This ancient Japanese technique is ideal for teaching art to the beginner because the student is quickly able create successful pictures with four basic brushstrokes. Mastery of Sumi-e leads to new levels of creativity.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
108 of 113 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"as clear as a mountain brook ",
By DJ Rix (NJ USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sumi-E Book (Paperback)
In all honesty, Sumi-E is best learned from a teacher in a live workshop. The combination of exacting brushstrokes, meditative attitude & free, almost unconscious, expression is difficult to take out of a book alone. Sumi-E has an intimate connection to Zen practices. But that said, in the absence of a teacher, Yolanda Mayhall's book is the best I've seen. Her purpose here is to get you started on the right path - & in Sumi-E, the right path means everything. The "Four Gentleman" brushstrokes & their basic variations are the substance of The Sumi-E Book. Bamboo, Wild Orchid, Chrysanthemum & Plum Branch represent "all the forms in the universe." One could endlessly write haiku on those four natural forms, so why not paintings, too? This book is as clear as a mountain brook & as gentle as a breeze. Successfully achieving a bamboo branch & leaf (& you will succeed) is enough to draw you onward down that right path. Even children can grasp the basics of these strokes using inexpensive brushes & watercolors, & they will wonder at the simplicity of it. Just as poets return again & again to haiku in order to sharpen their observation skills & sense of economy, all artists will reap large benefits from the spare, mono-chromatic beauty of Sumi-E that will enrich your other mediums & quiet your mind as well. Highly recommended. Bob Rixon
68 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Sumi-e Sense for Beginners,
By Carol Sanfilippo (Florida) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Sumi-E Book (Paperback)
I highly recommend Yolanda Mayhall's book for those who want to ease into bamboo ink painting for pleasure. I had heard that learning how to paint the "four gentlemen" (bamboo, chrysanthemum, plum blossom, and orchid) would give me the strokes I need to do any painting. As a beginner, I didn't fully realize the meaning of this until I discovered Mayhall's book. She has specific, simple instructions on doing the basic strokes. Then she has "Related Strokes" sections in her book. There she shows how these simple strokes can be used to paint a variety of subjects from dragons to squirrels to people. My brush is freer and my range of subjects wider sense discovering her book.
66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Practical book for beginning sumi-e painters,
This review is from: The Sumi-E Book (Paperback)
This is a very practical book for the beginning student of Chinese or Japanese brush painting. Clear, simple and precise illustrations show how to execute the traditional"four gentlemen"- bamboo, orchid, chrysanthemum, and plum. Students will learn such important concepts as how to achieve depth by double dipping the brush into a darker tone of ink, how to achieve movement by varying the pressure on the brush and how to achieve texture by varying the amount of moisture in the brush. The bonuses of this book are the examples of other forms one can make using related strokes. For example, after mastering the bamboo leaves one can easily paint a bird, lizard, or butterfly. After mastering the orchid leaves one can use the same strokes to paint fish, underwater grasses, and water lilies. Once students gain confidence they can naturally go on to master tiger lilies, rocks, mountains, and pine trees, all beautifully illustrated in this book....
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
Sumi-e, a Japanese term meaning "ink picture," was brought to Japan around the seventh century A.D. by Japanese scholars returning from a visit to China. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
brush vertically, bamboo twigs, press stroke, bamboo leaf, load your brush, plum branch, accent lines, bamboo stalks, wild orchid, flying whites Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Four Gentlemen New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Sumi-e, a Japanese term meaning "ink picture," was brought to Japan around the seventh century A.D. by Japanese scholars returning from a visit to China. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
brush vertically, bamboo twigs, press stroke, bamboo leaf, load your brush, plum branch, accent lines, bamboo stalks, wild orchid, flying whites Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Four Gentlemen New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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