20140104 - Sun and Bamboo

I continue trying to learn more how to do Chinese Brush Painting. Frankly, learning a new technique is a lot of fun. And in a way, by emulating the techniques of Chinese Brush Painting, I am learning how to be looser with my painting. The looser style (Freestyle or Xieyi or 寫意畫) is rather impressionistic.

Xieyi is also known as  freehand style. Unlike gongbi (a realistic style), Xieyi does not seek to strictly reflect reality. Ancient artists believed that a painting should reflect how an artist sees an object, in addition to its actual appearance. The word "xieyi" means to "write to idea," and this style emphasizes the artists perceptions and thoughts as much as the actual form of what is being reflected. Proportion, light and perspective are all secondary to the artist’s personal conception of what an object is. (See http://bit.ly/1czohQ4 for the full text).

Learning how to suggest the branches, without all the detail is good practice for me. I hope you enjoy this effort as much as I enjoy learning the techniques. It should be interesting to see how well this does once I am able to mount it.