178
Part Three – PENS, INK, BRUSHES and PAPER
The more water you add the more
transparent and thinner the wash will be. The
wash is applied by dipping the brush into the
ink and applying it in an even coat to the
appropriate area. Washes can also be used in
a more formal way, to create the illusion of
form. This is done by a transition of tone over
the object, putting one side of the object in
light gradually tonally changing to the other
side of the object which would be completely
dark. In this type of work you have to take
into account the shadow cast, which is also
dark. You can see an example of this on page
181, where a sphere has been constructed
using a series of washes. A series of broad
marks made by the flat head brush are shown
on page 177. These marks are made by
dragging, twirling and stippling with the edge
of the brush. These are just a few examples As
with all experimental mark making you
should try to expand your repertoire by
experimenting with how you use the brush.
WET INTO WET
Another way of using the flat head brush and
other brushes is to paint wet into wet. This is
a process which again has its own beautiful
life force. To make a wet into wet mark,
dampen your paper (the wetter the paper is
the more the mark will spread of its own
accord).
1/A wet area has been left on the paper. The
ink-loaded brush has then been allowed to
touch this wet area to create a flower-like
spreading effect. Either a round head or
Oriental brush can be used to achieve this.
2/ The paper is not as wet as in the previous
example, but the same brush is used. The
paper has been touched repeatedly. Lines
have also been drawn across the paper. You
can observe that the spreading is not so
radical as in 1.
3/ The flat head brush has been used here,
and the conditions are the same as in 2
except that we have immediately blotted the
drawing with another piece of paper to stop
the ink spreading.
4/The paper is not as wet as in the previous
examples and is only damp. The flat head
brush loaded with ink has been placed on the
paper on its flat broad side to make the
marks. You can see that the spread of ink is
very limited and more congealed. These
types of marks should be used to imply
textures or objects such as flowers.