintings she very kindly donated, thank you to all for your generous contributions. Keep them coming as we take on an additional humanitarian charity for next year. Poetry corner A forum for oriental poetry or just inspirational lines that might give you ideas for your own pictures. Thanks to Anush for this lovely verse : He who knows does not speak. He who speaks does not know. Block all the passages! Shut all the doors! Blunt all edges! Untie all tangles! Harmonize all lights! Unite the world into one whole! This is called the Mystical Whole, Which you cannot court after nor shun, Benefit nor harm, honour nor humble. 5
Therefore, it is the Highest of the world. Tao Teh Ching The following isn t Chinese but very relevant to what we ve been painting, it s one of my favourite poems I m sure you will all be familiar with it! Fiona The Eagle He clasps the crags with crooked hands Close to the sun in lonely lands Ring d with the azure world he stands The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls He watches from his mountain walls And like a thunderbolt he falls Tennyson If you d like to share a favourite inspirational poem, even better one of your own; please e-mail it to Fiona at fionaandstevew@yahoo.co.uk The next LCBPG meeting is on 14 th April with Elaine Kimberly showing us some new approaches to Chinese Brush Painting Please note new booking arrangementsplease send your cheque to book a place at the next workshop to arrive with Anush by at least 5 days in advance of the workshop. Please send it as early as you can to make things easier for Anush. If for illness etc you cannot attend they must contact Anush at least 5 days before the workshop and your payment will be carried over to the next workshop. This means that members cannot turn up on the day and expect a table. If a member arrives on the day and the workshop number is already at 18 they can attend the demonstrations, for full workshop payment, but would not have access to a table to paint Anush Sarkissian Rookwood, Quarry Road, Oxted, Surrey RH8 9HE e-mail anush.sarkissian@gmail.com Cheques payable to The London Chinese Brush Painters Group 6
Workshops are held on the 2 nd Saturday of the month except July and August. Workshop times are 10.30 prompt till 4.30 Tea and coffee is now free at the workshops but individual donations to the Animal Asia charity will be welcomed. They work to free the lovely Moon Bears kept in barbaric conditions in the bile farms in China and South East Asia. They also provide sanctuaries for these beautiful animals. You can visit www.animalsasia.org for more information. If you have any articles, dates for exhibitions or courses etc. for the newsletter please send them to Fiona at fionaandstevew@yahoo.co.uk The images in this newsletter are the copyright and property of the artists and should not be copied without the permission of the artists For further information about the Group please contact our membership secretary, Norma Kennedy Tel 01462 678982 email- norma@familykennedy.co.uk The other committee members are; Anush Sarkissian (Chairman and Treasurer) anush.sarkissian@gmail.com Judy Wright (Committee member) thewright.site@virgin.net Fiona Williams (Newsletter) fionaandstevew@yahoo.co.uk 7