Visual Arts Portfolio
Traditional Chinese Painting
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Village Homes
These three paintings portray a general image of rural Chinese homes back in ancient China. A skinny, "hard-furred" brush applied with black ink was used to draw the contour outlines of the houses, brick walls, trees, rocks, etc. Depending on the subject, the amount of ink used and how the outlines were drawn are all different. For example, when drawing the two trees in the first painting, the brush was relatively dry and the rigid lines were drawn by constant stops and different degrees of pressure applied to the brush. Colors are added afterward most of the time using a softer, medium thick brush, details were done using the brush that was used for contour outlines.
Peony
This blue peony painting is much more detailed than the yellow. Contour outlines were drawn first for both the petals and the leaves. Unlike the yellow peony painting, the ombre of the blue petals are created by layering. Starting with white, then light blue, and so on. This makes the flower look vivid. The same process is done for the leaves. This is similar to watercolor.
Peonies are flowers with gorgeous, lively blossoms. They are a common flower painted in Chinese art. The yellow peonies on the left is intended to be painted in a sort of impressionistic way compared to the blue peony below. Everything in the yellow peony painting is done with one time strokes. The ombre of the flower petals are done by covering the body of the brush completely with a base color, yellow in this case, then adding orange to the tip. Then the brush is applied onto the paper starting with the tip, then eventually the main the body of the brush. This is done several times with the tip all aiming towards the same center. The brush stroke gradually changes to a side stroke as you build further out up and down. A blackish green color with a tint of red is used for the leaves made by the release of tips.
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Birds
When painting birds, outlines of the upper part of the body is done first, starting with the beak, then the eyes, and so on, until the breast. The remaining body parts are done differently depending on the type of bird.
Peacocks
The feathers of the peacocks are depicted by first using the thin brushes that specializes in details to draw the rachis, barbs, and the eye of the feather. The, the rachis and barbs are gone over with the feather's color, with the brush coloring in the direction the barbs point out to. The technique used for painting flower petals are also used for the feathers, (except the white peacock).
Chrysolophus
Painting chrysolophus essentially uses the same techniques as the peacocks, but involves more emphasis upon manipulation of the brush.
Chinese painting was the first form of art in which I had a focused study in. These paintings shown above were done in my elementary school years, mostly in 3rd and 4th grade. You would probably ask: why aren't there any recent works? Well, towards the end of 4th grade my paintings barely ever met the expected standards, and it just seemed to get worse and worse until it ended when I stopped painting after my painting teacher moved to a different state. Although I realize that these paintings in this portfolio can't really be considered as art representing me, I wanted to show that Chinese painting was what set the basis for my understanding of art and that I still find traces of it in me in terms of art.