Woke up early today and did some studying. After expressing concerns about school credit for private language lessons, we have been getting more involved homework assignments and actually having to turn them in. So we'll get credit, which is a relief. After finishing my homework for the day, I went down to school and my studio.
Didn't spend a whole lot of time there, but put what will be, hopefully, the last required priming coat on my paper and then the real work can finally begin. While waiting for that, I played around with sumi and tried to put into practice methods from my free shodo class.
In language class, we had the normal oddball discussions here and there, politics came up, and from what I hear, the Japanese do not like Hillary Clinton. Or at least Yamada sensei does not. Then I heard something really funny about McCain, who is not reported on very much here. Apparently, translated to katakana, マケエイン, includes マケ ('make') which is 'defeat' and 'loss'. Quick, someone tell the press!
30.6.08
28.6.08
世守
I overslept somewhat, being up late the night before, then went into Kyoto. My destination was the Kyoto International House and a free (50¥ for materials) cultural class on Japanese calligraphy, called shodo. There is a class like this offered almost every Saturday, but it's the first time I've made it.
I was very happy I did. When I went into the room, there were about five Japanese women moving about the room, and about the same amount of participants sitting at tables. Some were gaijin like me, but there were a few Japanese as well. We were given brushes and sumi materials, then started with a few simple exercises. I didn't have much problem with these as I've used sumi off/on since I got here. Never a specific class about it's use though, so I was very happy to learn a system of preparing three shades of black and using them in a more structured way.
I practiced some bamboo drawings, did well on the stalks and got some compliments, but the leaves eluded me. Just more practice. I also learned something that made me very happy, my name in Kanji (instead of katakana, セス クレイトン). Well, one translation, as there are many Kanji pronounced Se and many others pronounced Su (the closest Japanese has to a th- sound). So here it is, 世守, 'sesu', which means 'world/life protector'. So I've got that going for me. The woman probably has lots of experience doing this for foreigners, as she selected Kanji of positive meaning.
I also enjoyed chatting with the women and another Japanese man, Syunpei, sitting at the table with me. As always, I got many wide eyes when I told them I was there studying nihonga. Talked more with Syunpei on the way out. He's a post-doc student studying Physics. His English is very good, and I promised I would try to help him learn more about American humor. Cross-cultural humor is always hard to understand, I sure don't understand what's funny to the Japanese.
I was very happy I did. When I went into the room, there were about five Japanese women moving about the room, and about the same amount of participants sitting at tables. Some were gaijin like me, but there were a few Japanese as well. We were given brushes and sumi materials, then started with a few simple exercises. I didn't have much problem with these as I've used sumi off/on since I got here. Never a specific class about it's use though, so I was very happy to learn a system of preparing three shades of black and using them in a more structured way.
I practiced some bamboo drawings, did well on the stalks and got some compliments, but the leaves eluded me. Just more practice. I also learned something that made me very happy, my name in Kanji (instead of katakana, セス クレイトン). Well, one translation, as there are many Kanji pronounced Se and many others pronounced Su (the closest Japanese has to a th- sound). So here it is, 世守, 'sesu', which means 'world/life protector'. So I've got that going for me. The woman probably has lots of experience doing this for foreigners, as she selected Kanji of positive meaning.
I also enjoyed chatting with the women and another Japanese man, Syunpei, sitting at the table with me. As always, I got many wide eyes when I told them I was there studying nihonga. Talked more with Syunpei on the way out. He's a post-doc student studying Physics. His English is very good, and I promised I would try to help him learn more about American humor. Cross-cultural humor is always hard to understand, I sure don't understand what's funny to the Japanese.
26.6.08
Waiting. Again.
Today was super frustrating. It started off ok, arrived to morning lecture and sat there in the dark looking at art. There were many ink screen paintings today, which are my favorite of Japanese art. Trees, and mountains, and mist and fog. Disparate forms, dancing and echoing. The slides were followed by a short movie, which was especially interesting as it showed professional artists at work, mixing sumi, moving the brush. They used a surprising variety of brushes, including brushes of straw and pine needles for different effects.
After lecture I went home for a little while and prepared for my later studio class. I've been trying to do more drawings while here, pencil mostly, and just sketches, but in preparation for a larger painting, I reverted to charcoal use and referenced a photo I had taken. The paper I found in the store didn't have a whole lot of tooth for charcoal, more like printmaking paper, but things like that didn't bother me as I simply adapted. I even took advantage of it, my linseed-oil prepared charcoal is somewhat hard and digs away at the surface when over worked, so I was getting some interesting stress effects and textures.
Having a charcoal drawing I was happy with, and definitely looking like I had made it, I needed to distill this into line. Or at least rough shapes to provide definition when painting. It was very difficult, somewhat frustrating, and not really necessary in the end. Mountains are indistinct, shapes blur together, areas of darkness, ares of light, gradients in between. It sent me off on a tangent, trying to distill the image into some sort of abstraction. I wasn't happy with what I came out with, and pretty much ignored it later except for the main outline.
Back at school, I transferred my image onto a prepared panel. I had done this previously, mounting my primed paper onto a borrowed wooden panel, so I was all set to go. My line drawing was all ready on some tracing paper, which I then flipped over and used some willow charcoal over all the lines, then flipped it back to the front and went over my lines again with a pencil to press the underneath carbon onto my panel. An easy transfer method, good for many things.
Thats when the problems really started. I used my sumi to start making outlines, but then when I started to darken areas of shadow, the sumi acted weird, would speckle, lay inconsistent. It didn't look very good. Still, I thought it was me, so I cleaned my suzari to make sure there were no hardened chunks, patiently remixed my sumi and tried again. Some isolated areas were fine, but the same thing kept happening. Eventually my sensei came back into the room and I asked what was going on. Turns out the paper was not primed enough, instead of the 3 coats it had gotten, needed 4 or 5 at least.
So again. More waiting. I can't paint because the materials are not primed. I couldn't prime the paper again today because it was wet with the sumi. I have just one more month of studio time here (before I'm homeless roaming around Japan). I'd like to finish two larger sized works in that time, but it's so time consuming to do it right.
After lecture I went home for a little while and prepared for my later studio class. I've been trying to do more drawings while here, pencil mostly, and just sketches, but in preparation for a larger painting, I reverted to charcoal use and referenced a photo I had taken. The paper I found in the store didn't have a whole lot of tooth for charcoal, more like printmaking paper, but things like that didn't bother me as I simply adapted. I even took advantage of it, my linseed-oil prepared charcoal is somewhat hard and digs away at the surface when over worked, so I was getting some interesting stress effects and textures.
Having a charcoal drawing I was happy with, and definitely looking like I had made it, I needed to distill this into line. Or at least rough shapes to provide definition when painting. It was very difficult, somewhat frustrating, and not really necessary in the end. Mountains are indistinct, shapes blur together, areas of darkness, ares of light, gradients in between. It sent me off on a tangent, trying to distill the image into some sort of abstraction. I wasn't happy with what I came out with, and pretty much ignored it later except for the main outline.
Back at school, I transferred my image onto a prepared panel. I had done this previously, mounting my primed paper onto a borrowed wooden panel, so I was all set to go. My line drawing was all ready on some tracing paper, which I then flipped over and used some willow charcoal over all the lines, then flipped it back to the front and went over my lines again with a pencil to press the underneath carbon onto my panel. An easy transfer method, good for many things.
Thats when the problems really started. I used my sumi to start making outlines, but then when I started to darken areas of shadow, the sumi acted weird, would speckle, lay inconsistent. It didn't look very good. Still, I thought it was me, so I cleaned my suzari to make sure there were no hardened chunks, patiently remixed my sumi and tried again. Some isolated areas were fine, but the same thing kept happening. Eventually my sensei came back into the room and I asked what was going on. Turns out the paper was not primed enough, instead of the 3 coats it had gotten, needed 4 or 5 at least.
So again. More waiting. I can't paint because the materials are not primed. I couldn't prime the paper again today because it was wet with the sumi. I have just one more month of studio time here (before I'm homeless roaming around Japan). I'd like to finish two larger sized works in that time, but it's so time consuming to do it right.
25.6.08
はな
Continued today on a flower drawing for 1st year nihonga. This class has been about specific technique, and I've really enjoyed it, but still, I can always do better. One facet of doing better is scale, and positioning. On my first class drawing, I was big and bold, but the rest of the class was smaller objects with lots of surrounding space. Mmaybe it's subconscious, because since that first painting it has been the opposite, I feel like I'm working too small and leaving too much empty space, while the rest of the class has gotten bigger and bolder.
Thats not to say my drawings and paintings are not good, but they can be better. With the flower drawing, I captured the details of the leaves, and then later the details of the blossom as it opened. But I was impatient. I transfered my drawing to washi, pasted it down, let it dry, then outlined the form in sumi. Then I made a mistake, thinking the paper was dry, I tried to continue into the shadows, but the paper that was dry to the touch was not really dry. The carbon spread outwards, beyond the lines, and was not smooth.
An obvious mistake, and could have been avoided. It can be fixed, covered up, none would be the wiser, but still, it disturbed me. I like to work fast, let the creative bursts out, but with nihonga, there is waiting. Always waiting. I've seen my sensei create an ink drawing, layering and layering with a practiced hand. He rarely needs to stop, because the sumi is so light and perfect. As one part dries, he works somewhere else. There is no pause, only deliberation. A wiser man might say to slow the hand, is to slow the mind and to see more. But I am not so wise.
Thats not to say my drawings and paintings are not good, but they can be better. With the flower drawing, I captured the details of the leaves, and then later the details of the blossom as it opened. But I was impatient. I transfered my drawing to washi, pasted it down, let it dry, then outlined the form in sumi. Then I made a mistake, thinking the paper was dry, I tried to continue into the shadows, but the paper that was dry to the touch was not really dry. The carbon spread outwards, beyond the lines, and was not smooth.
An obvious mistake, and could have been avoided. It can be fixed, covered up, none would be the wiser, but still, it disturbed me. I like to work fast, let the creative bursts out, but with nihonga, there is waiting. Always waiting. I've seen my sensei create an ink drawing, layering and layering with a practiced hand. He rarely needs to stop, because the sumi is so light and perfect. As one part dries, he works somewhere else. There is no pause, only deliberation. A wiser man might say to slow the hand, is to slow the mind and to see more. But I am not so wise.
24.6.08
Blogging
This blog is a record of my time in Japan. I will have an entry written for every day I'm here, even if just to say I didn't do anything interesting. But sometimes, I get behind, and the missed days keep adding up. If you want to keep up, watch the blog listing to the right.
There are reasons that this happens. Some reasons are good, like I spent the day out and didn't get back until late, or that it takes time to process details and write about events while the post sits unfinished as a draft.
Other reasons are bad. I'm stressed. I have nothing to say. I'm unmotivated. I'm confused. I just don't feel like it. Most of the time it's that last one. And so the draft sits there. I have one entry from back during Golden week and my trip to Shikoku that I haven't finished, though it's mostly done, I just haven't put it up.
Blogging should not be a chore, but at times it is, and that's why some entries are posted out of order. Technology allows me trickery, back-dating and editing, but that flexibility itself is a trap. I can 'get away' with mass postings, even while true day-by-day recordings of my time would be more efficient, and more to the spirit of this project. All my life, the idea of a journal, sketchbook, a daily practice, a constant un-shakeable routine, those things call to me, but continue to remain elusive. Good habits are hard to form, and my bad habits are hard to break.
There are reasons that this happens. Some reasons are good, like I spent the day out and didn't get back until late, or that it takes time to process details and write about events while the post sits unfinished as a draft.
Other reasons are bad. I'm stressed. I have nothing to say. I'm unmotivated. I'm confused. I just don't feel like it. Most of the time it's that last one. And so the draft sits there. I have one entry from back during Golden week and my trip to Shikoku that I haven't finished, though it's mostly done, I just haven't put it up.
Blogging should not be a chore, but at times it is, and that's why some entries are posted out of order. Technology allows me trickery, back-dating and editing, but that flexibility itself is a trap. I can 'get away' with mass postings, even while true day-by-day recordings of my time would be more efficient, and more to the spirit of this project. All my life, the idea of a journal, sketchbook, a daily practice, a constant un-shakeable routine, those things call to me, but continue to remain elusive. Good habits are hard to form, and my bad habits are hard to break.
20.6.08
Prime paper 2
Learned something important today, how to make the glue solution required to prime washi paper. Obviously, this is a very important step in the process. As I have discussed, improper preparation of materials can be very frustrating.
Not too hard, the nikiwa, or glue, comes in solid sticks that I purchased in the school store. After allowing this to soften in water for a few hours, I melted it over heat to create the primary glue solution. I use this liquid to create my paints, adding pigments and grinding it by hand in a little dish. To make the priming solution, I add more water and allow it to cool. I also add a scoop of chemical, aluminium potassium sulfate, as an additional stabilizing element.
It felt good to have this under my own control, I wonder about materials when I go back to Boston, if I can find the same type of pigments and papers. Nihonga is a slow process, somewhat demanding, but it is interesting. I look forward to continuing with these materials, as I gain a different type of satisfaction from their use than I do with a large-format charcoal drawings. Note, different does not mean greater or better, only different, and I feel myself struggling to combine newly-learned materials with past-developed methods.
Not too hard, the nikiwa, or glue, comes in solid sticks that I purchased in the school store. After allowing this to soften in water for a few hours, I melted it over heat to create the primary glue solution. I use this liquid to create my paints, adding pigments and grinding it by hand in a little dish. To make the priming solution, I add more water and allow it to cool. I also add a scoop of chemical, aluminium potassium sulfate, as an additional stabilizing element.
It felt good to have this under my own control, I wonder about materials when I go back to Boston, if I can find the same type of pigments and papers. Nihonga is a slow process, somewhat demanding, but it is interesting. I look forward to continuing with these materials, as I gain a different type of satisfaction from their use than I do with a large-format charcoal drawings. Note, different does not mean greater or better, only different, and I feel myself struggling to combine newly-learned materials with past-developed methods.
19.6.08
Prime paper
Raining today. I can expect more of that with the rainy season on the way. Still, rode my borrowed bike to class holding an umbrella in one hand just like the Japanese do. Most bikes here are single speed, so it's not like riding around at home where I would never try the same zooming around in a high gear.
Class today was all preparation, I needed to prime my paper so I could then mount it on a panel and paint. As a priming solution, it's just glue, the same glue as is used for the paints, diluted in water. It needs to be layered on thick, one side, wait an hour, then the other. Sometimes it requires three coats, but I didn't have time for that today as with the humidity, everything was slow to dry.
During my waiting, and there is often waiting with nihonga for your paints to dry, I continued on my shell painting from Tuesday. The shells themselves are small and occupy only one corner of the image, so I am most concerned about the background. I see so many layering possibilities with this medium, ways of making fog, and obscuring, and mixed images, but I lack the technical ability to execute my ideas. I focus on my craft, and this painting is about background and layer color.
Class today was all preparation, I needed to prime my paper so I could then mount it on a panel and paint. As a priming solution, it's just glue, the same glue as is used for the paints, diluted in water. It needs to be layered on thick, one side, wait an hour, then the other. Sometimes it requires three coats, but I didn't have time for that today as with the humidity, everything was slow to dry.
During my waiting, and there is often waiting with nihonga for your paints to dry, I continued on my shell painting from Tuesday. The shells themselves are small and occupy only one corner of the image, so I am most concerned about the background. I see so many layering possibilities with this medium, ways of making fog, and obscuring, and mixed images, but I lack the technical ability to execute my ideas. I focus on my craft, and this painting is about background and layer color.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)