Rethinking Bamboo

[liralen]

I haven't like the last couple of bamboo paintings I've done... so I tried a few different things last night.



I started with the assumption that few leaves are better. So this is what I did when I went happily crazy and did lots and lots of leaves. I munged one of the stalks, ah well, but I was using the already liquid Yi-de ink, which I'm not that used to, yet. As you can tell by some of the darker, fuzzier leaves, I am saturating it a bit too much. Still... I like the layout of this better than the ones I have been doing...



There's a painting by Yuming Zhu of a couple of bamboo from the ground up that made me rethink my scale of my bamboo. I don't think this is... uhm... botanically correct, as the windward side is a bit... sparse, but I liked the concept very much and may do more research to make this better. It does seem more interesting to me, though.

Comments

[7veilsphaedra.livejournal.com]

Oh, gorgeous! The over-saturated effect is surprisingly effective. I actually like the looseness of it, how the accidental element adds to the picture. It keeps the image from getting too tight and controlled, and lends you experience.

I have no idea if this is true, but the second image is so powerful that it feels like it is 7-feet high.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Neat! I'm glad you liked those affects... and why. Thank you, so much.

Heh. The second and the first are actually on the same size paper. It's just a matter of scale... which is why I had to rethink the scale to see what I really wanted to do.

[archangelbeth]

Top one is nice, and bottom one is lovely!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Hee! Thank you!

[conjure-lass.livejournal.com]

Ahhhh! I like these much better! There's more life to them than your previous ones, and that makes it feel more real to me.

The second one is especially nice. I like how tall they seem and how you can feel the wind blowing when you're looking at them. However, I don't think you're as "botanically incorrect" as you think, though they are a bit sparse as you've said.

Very nice. I like them very much.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Heh. The sections are too long for real ones, given the size of the leaves... the branches are likely too long as well, as they don't really reach *that* far. The tops should be thinner and should have gone over as well, but that could be discounted as simply they're off-screen. And, more than likely, most bunches of bamboo are in more than just three stalks. *laughs*

There's a lot supposedly wrong with the bottom one, but... I think it got the spirit of what I wanted. So it's all the better for that. As you said, they're more alive... and that may be what really counts.

Thank you!!

[conjure-lass.livejournal.com]

Well yeah...most of the points you made are...well...true. BUT! Art is all about gaining a reaction from your viewer, whether its writing or painting or whatever. And since you got such a lovely reaction from us, you obviously attained the true point of art.

So unless you're planning on selling these to the National Botany Society, i'd say just go with what feels good to you. *nod nod* Afterall...its not like the vast majority of us even KNOW what a bamboo tree looks like anyway. *giggle*

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*giggles at the last*

Yes. Indeed.

I'm glad it pleased!

[r0ck3tsci3ntist.livejournal.com]

I think the big one is my favorite piece so far. <3

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yay!! Thank you! ♥

[2metaldog.livejournal.com]

I like the more leafy look. When bamboo grows wild, it is called a forest, isn't it? That brings to mind leafy things to me. Or maybe that's just because of all the green stuff I have around me.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yes! Kinda like this! (http://www.walldecorshops.com/AK1811.html) Which is mildly daunting... *laughs* But yes, lots of leaves... all at the top of the canopy or out into open areas.

Yeah, I have nearly nothing green around me anymore. It's interesting how one thinks...

[2metaldog.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly. I like all the green. While I love the heat of a desert, I don't think I'd like the lack of green things visually.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah... it feels... barren. Especially compared to the riot of green that was Seattle, this place is very bare... mountains that are more rock than trees. That was odd to start. Now it's just normal. *laughs*

[2metaldog.livejournal.com]

Flying over Denver when I was going/returning from Ycon, I was puzzled over the utter lack of trees. it seemed so... wrong.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yeah. We're high plains, nigh on desert, only 12 inches of water a year. So no water for trees, really, other than right around the farmhouses or, of course, in developments, and we steal it all from the Western Slope. It's 300 days of sunshine and the wind blows just as often.

I should write something set in the specificity of the high plains sometime...

[aruarian-dancer.livejournal.com]

The leaves on the bottom one are very good.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Thanks!! I'm glad you like them... they were fun to put in and try to keep some idea of branches connecting them.

[crimini.livejournal.com]

Purty!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thank you!

[incandescens]

They're lovely, and you can really feel the flow of the energy in the bottom one.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Yeah... it was fun trying to show the wind through the things it was pushing around. *laughs*

[bloodthirstylt.livejournal.com]

I think that they are both gorgeous.

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[annieroo2.livejournal.com]

You haven't? I love your bamboo! I'm going against the flow here because I like them both but the first is my favorite so far. ;)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Hee. It's good that you do these things. *laughs*

*hugs you* I'm glad you love them. It's cool to know!!

[stark-black.livejournal.com]

Oooooooh pretty!! The bamboo looks so good! And the leaves are really defined... well, they look defined from here anyway. xD Beautiful!!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

:D Glad you like... *smiles* Thanks!!