I love calligraphy brush textures. There’s just something really beautiful about them; I kind of regret not getting into it earlier so I could have learnt Chinese calligraphy when it was more accessible to me lol.

I’ve also sort of mulled over how to combine texture and my usual art; the visual differences just seem so stark. But I guess the only way to combine them is just to do it. So I pushed to finish this in one sitting (ish), in between episodes of Haolan, so the clothing and mood are very much influenced by the drama :9

There’s something a bit scary about figuring out how to mesh the ink and careful painting too.

By itself, an abstract chinese ink painting is a little wild. A little uncontrolled. It feels a little terrifying to just subject a piece that I spent some hours on rendering carefully, to that uncontrolled texture.

But again, maybe it’s just a matter of practice, and learning where the where the restraint goes, and where the energy is allowed to crackle around it.

I don’t know that I would label this a sketch. Maybe a study? Not a study in rendering, more a study in ink control.

Watercolour, coloured pencils, gouache, gold acrylic ink and Chinese ink, on Arches A4 300gsm hot press watercolour paper.