Demonstration Art

Last week, we discussed three shades of sumi, nōboku (dark sumi), chūboku (medium sumi), and tanboku (light sumi). Two painting techniques were also introduced; senbyō-hō (line strokes) and mokkotsu-hō (boneless or lineless strokes). This week provides opportunities to practice all of these.

Shunran

Multiple orchid paintings are presented this week. Before showing Phalaenopsis demonstrations paintings, a much simpler orchid, the Spring Orchid (shunran 春蘭) is discussed. It is shunran that is most typically used to represent orchids in shikunshi (Four Gentlemen) paintings. Leading up to it are illustrations showing a technique for painting shunran leaves. It is called teitōsobibyō (釘頭鼠尾描) which literally means nail head (teitō -- 釘頭) and mouse tail (sobi -- 鼠尾) brushstroke (byō -- 描). It begins with a strong touch like that of a nail head and then trails away like the tail of a mouse.

Shunran leaves.

Referring to the shunran blossom illustrations below, petal strokes of the shunran blossom are painted from the outside to the calyx, the point at which all the petals join. Use chūboku (medium sumi) for petals and tanboku (light sumi) for the stems. Finish by adding the stamen with nōnboku (dark sumi).

The stamen is the heart of the flower, and is painted with shin ten (heart or spirit dots) (心点), so called because the dots vaguely resemble the script version of the kanji character for heart (kokoro -- 心). It looks like this: . Three or four dots should do it.

Putting these things together, try painting the shunran depicted below. It is a good piece for beginners to practice on.

Phalaenopsis

Moving on to the Moth Orchid, the sketch below of a Phalaenopsis uses only sumi (black ink). It can be done by painting the lines and filling in the shading later. This technique using both lines and shading is called kōrokutensai-hō.

Here is my demonstration painting using gansai (colored ink):