Demonstration Art

From a byōbu by Itō Jakuchū (1716 - 1800). See discussion.

Calligraphy

For those who want to practice their calligraphy, the kanji word below is the character for kiku, chrysanthemum.

Sketches

When planning to paint chrysanthemums—often other flowers, too—artists will want to depict blossoms at various viewing angles. It is boring to always see blossoms only from the top down. The following chart provides guidance for how to realistically plan the painting of blossoms from different angles.

The following sketches demonstrate how to paint chrysanthemum leaves as seen from different angles using the gokiyonketsu technique. That basically means that leaves have five-lobes each, like the palm of your hand with the fingers sticking out.

Here is a simple sketch of budding chrysanthemums for those who want to practice the senbyō-hō technique.

The picture below is more a painting than a sketch, but it is here for those who want to try something simpler than the demonstration painting below.

Demonstration Painting

There are two different kinds of chrysanthemum in the demonstration painting. The large one is a spider mum, and the smaller flowers are also chrysanthemums of some sort from my garden. In the painting guidance below, I refer to the gokiyonketsu technique. Basically, that means to paint the leaves with five lobes. The technique is illustrated above.