November 2013 – Yueh Yin

Dreamwalk

25. November 2013

After a while, not being able to paint, I decided to finish this pice :

Like most pictures I do this time, there was no sketch for this one.

Unfortunately, I did no earlier picture of this painting.

I just forget about that, while I am painting 🙁 Have to think about next time…

I did a rough and wet in wet wash, for getting some texture and than try to see the ready painting in this…

After being so far, I found the yellow a little bit too light, and the moon to less in contrast, so I added more yellow.

Added some foliage-texture to the tree on the right side, and decided to use the random “splotches” for some fantastic bubbles. I wanted them to reflect the light of the moon, and to lead the eye of the viewer towards the moon, so I added yellow to most of them, always to the side they show to the moon.

And so instead of painting further on the leaves, I started on the left side, I was pulled to the bubbles…added some darker blue on the side not showing to the moon, and finally some highlights with white, for give them a more 3D-look.

Ok, finally got to work with the leaves 😉

Because the way, that turned out, would lead the viewers eye (composition-matter) out of the image, I decided to interrupt it.

Added some more leaves, and darkened the foreground with some japanese sumi, and color mixed, to create less saturation in this area.

It gives a sense of chaos and fights the peace and harmony. In this case, it is not just too much detail, but also in the wrong place…in the foreground which should normally just being there to frame the pice…

It´s one of my general problems. I really have to fix this. I will. I want too! Really! >.<

New picture, new luck…

To give the whole composition another central point, I decided to add people there. I really love to draw small people…well, not small, but far away XD

I really was happy with this choice, because it brought a little more “live” in the picture.

Since me and my wife got a little son, I choose to put in a “small” family.

Put in a dark frame, as I always do, and used Photoshop for lightning adjustments as well as color correction.

I use this, because for our stay in Ecuador I did not take my scanner. So I just can use my camera (it´s not a really expansive and good one, but it´s what you would call “ok”)

and make pictures of my pictures. Because of that the colors are always a little bit unreal and not the ones in the picture.

With photoshop it is possible to correct this mistake to a certain point.

After all, I am happy to finished this piece, even if it´s not a masterpiece. I never did one…if I think about.

Thanks for watching !

Working with No-Tan´s – value-scetches

20. November 2013

I just found an old blog-entry of mine from 2013…

The words “No-Tan” come from the traditional japanese art and mean the general, and most often the tone-value structure of a picture.

“No” has the meaning of dark, saturated ink ( traditional japanese painting is mostly done in black-white ), while “Tan” has the meaning of more diluted, and brighter ink.

My Workspace – most important things

19. November 2013

As a turn of faith, I am currently located in Ecuador, next to the capital Quito.

I am not completely happy with it, but will return to Germany in December, so it´s what you would call an interesting experience.

Because of the situation, my workspace is much smaller, than it used to be, but have a look on your own:

In these day´s I use only japanese Watercolors, called “Shin-Gansai”.

I prefer the one´s from the Holbein Corp.

They have excellent shining and brightness and are really fluid. (You can see the Box in the back, the dark-brown one under the window.

I made this experience often: Whenever the question comes to quality, japanese stuff is one of the first choice. ( For example the tools, papers, clothes, etc.)

As you can see I use Chinese Brushes, and German Paper.

The Paper is made of Bamboo, has a nice surface and is a very good end ecological Paper.

I use japanese Sumi, what is a kind of ink for my black, because it is a lively black, with a very soft bluish tone. The sumi is solid, you have to rub it on stone, together with water to make the tone you want.

Also a very important tool are the small naps of ceramic, you can see on the picture.

They allow me to mix a special color or tone, that I use for larger areas, without great changes in the color. I came to these ones very late, but now I don`t want to miss them.

Of course I have certain other things I use, like rubbers, pencils, pens, salt and alcohol for creating texture, etc. but I think these are the most important things for my work by now.