Thursday, April 21, 2022

Two Ways to Paint a Branch

Two ways to paint a branch: 
1. Brush travels away from the trunk... 
2..Or toward the trunk. Which do you do?

Don't miss the new video on YouTube.

Posted by James Gurney at Thursday, April 21, 2022

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi,this is Lynnwood! It always seems more natural to feel your way out from the trunk,but sometimes you can use the tip of the brush at the tip of the branch and use the graduating belly of the brush to make the branch naturally thicker as you approach the trunk.In this case,you can feel the gesture more as if the branch were reaching back through space to grasp or pierce the trunk,as with a bony , gnarly hand...instead of that searching outward feeling .After all there are hidden processes in the smallest twig that reach fruition deep in the ground.The gesture of nature is always toward balance .Growth is both in opposition to and dependent on gravity!....oh,an embarrassingly naive question. How did you achieve the little light areas in the windows on the wall that started as a dark brown wash? Loved the painting...it made me want to paint. Which I went and did!!:))

April 21, 2022 at 9:55 PM
James Gurney said...

Lynwood, you make a great case for the "toward the trunk" approach. Doug Madill on Instagram put it this way: "A sumi-e painter once said imagine a single tree branch finding their unique way home to the main branch or trunk."
--
I might have used a tiny bit of white gouache for those windows.

April 22, 2022 at 10:19 AM
Unknown said...

That is so cool! And thank you for your answer I know that sometimes what looks initially like a darker wash can end up as a light area. .I struggle with that

April 22, 2022 at 10:50 AM

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