Last night I was playing again with watercolors and found inspiration in some videos about Chinese sumi-e brush painting, particularly one by Daleflix on YouTube that showed him painting a dragonfly and a frog. I really like the way that sumi-e painting, which is often done in ink on rice paper, emphasizes the importance of each brush stroke.
My painting skills still need a lot of work, but I especially like how the dragonfly turned out. There is a kind of minimalism in the dragonfly that appeals to me. It was really all-or-nothing when I painted it. Each of the wings, for example, was a single brush stroke, with a little bit of outlining done later. Similarly, the segmented body was done in a single pass.
I kind of got a little lost after I had painted the frog and the dragonfly and tried to add some contextual elements. The water ended up way too dark and some of the branches got too thick. In case you are curious, the painting is 4 x 6 inches in size (10 x 15 cm), so the brush strokes were pretty small.
Still, I like the overall feel of this little painting, which represents a new step for me as I explore watercolors. I think that I may explore this style of painting some more.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I think this is really nice, Mike. The dragonfly is especially good, and I like the bushes. The frog has a look of anticipation. Do frogs eat dragonflies?
Thanks for bringing us along on this journey.
Thanks for your encouraging words, Dan. I believe that frogs will eat dragonflies, if they can catch one, though I have never seen it happen.
Hi Mike,
I concur with Dan. Chinese painting, like Chinese calligraphy, takes years to master, as the strokes cannot be changed once they are on the paper. If you were to also learn to write a Chinese poem along the left margin of the painting and sign your name in Chinese, it would be a complete painting and you would be considered a triple threat, being a painter, a calligrapher and a poet!
I can speak a couple of languages, but, alas, Chinese is not one of them. I am in awe of the brush work of Chinese painters and calligraphers. There is a whole series of historical traditions associated with their artistry, which, as you noted, covers multiple areas of artistic endeavor. Even if I don’t aspire to mastery of this style of painting, I think there are lessons to be learned that can be applied to other painting, including the importance of mindful attention to details, like individual strokes.
Indeed! As the tradition goes, if you could somehow include a Chinese poem, it would really lift your Chinese painting to a different league.
I managed to include and discuss a Chinese poem in my post published at http://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2017/10/18/the-quotation-fallacy/
I also included the Chinese poem in one of my images in the same post.
Please be informed that you might need to use a desktop or laptop computer with a large screen to view the rich multimedia contents available for heightening your multisensory enjoyment at my websites, some of which could be too powerful and feature-rich for iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices to handle properly or adequately. A fast broadband connection is also helpful. 🙂
Lovely! Both the dragonfly and frog are appealing. I especially like the dragonfly; I suspect your knowledge of them helped to create that realistic image done with so few brush strokes.
Thanks so much. I’ve watched others do these critters on videos, but it is a whole different thing when I have brush in hand and a blank sheet of paper staring back at me. There is a philosophical element to this style of painting where the goal is to capture the essence of the subject and not necessarily all of the details. In that sense, my experience photographing similar subjects definitely helped. FYI, the painting itself is 4×6 inches in size, which give you an idea how controlled my brush strokes had to be.
That is small. I was imagining it somewhat larger: perhaps 8×10.
Nice Mike! Plus with watercolors it can be Dragonfly Season all year long! And you get a different kind of satisfaction from your photography!
I’m impressed, Mike. You’re diving right in there with exploring techniques and painting traditions. Sumi is something I’ve found to be very challenging. You’ve got to have confidence in every single brush stroke. I think I’m too tentative to get anywhere with it but you seem to have the confidence to really succeed with this method.
Thanks, Laura. My ignorance helps me to be confident. I don’t really know what I am doing and so really don’t have any expectations about expertise. That helps me to eliminate any inhibitions I might feel about sharing my efforts with others. Watercolor is tough and unforgiving and sumi takes that to another level, because, as you noted, every stroke matters and is visible. Eventually I will probably take some classes, but for now I am happy to dabble a bit and am pleasantly surprised when some things work.
Wow Mike, great experimentation. I especially like the dragonfly and the little bush.
When I’ve seen Chinese art I’ve been really impressed by its delicacy and you’ve really captured that in your wonderful dragonfly!
Thanks, Liz. That’s what I was aiming for. It’s tough to figure out how you want to place a brush stroke and then to actually do it.
I think the dragonfly is really good. Your painting shows me that my watercolors were very different. I used to draw the scene using a pen and India ink and then paint it with watercolors, so they didn’t look as loose or as free as this.
That dragonfly is stunning! Of course, you would know every single detail on every kind now! Good job.