30 cm x 42 cm; watercolour on rice paper

Blog Post 17

The tawny day lilies–the traditional flower for Mother’s Day–do not belong to the Liliaceae family (the true lilies)  but they do look like one. Once planted, day lilies need little care, as they just  keep on growing new shoots which produce floriferous flower stalks. They are a sight to behold in any garden–sprawling green clumps with brightly-colored, large flowers. Although a  day lily flower lasts only for a day, it gets replaced by another one right next day. That’s why they are one of the most favourite garden plants of horticulturists and garden enthusiasts.

39 cm x 25 cm; watercolour on Korean rice paper

Blog Post 16

This is my fourth koi (carp) painting and I did it for a friend. The first two are shown in Blog Post 6 (Darthus Vaderus and Three Lucky Carps); and the third is shown in Blog Post 14 (Fullness.) In Chinese culture, if 8 kois  mean abundance, 9 kois mean fullness. Other symbolisms which kois stand for in Chinese and Japanese cultures are harmony and happiness. And that’s the reason why koi figurines and paintings are welcome add-ons  in any household decoration.

By the way, here’s the  oldest Chinese legend about the koi:  When Confucius had a son in 533 B.C., King Shoko of Ro gave him a gift– a magoy (black koi). And hence, that fertile magoy became the ancestor of all brightly-colored modern kois.

Another interesting legend says that during ancient times, the Chinese carefully raised kois in  their rice fields not as pets, but as an important food source for the harsh winter months. Later, the Chinese passed on to the Japanese the practice of raising koi in rice fields.

For this painting, I used brilliant Sakura watercolours on thick Korean rice paper to hold the colours of two washings. Here’s the sequence I followed in painting Luck for All: kois, water lily, first wash, water weeds, and second wash.

Notice the elements of this painting–kois of different colours, water lily (flower, bud, and leaves), water ripples, water grasses, duckweeds, and Cabomba sprigs (the weeds at the foreground). So let me share with you some tips on how I painted each element.

-To paint the carps:

• Use a thin dry brush to outline the placement of 9 kois. Paint overlapping kois as they swim from all directions, and toward their rich feeding area.
• Define the head with light ink–eyes and eyelids, mouth and whiskers, and gills (sometimes shown, if taking in air). Be definite about your point of view to show (or not show) the head features. Dry. Then use light flower blue or gray to shade the  edges of the head and make it rounded or 3D.
• Define the body with light ink–fins (gill, back, belly, and tail) and diamond scales. Be definite about your point of view to show (or not show) the body features. Dry. Then, use light flower blue or grey to shade the edges of the head and make it rounded or 3D. Add a tiny white dot on each eye to make them sparkle.
• Use a large brush to colour the kois. Decide on the body designs. You can have ideas on koi colours from books and magazines about koi breeding or from images posted in the Internet.
• Load a large soft brush with light umber to colour the fins and tails. When still damp, add dark ink to define some fin rays. To add shine, add poster white colour on some fin rays.

-To paint the water lily:

• Use a thin, dry brush to outline the lily leaves.
• Load a large white brush with green and then dip its tip into flower blue. Color the lily pads.
• When still damp, do the following: (1) load a thin stiff brush with dark ink to paint the leaf veins; (2) load a medium white brush with yellow green and then dip its tip into rattan yellow; (3) dab the centres of the lily pads.
• When the yellow green centre of the lily pads are still damp, paint a dark green dot at each centre of the lily pads. Dry before painting the water droplets.

-To make the washes:

• First wash: Load a white soft brush with white poster colour to paint the water ripples. Some of the ripples should be painted over the kois to make them appear underwater.  Be sure some of the body parts are not painted with ripples to make them rise above the water as they reach for  water weeds.
• Second wash: Load a white soft brush with light flower blue and paint around the painted figures (kois and water lily).

-To paint a water droplet:

• Load a medium white brush with a thin mixture of white poster colour. Paint small oval or round water drop on a leaf.
• Use grey to paint a shadow below the water drop.
• Load a medium white brush with a thick mixture of white poster colour and define the lower part of the water drop.
• Use a thin stiff brush and paint a dot at the upper part of water drop.
• Paint more water drops

-To paint water grass:

• Use a medium bamboo brush and have a dry dark ink to paint each blade of water grass coming out of the water surface.
• Paint thin and criss-crossed grass blades.

-To paint duckweeds:

• Load a medium white brush with dark green and then dip its tip into flower blue.
• Duckweeds are heart-shaped.
• Darker colours should be seen at its two lower tips.
• When still damp, dot each centre with dark ink.

-To paint Cabomba:

• Load a medium white brush with flower blue to paint the leaves of Cabomba.
• See to it that the soft twigs are painted along the direction of the ripples.
• When dry, you can paint emerald leaves over the flower blue ones.

20 cm x 15.5 cm; watercolor on water-colour paper (140 lb; A5)

Blog Post 15

I painted Plum Blossoms on my way to Rome, Italy in October 2016–while waiting for boarding time in two airports and while aboard two airplanes. This is my only plum blossom painting done with a Kuretake transparent  watercolour set; i. e., the usual watercolour tin packet containing 14 colours, a 0.3 technical pen and a medium-size water brush. It’s so compact, measuring only 16 cm x 17 cm–so perfect for travelers.

I entertain myself and lose track of time whenever I paint plum blossoms.  Most often, I keep imagining its bunches of  flowers and buds.  Then, I keep extending branches to all directions– just to paint more flowers and buds!

I still remember: I missed my first chance to see plum blossoms in Washington, USA in 1970. But–45 years later, on September 2015, I was lucky to see thick plum blooms  during a spring New Zealand vacation with my family.

By the way, before I saw plum blossoms up-close, I have already memorised how to paint them. Reason: Painting plum blossom was a required painting subject in a  basic Chinese brush painting workshop which I joined on January 2013. In fact, the entire 10-Saturday workshop (at 3 hours/session) was about the Four Gentlemen (i. e., plum blossom, Chinese orchid, chrysanthemum, and bamboo). So roughly, about 2-3 Saturdays (or at least 6-7 hours) were focused on each gentleman. My discovery then: The easiest brush strokes to learn  were those for painting plum blossoms.  And the most difficult brush strokes to learn? Those for painting bamboos! And that’s the background story why painting plum blossoms  has been my favourite pastime.

Have you painted plum blossoms? Here’s the classic sequence of painting a flowering branch: big branches (in stag horn pattern); flowers (facing all directions, lined or unlined); buds; and sepals of buds, half-opened flowers, or fully-flowers facing directions which show their undersides.

After you’ve finished painting your flowering branch of plum blossoms, you can paint a couple of snuggling birds perched on one of the plum branches They can enhance the loveliness of thick plum blossoms.

Here are some things I learned in painting plum blossoms which you can share with others, too.

-To paint the branches:

• Load a large stiff brush with dark ink.  With quick strokes, paint old, bent, gnarled, and weather-beaten branches in a stag horn branching pattern. Use umber to make the branches rounded.
• Leave spaces as you paint the branches going to all directions. These spaces are  reserved for painting bunches of flowers or for painting a couple of perched birds.
• Paint plum branches growing to all directions but most should end pointing upward.
• Later, add ‘mosses’ (black dots) on the branches to make them look aged.
• Use 0.5 technical pen to outline and  emphasize the shape of the big branches.
• Use 0.3 and  0.1 technical pens to draw the young, terminal branches.

-To paint the flowers:

• There are two styles in painting flowers: lined or unlined.
• Colors of plum blossoms range from white, lightest pink, and darkest pink (fuchsia).
• To paint light and dark pink plum blossoms, load a medium-sized soft brush with white poster colour, then dip its tip into flower red.
• Paint big flowers on the foreground and small ones in the background.
• To make  pink flowers: Load a large/medium sized brush with two colors: white poster colour (in the belly) and flower red (at the tip).
• Paint 5 equal sized and equally spaced petals. Paint bunches of flowers facing all directions. Reserve the very thin, young terminal branches for painting buds.
• While petals are still damp, load a medium soft brush with light green, and then dip its tip into rattan yellow. Dab each flower centre with these colours, letting them run and blend with the colours of the petals. Dry.
• Add numerous stamens per flower using a thin, long brush. Use dark ink /rouge to paint filaments; or, yellow/rouge to paint anthers. Just be sure to make the stamens stand out among the pink petals.

-To paint the buds:

• Load a small soft brush with white poster colour. Then  dip its tip into flower red.
• Paint delicate buds by lightly dabbing the brush on the water-colour paper. Be sure to press the brush a bit to paint two-toned buds.Dry
• Load a long thin brush with rouge to lightly dab 3 sepals below each bud.
• Only buds should be painted on the terminal branches.
• Buds grow alternately on the sides of terminal branches.
• No bud grows on tips of terminal branches.

-Add-on birds:

• Paint a couple of snuggling birds, using colours which can complement the pink plum blossoms.

Other plum blossoms I painted using traditional Chinese painting materials (i. e., Taiwan solid watercolours, animal hair brushes, and Taiwan rice paper) are shown below:

                           Pink Burst                                                            Bathed in Silvery Moon

                Plums Promises-1                                              Cold Blooms

At this point, after having shared a long list of tips with you, have I encouraged you enough to prepare your brushes, paints, and watercolour paper for painting thick plum blossoms? All set? Paint and be surprised at what you can do.