Book of Drawings - The Construction

Now that I have an idea of the direction I want to go in for my finished book, I can now start to put into practice my ideas.

Since I had a very good idea in my mind of what I wanted my book to look like, I have made it with very little trouble, decorating it with pale blue paint and stencilling the design using Gesso (acrylic white paint, PVA glue and talcum powder mixed together to create a paste that hardens upon drying).

Finished book, without final design

Book with beginnings of the final design.

Originally I said I would like to attempt to recreate the Chinese brush paintings, digitally. With this in mind I have become familiar with another piece of software called Paint Tool Sai.

I have had this program for a number of years, but have not had a chance to put it to much use until now. It operates similarly to Photoshop, with one additional feature. Paint Tool Sai has a unique water brush designed to create the subtlety of a wash of watercolour.

I have seen the program used by those more familiar with the program and the effects you achieve are very pretty.

I can also use Photoshop to create some ink type paintings, but this depends on being able to download new brush types and then experiment with them.

This is one of my first experiments with Paint Tool Sai. Here I have attempted to create the image of a Blue Crested Heron standing in the water. Around it are pink blossoms.

The colours are very soft as I have attempted to create a gradient effect. The black ink strokes I wanted to keep quite bold and imperfect, linking to the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-Sabi, a happy accident.

All in all I am very happy with this painting. The composition and the strokes are quite appealing.

This is one for the book.