11.5 cm x 15.5 cm; watercolour on rice paper; 2016

Blog Post 5

I’ve been mesmerized by  this typical garden scene many times over: bees hovering over beautiful flowers. Here, I’ve frozen the interaction of brighly-colored Dahlias and honey bees. It’s a classic reminder that God’s creatures should live in  give-and-take, peaceful relationships.

I painted Dahlias with lined petals and unlined or freestyle buds, sepals, branches, and leaves. It’s a joy to paint Dahlias because they are large flowers which come in many colours–vermillion, red, pink, purple, white, or in-between shades of these colours. There are even varieties which are  multi-coloured in one flower; e. g.: yellow centre petals, and then yellow, white, and carmine outer petals. Use a thick mix of white poster on brown rice paper if you will paint white Dahlias.

Here’s the sequence I followed in painting My Bee-utiful Friends: flowers;  buds (tightly closed, slightly opened; and half-opened); sepals; branches; leaves; and bees. I hope the following tips can somehow guide your composition about  Dahlias:

Tips for painting the flowers:

• Use a thin colour mix when painting on alum-treated rice paper.
• All tightly closed buds point downward. As they open, they tend to point upward.
• Centre petals are of 3 kinds: a collection of round structures; thread-like structures; or thin, columnar petals.
• Make the centre petals glow with rattan yellow.
• Load a thin, brown brush with medium ink to outline the  petals.
• Start with a dot to draw a petal; then, drag this to paint the side of a petal. This will make the tip darker than the sides of the petal. Emphasize also the folds, lines, and layers of the petals.
• The layer of petals right after the centre are cone-shaped ones.
• To colour the cone-shaped petals: Load a medium white brush with watery white poster, then dip its tip into carmine. The inner area of the cone should be darker that the outer area.
• The space between petals (or the ‘V’ areas) should be washed with rattan yellow to make the flower ‘glow’. Use a medium white brush for washing.
• Paint the petal tips with a darker shade of the dominant colour.
• After coloring, retrace the outlines with the dominant petal color (e. g., carmine) to make the petals ‘pop’ up (i. e., for the finishing touch ups).

Tips for painting the buds:

• Draw bowed buds in freestyle method.
• Load a medium white brush with yellow-green, then dip its tip into flower blue.
• Paint the petals of the buds first, then paint its enveloping sepals.

Tips for painting the sepals:

• Sepals are of two kinds: the upper wide sepals and the lower thin ones.
• To paint two-toned sepals: Load a medium brown brush with yellow-green, then dip its tip with flower blue.

Tips for painting the branches:

• Paint these in freestyle.
• Load the brush with yellow-green tipped with flower blue.
• Trace the connection of a flower and a branch from the center of the flower.

Tips for painting the leaves:

• Use a large bamboo brush to paint the leaves in freestyle.
• A leaf is composed of a set of 3 serrated leaflets–the big leaflet is at the end of the leaf while the 4 smaller ones grow out of the leaf laterally.
• Create the ‘midrib’ of each ovate and pointed leaflet with two strokes only.
• Leaves should still be damp when you paint the dark ink veins, so as to make them appear within the leaf tissue. Otherwise, veins will just seem to appear ‘on top’ of the leaf.
• Use a small, brown brush to paint the veins. They should not be very thin.
• Paint leaves alternately growing out of the sides of each branch.  Paint also leaves which cover parts of a branch. To do so, allot ‘spaces’ along the length of a branch, as these will be the spaces where leaves will be drawn .
• Draw young, immature leaves near the flower; and mature ones far from the flower.
• To paint immature leaves: Load a medium white brush with yellow-green (a mix of rattan yellow and green), then dip its tip into rouge.
• To paint mature leaves: Load a large or medium bamboo brush with a darker shade of yellow-green, then dip its tip into flower blue.
• To paint folded leaves: Paint one-half of the leaf first: start at the top (base) of the leaf, then go downward with in-to-out brush strokes. Then, paint the other half of the leaf starting from the top, going downward.

Tips for painting the bees:

• To suggest a flower’s fragrance or attractive colour, draw a swarm of bees coming from different directions. Review: No straight lines should be formed by bees approaching the flowers.
• See more tips about painting bees in Fragrant Refuse, an earlier composition about Wisteria flowers being visited by bees and flowers.

Tips for painting the grasses:

• Load a white medium brush with yellow-green; then, dip its tip into umber.
• Draw grasses to fill in white spaces or to balance the image of the composition.

Blog about your composition about Dahlias, too. It’s a great pleasure to learn from each other’s painting techniques.

42 cm x 30 cm; watercolour on brown rice paper; 2016

Blog Post 4

Yes, the chicks are awed by the silver Wisteria. Who wouldn’t be?

I used brown paper so the silver sheen of the flower petals can be seen. Actually, the flowers have two layers of watercolour paint: the first layer was a combination of  green and white; and the second layer was poster silver. I also painted a bit of the landscape where the awed chicks view the silver Wisteria flowers.

I painted this composition in the following sequence: leaves, flowers,  more leaves, vines, chicks, and landscape. I’m sharing the following tips so you can paint the essence of the silver Wisteria and the awed chicks.

To paint the bunches of Wisteria flowers:

• To paint the large, upper petals: Load a large/medium white brush with green (mixture of rattan yellow and green), then dip its tip into white poster colour. All large petals should appear white at the upper part and greenish at the bottom.
• To paint the small, lower petals: Dip the tip of the brush into white poster colour.
• When still damp, paint silver poster colour over all the petals. You can apply 1 or 2 layers of silver colour.
• When still damp, use poster yellow colour to paint 2 dots (to represent stamens) at the lower part of each pair of large petals.
•  All round-tipped buds at the tip of each flower bunch should be pure white.
• To paint the attachment of each bud to the branch: Load a thin brush with umber, then dip its tip in medium ink.

To paint the leaves:

• To paint mature leaves: Load a large bamboo brush with yellow-green (mixture of rattan yellow and green); then dip its tip in  flower blue.
• Make 3 bunches of leaves at the top of the paper. All other bunches of leaves can be painted after painting the flowers. Review:  The edges of the composition should not show even lines of flowers and leaves.
• To paint young leaves: Load a medium white brush with yellow-green; then dip its tip into rouge. Young leaves should come out at or near the the tips of the young vines.

To paint the chicks in 3 positions:

• Prepare the 4 colours of the chicks: dark ink for the eye, beak, and nostril; rattan yellow for the head, wings, and feet; poster white for the throat and body, thigh, and dots on legs and feet; umber for a thin line before the eye, body, and outlines of the body and the wings.
• Load a thin stiff brush with dark ink to paint the eye, beak, nostril, and feet.
• Use a medium white brush to paint the wings and the body.
• Do not show short, feather strokes on the wings and the body. Apply white and yellow colours in one stroke to paint smooth, even colours. Just press down the loaded brush so no lines will show.
• When the eye is dry, add a tiny white dot.

To paint the vines:

• To paint aged, woody vines: Load a medium brown brush with with umber + ink (an almost black mixture). Use dry brush strokes to represent old, curved, dry vines.
• To paint young, whippy vines: Load a small brown brush with green (mixture of rattan yellow and green). Paint some young leaves attached to these vines.

To paint the landscape:

• Use a large brown brush for light and dark side-brush strokes.
• Wash with umber to outline the ground surface. When still wet, wash the light areas with emerald green. Blend the colours of the ground with a wet brush. Dry.
• Use ink to paint the mosses on the old vines and the ground surface.

38.5 cm x 47 cm; watercolour on cotton rice paper; 2016

Blog Post 3

Here’s one of my paintings of the Chinese Wisteria–the most floriferous and  fragrant of all varieties of Wisteria.  In this composition, I painted its flower-laden vines being visited by its best friends, the birds and the bees. Imagine–it must be a Fragrant Refuge.

This was my sequence of painting this beautiful woody vine:  bunches of flowers with terminal buds; old and young vines;  old and young leaves, stamens and pistil (represented by dots) below the petals; and then lastly, the swallows and the honey bees.

Here are some basic techniques to paint the flowers:

• Use the outward-to-inward strokes to paint two-toned petals.
• Use a large, white brush to paint bunched flowers which face different directions.
• Since Wisteria is a member of the Pea Family, its  flowers look just like pea flowers–with large top petals, and elongated lower petals bearing the pistil and stamens. Note: The lower petals are not identical. One is always longer and wider than the other.
• Load the brush with any of the following colours: lavender (a mixture of flower red and stone blue), pink, red, and light blue. Then, dip its tip into white poster colour.
• When still damp, add the centre of the flower–dragged dots (elongated, not round dots) of light green or poster yellow. These represent areas where the pistil and stamens are located.
• Connect the flowers and buds with a small brush loaded with yellow-green.
• Review: The upper portion of each raceme has a lighter colour while its lower portion has a distinct colour– whether lavender, pink, red, or light blue.

To paint the Wisteria leaf, I observed my vigorously growing 2.5-month-old Wisteria given by Prof Lim. Look. It has many opposite leaflets per leaf. But, it is acceptable to  represent its essence by painting just 5 or 7 leaflets per leaf.

Here are more tips on how to paint the Wisteria leaf:

• The biggest leaflet grows from the tip of the midrib. The smaller ones grow from the sides of the midrib in opposite directions .
• Use a small, brown brush for young leaves, and a big one for old ones.
• For young leaves at the tip of the vine: Load the brush with avocado green (a mixture of rattan yellow and green), then dip its tip in rouge.
• When young leaves are still damp, paint the veins with a thin, stiff brush loaded with dark rouge.
• For mature leaves: Load the brush with dark green (a mixture of rattan yellow and green), then dip its tip in flower blue. Two outward strokes from the leaf base  can define the leaf midrib.
• When leaves are still damp, paint the veins with a thin, stiff brush loaded with dark ink.

To paint delicate terminal buds:

• Paint two-toned front and lateral buds growing from the raceme. Use a darker shade of the opened flower’s colour.
• Buds should have rounded tips.
• To paint the sepals of the buds, load a thin brush with light green, then dip its tip  in dark rouge.

To paint the vines:

• For old vines: Load a large bamboo brush with umber, then dip its tip in ink.
• For young vines: Load a medium or thin bamboo brush with yellow-green, then dip its tip it in umber.
• Paint thick, knotty  old vines intertwined at random with young vines.

To paint the flying swallows, showing its back and side views:

• Sequence of painting: eye, beak, head,shoulder, wings, body, and tail.
• Use vermillion to paint the following parts: area before the eye, throat, below the tail, legs, and feet.
• Use a fine brush to paint the bird’s face.
• Use a large bamboo brush to paint all other parts of the bird: body, wings, and tail. Load the brush with just enough water, then dip its tip in dark ink.
• When still damp, paint a blue sheen on the body using poster cobalt blue. This paint is shinier than peacock blue, a colour  which is somewhat purple.
• Abdomen should be poster white.
• Review: The body should be spindle-shaped.
• Wings should be three-layered; 1^st: short, smooth feathers near the shoulder area; 2^nd: short feathers lined before the edge of the terminal feather wings; and 3^rd: long ,terminal feather wings. Paint two-toned terminal feather wings.
• In flight, bird legs should be retracted, and feet digits should be held back tightly together. Paint knotty  feet digits.
• Paint a scissor-like tail, with inward terminal points.
• Note: The upper swallow’s left wing was corrected. Its colour was lightened because they show the inner wing feathers.

To paint bees:

• Load a thin, stiff brush with dark ink and paint two dots (eyes) and a round, hairy body.
• Load a medium white brush with rattan yellow, then dip its tip in umber. Paint an elongated stomach. When still damp, add strips of dark  ink along the length of the stomach.
• To paint transparent wings, load a small white brush with very light ink. Paint the 2 sets of wings attached to the body. Wings near the head should be longer and wider than those near the stomach.
• Load a thin stiff brush with dark ink and paint the 2 short antennae and the jointed legs.
• Paint a swarm of bees in groups.

There–that’s a sample of a painting composition with three interacting figures: a woody and floriferous vine; a pair of flying swallows, and a group of hovering bees. Indeed, this is a difficult composition because of the details to be done. But–it can teach you a lot of painting skills which you need in your future paintings. But then, is it a difficult task which is uncalled for? From my point of view: Definitely, not so. Let me remind you of one of the truisms which serve as guideposts of the art of Chinese brush painting:

“If you aim to dispense with method, learn method; if you aim at facility, work hard; if you aim for simplicity, master complexity.”–Lu Ch’ai (Wang Kai), Master of Ch’ing Tsai T’ang, XVII Century.

30 cm x 42 cm; watercolour on cotton rice paper; 2016

Blog Post 2

Did you notice that the Chinese Ground Orchids (Bletilla striata) represent a mother (left) and its daughter? Look how lovingly its whole body bends and reaches for its look-alike daughter. I painted it for Mother’s Day of all Species which was celebrated worldwide on May 8, 2016. Then, I sent it to all my friends who are outstanding mothers I know.

Just ‘Google’ the common or the scientific name of the Chinese Ground Orchid and you will know so many things about it. In Chinese culture, it represents perfection, elegance, integrity, nobility, and friendship–that’s why it is the best image to represent our loving mothers.

Paint the leaves first, then the flower stalk, followed by the flowers. Here are some tips on how I painted the leaves:

• Colours I used: mix rattan yellow and green to make yellow green
• Load  a large soft brush with yellow-green, then dip its tip into flower blue. This will produce two-toned leaves.
• Paint the leaves in free-hand style. They should be long,continuous strokes with pointed tips.

• Create spaces where you can paint the floral stalks. (See the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th leaves.)
• Paint some folded or twisted leaves. (See the leftmost leaf.)
• Review how the leaves gracefully grow out of the plant’s base. See if you have to add more leaves. Then, paint the stem of the flowers.

Here are some tips on how I painted the flowers:

• The orchid has five petals: two represent its ‘heart’ or core (smaller ones), and three represent the three other petals (larger ones).

• Colours I used: vermillion, rattan yellow, and ink.
• To paint two-toned petals, load a medium white brush with vermillion. Then, dip its tip into carmine.
• Paint the two-petaled ‘heart’ or the centre first. One should be larger than the other. This is the space where the three stamens will come out.Then, paint the other three petals in three different directions. This will produce that graceful effect of soft, light petals dancing in the wind.
• Paint many orchids per floral stalk. They grow alternately and from opposite sides of the floral stalk. End with partially opened or unopened buds.
• When the petals are fully dry, paint the ‘dots’ or stamens at three per flower. Aim for a triangle-shaped formation of the stamens per flower.
• Stamens should be darker than the petals. So you can use dark ink or carmine.
• Since this is an outdoor scene, you can paint small insects which visit and hover this fragrant flower: bees, butterflies, or dragonflies.

The Chinese Ground Orchid is one of the Four Gentlemen, representing spring. The other three are Plum Blossom for winter; Bamboo for summer; and Chrysanthemum for autumn. I still keep my first set of paintings on the Chinese Ground Orchid. They serve as my 2013 painting benchmark–reminders of how far I have gone and how much more I have to learn.

It may seem so easy to paint the Chinese Ground Orchid but definitely, the exact opposite is true. In fact, I wasted a lot of rice paper and ink before I was able to paint one which could pass as a beginner’s painting. But, in patiently practicing how to paint the orchid leaves and flowers, I learned how to control my brush–its stroke techniques, water and ink loads, and varied pressures on rice paper. Indeed, there are so much more to learn about the orchid’s  elegant leaves and flowers.

Would you like to paint the Chinese Ground Orchid too? When Yoda poses a challenge, he says: “There is no try. Just do it!”