I am preparing for painting several big pictures and until it`s ideas grows in my mind I have a small time to enjoy sunny green colours. This is the small watercolour picture with bamboo and sun.

It`s a special pleasure to be a master of internal weather. Outside of my home this is -15 degrees, dark, snow and clouds. But as I paint it`s another feelings. I literary touch leafs and trunks of bamboos, and sun rays flows in my internal space with a quiet melody. It flows as long as I paint the picture and when I finish the process it becomes something as portal into another space.

Usially I don`t remember how a picture was created. Actualli it is not natural to devide a creation process into steps. But sometimes it is useful to remember something fspecial I felt during the process. So I use a camera to fix the history and it is a real adventure to see how it was  appeared layer by layer, step by step.
There is the first step of painting "The Green Green Bamboo". As you can see it is nothing except water and several strokes. As I see it I am thinking how an idea turns into flesh and blood, a process alike several cells becomes an embryo. Some program exists, it contains every cell of the future body as information, but on that step the body itself doesn`t exist.

It`s a complete information and the first step of realization, an allusion to something will be.

On the 2 step you can see the characters of a bamboo.

3 step needs more shadows and something more thick, this is the grass.

4 step - more sun creates the main mood and energy of that space.

5 step: more details for bamboo trunks. As we are walking in a forest usially  we can`t see every tree with all details but perceive the general information. The same way is right to perceive the information from a picture.

6 step: more details and sun, shadows and grass.

7 step: this is the right time to paint the leafs and arms of the bamboo.

8 step: more shadows, more colours, more leafs, more everything. More details of the grass, of course.

...more spots of sun and reflexion.

Jk, this is the final step. The picture is small 15 X 20 cm but it contains the information. It`s a point of the mind to create a special feeling for relaxation.

This is it, and the work is now complete.

Brush, paper and ink calls "Three treasures" in Chinese tradition and it is true. As you feel the secret life, character of that things you can feel thousands possibilities flow from it. I love brush, ink and paper so much then choose it  rather, more and more.

Our feelings is the gate to understand many secrets. As we observe an object without feelings we can classify it but rare understand. Even House M.D. use his feelings to support his logic.  As we can use feelings by the way of acting the result will be important.

I investigate many old pictures in Gohua style I found in Internet to learn possibilities of brush and ink styles of strokes and the way Chinese painters  caught the essence of mountings, forests, plants, hills, waterfalls… everything.  (Unfortunately most of pictures have no name of painter or the name was in Chinece, so I can`t do  references). I have to use my logic to learn how they made pictures, what stages it included, what important things for beginning and how to make picture complete. After such logical process I use my feelings to investigate lines, points, total mood of pictures, particular qualities of calligraphy and styles. After thet I proceed to experience. It` important to include such life finding into own life.

In that case I want to illustrate such ideas with the my picture. It was inspired by a strange style of Chinece painters consist of wide points and strokes.

1 - I made general lines with my chinece brush full of  ink. That point it`s important to feel how  your brush turnes, touch the paper, how it moves and stands. Every movement produces different paths of ink on the paper.
 

2 - By medium-dilute ink with nearly vertical strokes I paint he slopes of the mounting. Wide and short horisontal strokes and points represents plants on the slopes.

 3 -  more and more details with more thin ink. Look at the stairs on the right and bottom parts of the picture. This is important things to bring a shadow of human here.

4 - With my brush impregnates with half-pure and pure black ink I made new strokes over previous.

5 - I mixed 3 shadows of brown in different palettes, from very light to more deep and used it to paint mountings. My own style of brush is different from Chinese, also Chinese prefer a silk for painting to produce  unical way of diffluence of he colours. As my picture based on paped this is visible strokes of colours on it as I like it.

6 - this is the right time to paint small details. I chose for it european brush #00 and medium-deluted ink.

7 - with pure ink I made several strokes more visible.

8 - for the finishing I used european concentrate black ink (it made many reflections on the picure, but looks really great).

The process has completed!

Such painting is important part of my life. It halps me to disciplime my mind and hands, to investigate new ways and to feel fresh. It`s meditation, of course.

If you want to feel the same try it!

Today is the gap between parts of my work activity and thanks god I get enough sleep! The fact is that I have several ideas for big pictures in my new technigues but also have no enough  time for it. It means the right time will be another day so I am working on the several more simple pictures such is that mountings.

The secret of experience is to make details, details, details for a picture seems a bit simple. This is the same thing as to live full life as one friend from Corfu told me. Layers of colours produce   new and new feelings. One stroke connectes with the another, it changes directions and all work from the first stage to final is like a song sings in chorus. As you see I started with several brown colours.

In Gohua style is important to create feeling as somewhere not far away from that place people lives. So all natural objects represents a power of landscape mixed with human existance. Here it is a long stair in stones winds up and up.

A simple colour seems flat so it is good to make it more interesting by mixed shadows.

Here it is the result of watercolour painting but it is ot the final picture… It needs more details.

Black ink is my favourite. I like how it smells, and the feeling how my brush slids with it. Also black ink is the ideal way to create depth. Several strokes with black ink and see the differencies:

Now this is the time for something green. Every mounting has own features how grass and trees are situating on rocks. I made trees with light green colour and then it was clear how to make surface of  rocks and bluffs. As I realized it was a huge amount of it in one not very big picture!

chinese brush is the best for details, I like it for it`s possibilities for painting and  for it bamboo handle. Bamboo is one of my favourite matherial.
 

Details, details for trees:

... and for another trees. Actually I was not a zealot of details before but after thet picture it changed.

Here it is the result! Be sure that hogback with rocks, stairs and everything now lives in my head. I remember every rock as if I travelles here during a week.

I have to make a summary for that experience. Before it I didn`t  work with many natural details and that experience was important to make changes both in my habits in painting and in my character. Sure I will use it in future projects.

Yesterday I did that work. I am really tired today so description will be later. Here it is my work place and the picture:

I am thinking about a seria of big paintings. It needs more time so now I can do small works by aquarel and think about the future during it. My interest points on Chinese Gohua style, mountings and clouds. My friends wanted to study it too and asked me for a step-by-step illustration.

Actually I don`t like to show the process step by step. It seems mechanically calculated, but in real life for me such painting is a meditation process. This is not only lines and colors. I was thinking about several different things during the process, from sensation of depth and height to my future paintings. For my friends this is step-by-step post and you could use it as a master class for your own meditation. Here it is work in progress of "Blue Mountings-I" in Gohua style.

I started this picture before my sliping time just to try it but it was so exciting I couldn`t sleep until I finished it. First of all it was a sketch by gray ink and then I made power lines by dark ink.

Big picture:

I made points by black ink in aqua brush so mountings bacame lively.

The same I did with all mountings. It`s important to make strokes different in wide and direction, strokes should be breathing and moving.

Then it was the time to make the main lines of the mist. It`s seems as a spiral on chinese tradition.

By white wax charcoal I made the points of deep mist.

It was several kinds of charcoals used it the picture - wax, aqua pencils etc.

Several colors of blue for mountings:

Total view:

Mountings generally has grass, trees, bushes or something like that. So I used green water-pecil for it.

I imagine the time around sunrise for that place. So this is the gentle pink color for it.

Next step was a distant part of the panorama.

Total view:

So it was the last step to make several shadows on mountings and mist.

So the work was completed. Try it, sense it`s fragrance, maditate with the lines and good luck!

Everything in the world are growing in a river of Time. Literary everithing - from mountings and rocks to human personality. It growth in different directions and rate and I feel it. This post represents how the picture "Power to Growth"  growth step by step    

1- First of all it was a power-lines by pencil allow me to feel the idea of the picture and fix it on paper.  Usially I avoid detail sketches and do only several lines. After it I made clouds and air on the wet paper.    In that work I need to act in comfortable place. So everything for work have to be closer. I used different techniguesfrom classical aquarel colrs to solid woodless aquarel pencils.   

2 - Second step was to make the tree. Actually on such pont the picture becames strange and waterworn but it is the normal for aquarel. Nevetherless I always try to pass it soon. 

3 - This is the point to make a deep breath because I like it more. I made several details and the tree on the picture begane better.   

4 - I started with rocks. This is the thing I likes may be because of nature as Capricorn.   

5 - Details of rocks ant then - leaves of the pine-tree. I did it by my make-up brush instead an ordinary pain brush because… because of everything. Make-up brushes is better sometimes.   

6 - more datails. Oh, it`s the best part of painting!   

7 - More details and my heart become happy and lauthing: I felt the dinamics itself so deeply then the picture started to tell me what to do. This is the best part of my work!   

8 - I made the power lines represents directions of growth. How I feel it it`s a mistery, but this is he strong feelings. Actually I feel it better then everything else. Power-lines has deep black color and I made it by special ink with fine brush. This is something close to chinese calligraphy.    I felt how the black lines growth, it`s breathing and character, how they communicates with each other and form the network over the colors to show us hidden things under the surface. This is the reason I am an artist, a painter. It is the way to feel more, to understand deeper, to realize hidden things.   

Here it is the result!  I have to notice something about the history of a painting. Although it seems simple usially this is a kind os soul work. As I paind I understand better something another about the life. All of my picture are symbolical and i can tell a story, several stories as I see it. May be I will tell it next time!

Hello everybody, this is +10 degrees here, in Moscow. I am freezing and brings books to bed. When I re-read chinese classical novel "Dream in the Red Chamber"  I suddenly felt how to create a picture. And started to draw.

This result is a good example how to make a picture in Chinese style. I will prepare step-by-step guide for you in case you want to try it.  If you interesting about the novel I like see in Wiki  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_lou_meng

So I have to say "Bye-bye" because of the pressure of time. See you later!