Good Morning Sunshine! Clouds are back! Something about Shibui?

Black coffee at the right! Climbed out to the audible book still going! Will need to backtrack with that one. Oh well. I have listened to it several times___so maybe not. A new book came in, not sure it will help in any way, but the title suggested it could. Do see pictures I might consider their designs pictorially. I have a small library if a whole room counts as small.

Today will be a day of writing. Going down through the info collected and making it make sense, and marrying it to how Shibui works. The result of a Shibu is it can look traditional once done, but requires reverse engineering to get there! This is what needs explanation.

With this image: It was with purpose I kept the watercolor tint light. After studying the foundation, and determining what side of the paper would be the bottom, according to what was found. In this case, I saw an owl. I began to work the illusion.

After working on foundations, you get a feel for the possibilities. You begin to recognize what is to be reengineered to create the desired image.

Regarding this image: Not outlining the drips in the background that are coming down from the top of the paper; in the background “pushes them back” creating depth of field. My response was that this would create a possible illusion of being in the woods, where there was an owl in white fog, sitting on a tree.

I ventured two vine-like drops to help push those not outlined by black micron pen back, behind the owl. I chose to let the yellow spatter as is, leaving these to their own interpretation by my viewer.

I began working runs of watercolor choosing to use black India Ink micron pen 05’s. The work created by Black India Ink is design work.

I felt the light blue watercolor worked well for the illusion of fog.

This image could be taken further by using pastel pencils to create wisps of fog, perhaps a white Neo Color 2. Some light tints done with fine brushwork could be worked on the left side of the paper to give the illusion of trees, this would push the depth of field even deeper. It could be done to establish a horizon line. It may make a better story to add at least another portion of a tree. To create these is to do intentional Shibui. When intentional work is done it is to support what was found. I could imagine the other end of that branch coming up from the bottom of this page as if it broke off in real life and was sticking upward. To do this a Shibuiest is considering composition. The goal of composition regarding a Shibui is to lead the view around the whole image. So that he or she is led from one thing to another. Composing the events into a story creates interest in what the story is.

Working this Shibui further would take away the flatness there is at this point. I stopped here so I could use it as an example with my students. I will pull it and work on it one day.

Flatness happens when you can only travel into the piece just so far. Wisps of fog will help the illusion. If I work in the blue area and create shapes that look like bushes, ( leaves and small branches) it would make for a more interesting story.

At this point, I have fulfilled the requirements of the Shibui foundation. Meaning this began with action art, and then became found image art.

I can see adding more leaves. Perhaps a finely created art nouveau-like border. Just on the top of the page, the shape of a staple, upside down. This would counterbalance the dark silhouetted design of the work on the bottom. Bigger leaves on the bottom would be a good choice. Giving them a 3-D appearance would add to the image as well.