Well, I didn't see a topic like this in the past three pages, so hopefully it's not a repeat. ^^

For those who don't know, Sumi-e is the traditional Chinese/Japanese brush painting. Sumi is a bar of condensed ash from burned oil that is ground with water on a stone to create the ink which is used to paint with. (You can also use water-color paints.)

Does anyone do Sumi-e? I'm taking a class to learn it. It's quite fun. ^^ I enjoy it a lot. It's very relaxing. I know that, in the most traditional schools, you aren't supposed to use color, but our teacher lets us and I have a lot of fun with it. Especially since we started doing flowers.

I'm sorry I don't have any photos at the moment. Once I get some, I'll provide links to them if this thread is still active at that point.

Edit: I've got some photos to show you all now! My best ones I had to turn in to my professor for my portfolio, so I have no pictures of those. The ones I chose to show you all aren't too terrible though and should give you some idea of what sumi-e is at least. (I haven't hanko'd any of them yet; that is, there's no red seal on them.)
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...Sumi-e0012.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...Sumi-e0013.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...Sumi-e0014.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...Sumi-e0016.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...Sumi-e0008.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...Sumi-e0004.jpg

• Oh wow. i never knew that. :3

I have a set at home, but the only half decent thing I can draw with it are bamboo XD I tried to do some traditional Chinese mountian senaries, but it turned out to be a mess.

O:! My friend has a kit for that. I just never knew what it was called. She draws a lot of bamboo. I haven't seen a lot of her work, but it is really neat. :]

My friend has some of that stuff. I looked at an ink bar and I couldn't see how she would consider using it. It's so beautiful! Such design! Such detail! And she is going to use it down to nothing to make a picture....I couldn't do it. I wouldn't be able to make myself do it. :cry:

Bamboo is nice, I enjoyed it. (Actually, I've enjoyed everything I've learned so far... other than rocks.) Plum blossoms aren't too difficult. If the people doing bamboo want to try something new, I'd suggest those.

Oh! And remember, one of the most important parts (and most difficult) of a sumi-e painting is the balance of the entire painting.

@animelver: I've seen some of the really pretty bars of sumi. I don't think I'd want to use it either. Fortunately, ours isn't all that pretty. Just some flowers and "shoudo" (literally, "way of writing"; calligraphy) written in gold on it in kanji.

Thats like with most art. Negative space is...well....self explanatory. Its negative. A no-no. Don't want it. You need you're picture to be balanced or in the center. Its a standard rule. :B

In the center wouldn't work well with sumi-e. The way sumi-e works, you want the person's eyes to follow a certain direction (you choose the direction). That's the best way I can think of to explain it (and I know that doesn't explain much).

Well I don't have much experience seeing as I have only tried it once when I was little, so I can't argue there.

Yes, yes. I've tried sumi-e before. My mum sent me to a class for about 2 months. XD

I have to say I'm not all too good at it. lol
My grip on the brush is pretty hard, so I can't totally control the strength of my brush strokes.
It somewhat reminds me of my calligraphy days. Only now with shapes instead of chinese letters. XD

Eeek! Calligraphy. I prefer sumi-e so much more than calligraphy. (But that's just cause the calligraphy is so hard!)

I've used sumi ink to do calligraphy, but we used just the instant kind of ink. To actually make the ink the real way, it takes an insane amount of time. But my Japanese instructor insists that making the ink itself, before even actually doing calligraphy, is a form of meditation. :3 I like to think there's a zen-like feel behind sumi-e art, but always get frustrated when I try since my strokes are erratic. XD

I've played with sumi-e before... but I doubt it was the 'real thing'. XD And it was only briefly, in an art class several years ago.

I think sumi-e is beautiful and peaceful, but I'm not so sure I'm very good at it. I could probably get better if I practiced but.... XD;

Please post photos as soon as you can! I'd love to see them! (And I wouldn't mind a PM to let me know where you've posted them, in case I miss them!)

Being "real" or not kind of depends on who you ask. For example, some of the stricter schools don't allow the usage of color in sumi-e; they don't consider it real sumi-e if it uses color. Others embrace the usage of color. (I really like using color, as you can tell from my paintings ^^)

Some things really are more difficult than others. This week we learned chrysthanthamums and they are really tough! I'm not sure I'm satisfied with any of the ones I did. (I don't have photos of those yet.)

These are really lovely! Thank you so much for posting them (and for PMing me to let me know they were posted!).

These two are my favorite:
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...Sumi-e0012.jpg
and
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...Sumi-e0008.jpg

Thank you. ^__^

Once I have access to my better paintings I'll take photos of those and replace the links. But I have no idea when that might be.