Inkwash Diptych
San Fransisco TravelsIndia ink on 130gsm paper
two 11cmx9cm sheets of paper October 2020 Exhibition TextSan Fransisco Travels is a diptych ink illustration made with India ink on two sheets of 130gsm paper. It features two different locations around the city of San Fransisco, drawn from photos I took while I was visiting some family in the city. While the original photographs are simply the cityscape, I also drew myself into each photograph, in order to simulate my interaction with the environment and to invoke the feelings I felt while there. This piece is inspired by Xiao Yuncong and Georgia O'Keefe, two artists who are extremely skilled at creating scenery using both ink and paint respectively. The purpose of this project was to explore the idea of fitting in with your surroundings, and whether or not I felt as though I belonged in a big city, versus living in a smaller city like Milwaukee. This relates to my theme of self exploration of (female) identity in adolescence.
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Planning
Inspiration
My first inspiration for this piece was a landscape painter during the late Ming and early Qing dynasties in China, Xiao Yuncong. For the most of his life, he lived in Nanching, and in the mid 1600s, he and his two younger brothers became political activists in the Fushe “Revival Society", where they sought to fight against corruption and factionalism. When the Ming dynasty ended in 1644, Xiao became less involved in politics and instead focused on supporting himself as a painter. The technique that Yuncong used in these intricate landscapes is known as gui shu pai, where he used dry and twisting brushstrokes on the natural setting he was painting.
My second inspiration for this diptych is Georgia O'Keefe, and specifically her landscape paintings. O'Keefe grew up in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, and is most well known for her contributions to modern art. While teaching in West Texas, she developed a personal style that helped her communicate her thoughts and feelings through abstraction. In the summer of 1929, O'Keefe moved to New Mexico, where her work shifted from flowers and New York cityscapes to Native American and Mexican cultures. My Front Yard, Summer is one of the paintings she created whilst living in New Mexico, and is a depiction of what she could see from her front yard. I was really struck by this painting because of its hazy blending of colors and feeling of relaxation that exudes from every corner of the piece. While this project is not a painting, I want it to envoke a similar feeling: when you look at My Front Yard, Summer, you feel as though you are at home and in a safe place, even when you have never been there before. |
Planning Sketches
For my sketches, I simply drew from photos I had taken around the city and drew myself into each landscape. I made sure to look at photos that had significant architecture or something that stood out as distinctly "San Fransisco", versus other cities, like Milwaukee (where I live). There would be no color in any of these pieces, only different hues made from watering down the ink. For the first sketch, I based it off of my experience at Golden Gate park, where I went to go on the Ferris wheel that had been place there for the anniversary of the park. While I was there, I didn't get a good picture of the whole park, so I wasn't planning on using it as a final location in my triptych. But I still wanted to sketch out the placement of the area and begin thinking about the composition of each piece for my final.
For my second sketch, I drew out a location that ended up being in my final piece. It's of the Golden Gate Bridge, when I was driving past it. This was a day when I drove across it, and I was able to catch a picture of the bridge that showcased a different side of the city of San Fransisco; the picture features the bridge, an of course iconic part of the city, but also the serene waters below it and green grass where people are able to relax and watch the boats go by. although the picture is the result of a small fraction in time, it was a good option for this piece. The last sketch was not really from a picture, but from memory, when I had gone to Golden Gate park to go on the newly installed Ferris wheel. It had been installed right before I arrived in the city as a celebration for the park's anniversary, and it was one of the landmarks I was really excited to see whilst visiting my family. This was a sketch where I practiced drawing myself into the image, keeping perspective and symmetry in mind by placing the figure on the lower right in the foreground of the sketch, with the Ferris wheel in the center background, to give off a sense of radial symmetry. |
Process
ExperimentationI had previously worked with India ink during the summer of 2020, when I participated in the UW ArtsEco illustration program. One of the projects that we did during the program was to learn about ink washes, and specifically when illustrating a cityscape. My experimentation lies in the difference of technique between my previous experience, versus what I did for this project. During the summer, we were to sit in one spot and quickly sketch out the scene that we saw, and then go in with ink for a certain amount of time (generally 20 minutes). For this triptych project, I decided to not constrain myself to a time in order to experiment with a higher level of detail. While I was in the city, I generally was not able to stand in one place for too long, so I would take pictures of something appealing and then when I was back home, I would pull up the picture on my computer and draw from that. This allowed me to zoom in on certain areas, and create a more flushed out landscape.
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Process
The first step in this process was to take the photo that I would want to draw at a later time. I was in San Fransisco and the whole time, I was looking for different districts that had interesting architecture and an interesting environment that I would want to transfer onto a sheet of paper, and then draw myself in. I ended up taking countless pictures of interesting areas in the Castro, the Mission, and many other neighborhoods in the city. After this, I went back and narrowed down all of the photos I had taken to two that interested me the most (I also made sure to make the pictures be from different areas in the city).
Once I had chosen the two images, I transferred them to my computer and began to draw from there. I first made sure to make a small outline for where I wanted the landscape to be, so that there would be a bit of a border around the piece and make the final piece a bit more polished. I then made a bit of a rough sketch with pencil to get a rough idea of where everything was going to go, including where I had decided to place myself in the landscape. This first step would allow me to see what areas would need different values of ink. As aforementioned, the next step was to put different values of ink into areas of each landscape. I watered down the ink like I would do to watercolor, and used a rounded paint brush to paint lighter washes and slowly build up that darker colors as well. In this step I tried really hard to not go into too much detail for this part of the piece, because I wanted to go back in later with my reed pen to get crisp lines. Once I was done with the washes, I went back with a wooden reed pen to do line work. It was a bit difficult to get thinner lines, since the pen has a set thickness that cannot be change. It was also a bit tedious with the amount of times I would have to dip back into my ink in order to keep drawing, so some of the lines are a bit uneven. Nevertheless, the drawing of shapes over the washes is what fleshed out the piece. You can see to the right, that the reed pen lines allow certain architectural details to stand out. After I was done lining the piece, I went back in with my washes to areas that I thought needed more value. |
Compare and Contrast
Compare:
-Similar techniques having to do with value added to landscape: both pieces have well blended blotches of hues, showing where the sunlight is hitting the mountains and where shadows are cast (i.e in mine, the bridge casts a shadow on the ground below it).
- Emotions evoked from viewing the piece can be comparable as well, with both soft blended scenes adding to a tone of tranquility and peace. When the viewer looks at both O'Keefe's painting and my ink wash, they feel as though they are actually looking at the real landscape, and feels the quiet peace from the rural (or in my case, urban) area.
Contrast:
-There is no color in my piece, whereas O'Keefe's painting is color and no linework. This is significant because it affects the emotion of the pieces; in order for mine to feel as tranquil the piece by O'Keefe, I used light shades of the ink for the landscape.
- the settings that the pieces reflect are incredibly different. My series is two different areas in the city San Francisco, whereas O'Keefe's work is a view from New Mexico. There is also a different connection between myself the landscape I illustrated, and the O'Keefe and her work; the landscape in O'Keefe's painting is of her backyard, and mine is from a city I was visiting. This effects the intention of the works (mine focuses on my exploration on places to live with a focus on the next chapter of my life, moving from my home town).
-Similar techniques having to do with value added to landscape: both pieces have well blended blotches of hues, showing where the sunlight is hitting the mountains and where shadows are cast (i.e in mine, the bridge casts a shadow on the ground below it).
- Emotions evoked from viewing the piece can be comparable as well, with both soft blended scenes adding to a tone of tranquility and peace. When the viewer looks at both O'Keefe's painting and my ink wash, they feel as though they are actually looking at the real landscape, and feels the quiet peace from the rural (or in my case, urban) area.
Contrast:
-There is no color in my piece, whereas O'Keefe's painting is color and no linework. This is significant because it affects the emotion of the pieces; in order for mine to feel as tranquil the piece by O'Keefe, I used light shades of the ink for the landscape.
- the settings that the pieces reflect are incredibly different. My series is two different areas in the city San Francisco, whereas O'Keefe's work is a view from New Mexico. There is also a different connection between myself the landscape I illustrated, and the O'Keefe and her work; the landscape in O'Keefe's painting is of her backyard, and mine is from a city I was visiting. This effects the intention of the works (mine focuses on my exploration on places to live with a focus on the next chapter of my life, moving from my home town).
Reflection
I'm fairly satisfied with the finished product for this project. While this was only my second time working with ink for a landscape, I thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with the medium. It was a bit challenging at times to get every detail I wanted, because of the size of the reed pen, but overall I believe that each landscape has its own characteristics that allow one to be transported to that part of the city. I was really inspired by the city of San Fransisco while I was there, with every different area having a distinct personality and interesting environments. The three locations in my triptych were the Golden Gate Bridge, Nob Hill, and Dolores Park. Each place is so different, and that is why I chose them as the three to represent changes in my life for this project. The purpose of these three paintings was to envision myself somewhere else, and how I would fit into a different environment. I am at a turning point in my life, where I am about to go onto to the next stage- leaving home and starting my own path to adulthood. While it is not happening exactly now, this trip to San Fransisco and the documentation of different areas around the city helped me think more about what I want to do, and what things I want to achieve. I think that my three ink washes showcase the tranquil feelings of growing into yourself, and the small drawing of myself in each piece solidifies this meaning.
ACT Reflection
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon you art work:
My triptych landscape piece is similar to that of Georgia O'Keefe's in the way that the shadows gently blend together to create a sense of tranquility of the environment.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Xiao Yuncong used dry, twisting brush strokes with ink to create landscapes of rural, ancient China, with a high level of detail.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I can infer that Georgia O'Keefe's move to New Mexico inspired her to make a change in the kind of art that she was producing, and that her interest in New Mexico's many cultures and beautiful scenery translate into her landscape paintings of mountains.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Whilst conducting my research I wanted to find pieces that not only were landscapes with illustrative qualities, but had a tone of relaxation and kindness. This would help me develop my own emotions in my pieces, because they show that one can find a sense of belonging, even in a large city like San Fransisco.
5. What references did you make while reading your research?
One thing I understand after researching for this project, is that Xiao Yuncong's environment in which he lived influenced his very traditional Chinese ink artwork, whereas Georgia O'Keefe's life on a farm in rural Wisconsin (and later New Mexico) influenced her tranquil landscapes.
My triptych landscape piece is similar to that of Georgia O'Keefe's in the way that the shadows gently blend together to create a sense of tranquility of the environment.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Xiao Yuncong used dry, twisting brush strokes with ink to create landscapes of rural, ancient China, with a high level of detail.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I can infer that Georgia O'Keefe's move to New Mexico inspired her to make a change in the kind of art that she was producing, and that her interest in New Mexico's many cultures and beautiful scenery translate into her landscape paintings of mountains.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Whilst conducting my research I wanted to find pieces that not only were landscapes with illustrative qualities, but had a tone of relaxation and kindness. This would help me develop my own emotions in my pieces, because they show that one can find a sense of belonging, even in a large city like San Fransisco.
5. What references did you make while reading your research?
One thing I understand after researching for this project, is that Xiao Yuncong's environment in which he lived influenced his very traditional Chinese ink artwork, whereas Georgia O'Keefe's life on a farm in rural Wisconsin (and later New Mexico) influenced her tranquil landscapes.
Bibliography
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60764?exhibitionId=%7B7f4f834c-9365-44c5-9369-df76a2cf6879%7D&oid=60764&pkgids=445&pg=1&rpp=4&pos=11&ft=*
- https://arthur.io/art/georgia-okeeffe/my-front-yard-summer
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/65555
- https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/about-georgia-okeeffe/
- https://arthur.io/art/georgia-okeeffe/my-front-yard-summer
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/65555
- https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/about-georgia-okeeffe/