Sumi-e (ink painting inspired landscape)
NeuralLotus
Registered Users Posts: 43 Big grins
I had the desire to try to imitate the feeling of sumi-e and without it being monochromatic. I wanted to capture the feeling of the more ethereal side of sumi-e, while also trying to keep a feeling of distinctness, similar to Fan Kuan's "Travellers Among Mountains and Streams". So kind of in the shan shui style. But I also wanted to capture the more abstract feeling of the wu xing style. Not so much graphically, in regard to the wu xing style. But more in feeling, in emotion.
Visually, this photograph clearly trends more towards the shan shui style. But that is to be expected of photographs without heavy editing. But I think my ideas came through decently well. Exactly what I was going for, past just the styles of painting which I was imitating, is hard to describe. It's more of a feeling than anything. It comes largely from Japanese philosophies (which of course were affected by Chinese philosophies) (hence the title being sumi-e instead of the Chinese word guohua). I have mild synesthesia, so I think if I were to try to put exactly what I was thinking into words, it probably wouldn't make much sense to most people. Although I'd be happy to try if anyone was interested.
This photograph is meant to be viewed in a large format. It has been reduced for posting here. But the original size is 3795x2504. It is meant to be viewed both as one piece and each part individually (the equivalent of viewing from afar and up close for a physical piece). Again, this goes back to an idea which was part of Fan Kuan's work. It is meant to be both detailed and lacking detail at the same time.
Visually, this photograph clearly trends more towards the shan shui style. But that is to be expected of photographs without heavy editing. But I think my ideas came through decently well. Exactly what I was going for, past just the styles of painting which I was imitating, is hard to describe. It's more of a feeling than anything. It comes largely from Japanese philosophies (which of course were affected by Chinese philosophies) (hence the title being sumi-e instead of the Chinese word guohua). I have mild synesthesia, so I think if I were to try to put exactly what I was thinking into words, it probably wouldn't make much sense to most people. Although I'd be happy to try if anyone was interested.
This photograph is meant to be viewed in a large format. It has been reduced for posting here. But the original size is 3795x2504. It is meant to be viewed both as one piece and each part individually (the equivalent of viewing from afar and up close for a physical piece). Again, this goes back to an idea which was part of Fan Kuan's work. It is meant to be both detailed and lacking detail at the same time.
Hmmmmm... blarrgh...
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Thanks! Yeah, it does feel like it might be missing something. Though that was intentional, to an extent. Like I said, I was influenced by Japanese philosophy on this. Part of what I was influenced by was the concept of wabi-sabi. So it is supposed to feel imperfect and somewhat incomplete.
At the same time, I do feel like maybe there is something that could be done to improve it, without breaking that feeling. I just am not sure what. And part of me wants to leave it alone as a mistake in it would be in line with wabi-sabi (well, mistake is not the correct term, I suppose, but it is the most descriptive in terms of classical Western aesthetics). So I'm not sure yet whether I should try to improve it or not. Since the lack of improvement holds beauty in itself. But if you have any ideas of what could be better, I'm all ears. It would at least be good so I can now where I can improve for future projects. I was thinking maybe a little bit of burning across the bottom to help draw the focus inward a bit more.