Sumi-e

About

Sumi-e otherwhise known as ink wash painting is a style of painting that involves the use of charcole and animal glue being mixed on a stone to create black paint. The original style involved only black paint but the later advancements of dyes allouded there to be a larger range in colour meaning that older peices of art use monchromatic shading techniques to portray depth and colour.

History

Sumi-e is know to exist as far back as chinas Liu song dinisty in the fifth centuary. It was practiced by monks after meditation to help acheive enlightenment, this was due to the amount of time and concentration it takes to master. Later the style was expanded on in the Tang dynasty were Wang Wei began the trend of adding colour to the pictures. Later during the song dynasty china had discovered ink and the technique spread to other asian lands like Korea

Technique

Sumi-e involves varying tones applied by using ink and a brush at varying pressure with a single brush stroke the skill of a sumi-e painter is his ability to shade and draw with as little brush strokes as possible

Examples

Mariusz szmerdt

Mariusz szmerdt is a treditional contemprary artist. He uses treditional Sumi-e techniques to draw things normaly from japanese culture. He draws alot of inspiration from old asiancultures like samuri and chinese dragons. He even uses the old charcole painting style for some of his works wich helps give of a realy treditional feel.

I like this artists because he uses the style extremly well and manages to give his paintings and extreme amount of depth despite the lack of colour.

Wang Meng

Wang Meng is a Chinese historical artist from the Yuan dynasty. Due to his skill as a painter he was considered on of the four masters of the Yuan dynasty along with Huang Gongwang, Wu Zhen, and Ni Zan. Unlike most artists of his time he prefered to work on paper instead of silk, he predominantly painted landscapes for he sais that it is the visible key to the invisible reality. He became extremely popular among modern collectors with even one of his lesser known works titled Zhichuan Resettlement was sold for almost £45,000,000.

I like this artist because of his unique style of brush stroke. He works in a some what caotic style with much rougher brush strokes than other artists making all his paintings look like no other. I feel that he has served as an inspiration for any artist practicing the sumi-e style.

Cyril Blondeau

Cyril Blondeau is a contemporary modern artist. He was originaly a web designer but later went on to begin treditional painting. He sais that his main inspiration was his Japanese mother who often practiced the style as well as the french comic bande dessinée. His style looks similar to that of Zhu Da’s. He attended the Ecole Nationale Supérieur des Arts Appliqués that is an extremely prestigous school in france.

I like his painting style because has created his own unique style from the sumi-e technique were he paints the initial body and allows the paint to have more freedom letting is flow and give realy unique effects. He then adds details to the image using much smaller and precise brush strokes. This gives off a realy cool effect and it looks extremely unique.

References

Blog,. "Sumi-E Painting Gallery With Animals Painted By Cyril Blondeau". N.p., 2016. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

Chinaonlinemuseum.com,. "Wang Meng Painting Gallery | Chinese Art Galleries | China Online Museum". N.p., 2016. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

SÅ‚awomir Sobczak, Atelier.xyz. "Sumi-E.Pl | Art Gallery Of Mariusz Szmerdt | Sumi-E, Suibokuga Ink Artworks, Watercolors And Martial Art Techniques Paintings". Sumi-e.pl. N.p., 2016. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

Wikipedia,. "Ink Wash Painting". N.p., 2016. Web. 3 Mar. 2016.

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