Earlier this morning I attempted to paint with black sumi ink. I got stuck painting for a good 5-6 hours straight! Yes, I was in the zone. While working on these pieces, I noticed that it was almost felt like working with watercolors but a bit different. The water colors I work with usually come in a tube or hardened block with a thicker consistency than sumi ink. Sumi Ink was much more a liquid. So, diluting sumi ink with water was something I new I had to learn since it didn't have the same properties as the watercolors. It was tough to control. The brush I used came a from a sculpting kit that had an asian-looking brush close to what I've seen in pictures of people doing Sumi-e art. I think the brush was pretty cheap because a lot of the brush hairs had a lot of inconsistencies in length. Overall, I used it trying my best to make it work but I was a bit irritated because I would get weird and sloppy looking brush daubs. For the most part, I just want to say I had fun.
So why I decided to start ink wash painting was because of a school group project. The main goal for this project is to create a digital 3d scene and capture a style or movement. My teacher had a list of art movements/styles to pick from and so our team decided to go along with Sumi-E, an asian art style used by the Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and possibly others. I need to do lots more research on this. In the meantime, I will be posting up my progress on this project along with more ink wash painting in the future.
