Painting Birds and Flowers in Colored Ink

In this workshop students paint animals, flowers and landscapes in ink. Students begin with black sumi-é ink as a base and explore color later. The idea for this workshop derives from the instructor’s exploration of line and wash techniques to portray nature’s expressive properties. The instructor provides several live painting demonstrations, along with individual critique to aid participants in their drawing.

The class environment is spiritually charged with live fragrant flowers to paint from, long rows of drawing tables to work on, and the instructor’s artwork on the walls for study. A large HD television screen plays nature movies featuring birds and wildlife created by the instructor to create an atmosphere and provide ample animal and landscape references. This is to help the participants focus on their subject’s natural surroundings by aiding appreciation and drawing. The instructor provides access to her large database of photographs taken of nature over the years for reference, although students may bring their own reference to work from.

This workshop is for those who want to learn a new drawing practice, as well as those seeking to sharpen their drawing skills. Drawing in inks, especially the Sumi-é Ink style, takes persistence and practice. The ink’s permanence teaches students to respect the rhythm of line and its speed/pacing, compositional placement, color harmonies, proportion and line weight. This is both a relaxing and challenging class, suitable for all levels and ages.