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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2014 21:27:26 GMT -5
It's traditional here in our local SCA Kingdom that court awards at every level are accompanied by a hand-made scroll. Scrolls for higher-level awards like peerages are usually much nicer than those for merit-level awards, but almost everything gets a scroll of some kind. This creates a bottomless need for calligraphy and illumination work, and sometimes the pace set by our beloved ruling class outstrips the pace of production.
The Kingdom scriptorium recently put out a call for more "scroll blanks". These are general purpose, pre-illuminated scrolls to which calligraphy can be added later as needed. For European-style scrolls, this normally means leafy borders and such. I decided to use this challenge as an opportunity to improve my brushwork and teach myself Emaki-style illustrations.
I'm using bottled sumi ink on kozo (mulberry) paper. I bought a "sketch pad" of this paper at the art store and it wasn't very expensive. I have an ink stick and suzuri ink stone for making ink from scratch, but I figured until my skills are better there's no sense spending the time making ink for it.
I am working from a few reference books on emaki that I have here at home. I scan in images from the books, print them at the size I want, then trace them directly ink in using a light box. This is not the most artistic thing, but neither am I.
Anyway, I'm going to start posting images here as I do them, and hopefully you'll be able to see them improve over time. If you want to use any of these images for anything, please get my permission first. I almost always grant permission to anything not for profit.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2014 21:28:45 GMT -5
My reference books:
Grilli, Elise Japanese Picture Scrolls New York, NY Crown Publishers, Inc. 1958
Murase Miyeko Emaki; Narrative Scrolls from Japan Japan The Asia Society 1983
Okudaira Hideo Emaki: Japanese Picture Scrolls Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan Charles E. Tuttle Company 1962
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2014 21:30:59 GMT -5
The Eshi Zoshi emaki from the 14th century follows the life of a poor artist in Japan’s Kamakura period. The rest of the tale’s not a pretty one, but in this scene the artist rejoices upon hearing of his appointment as a court painter.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2014 21:32:55 GMT -5
The Heiji Monogatari emaki from the 13th century tell of the .tale of the 30+ years of war between the Heike (Taira) and Genji (Minamoto) clans in the 12th century. Only three scrolls remain, showing various campaigns, battles, and events.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2014 21:37:04 GMT -5
Owned by the Satake family until 1915, the "The 36 Immortal Poets" emaki from the 13th century comprise two scrolls of 18 poets each, and have been declared an important cultural property. this poet, Minamoto np Nobuakira lived from 909 to 970 CE and his pensive pose matches the subdued mood of his accompanying poem.
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Post by solveig on Sept 29, 2014 12:39:28 GMT -5
Noble Cousins! Greetings from Solveig! II'm using bottled sumi ink on kozo (mulberry) paper. I bought a "sketch pad" of this paper at the art store and it wasn't very expensive. I have an ink stick and suzuri ink stone for making ink from scratch, but I figured until my skills are better there's no sense spending the time making ink for it. Generally speaking, it is a good idea to use bottled sumi ink for practice as it tends to maintain its consistency better than does the ink you grind yourself from an ink stick. Personally, I only use ink stick ink when making scrolls to give away or hypothetically scrolls to display at an A&S exhibit. As for bottled sumi, I have resorted to importing the stuff from Japan by using the rakuten marketplace which processes orders for several different calligraphy supply stores in Japan. Bottled sumi ink comes in a variety of different grades, but my calligraphy sensei insisted that we use sakuhinyou ink. This can be found by searching for: 墨 作品用 Practice paper in hanshi size can be found by searching for: 半紙 For actual scrolls I have prefered to use kurotani #5 paper which is imported to North America by Japanese Paper Place Unfortunately, they closed their retail store and are now a strictly wholesale operation. Regardless, actual hand laid kozo paper is best for scrolls. Japanese calligraphy paper has two sides. If you have paper of decent quality, then you write or paint on the smooth side.
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Saionji Shonagon
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Sept 29, 2014 13:33:32 GMT -5
Anything that gets us away from the same damn ukiyo-e inspired scrolls! This is a great start and I look forward to seeing more of your drawings. BTW, Yasutomo makes and markets some sumi supplies which you can find through Blick Art. Should be ok for practice. www.dickblick.com/categories/sumipainting/
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2014 15:52:45 GMT -5
Generally speaking, it is a good idea to use bottled sumi ink for practice as it tends to maintain its consistency better than does the ink you grind yourself from an ink stick. Personally, I only use ink stick ink when making scrolls to give away or hypothetically scrolls to display at an A&S exhibit. For purposes of the challenge, there are bonus points for using period pigments/inks. To keep parity with European work, they are going to count sumi from a bottle as modern and sumi from a stick as period. This seems fair to me. I will stay with bottled ink until I am more confident with the brush, then switch to stick ink. Then I can retire the bottled ink to the basement for woodworking. Thank you for confirming this. None of the references I have make that clear, but I suspected it was so. Almost all of my materials at this point are from Yasutomo, although my local art store that carries the brand is " Artist and Craftsman Supply". Is there any difference between the Yasutomo ink in the round bottles and the Yasutomo ink in the rectangular bottles? The only visible difference is that the rectangular bottles have spouts for pouring.
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Saionji Shonagon
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Sept 29, 2014 16:40:36 GMT -5
Is there any difference between the Yasutomo ink in the round bottles and the Yasutomo ink in the rectangular bottles? The only visible difference is that the rectangular bottles have spouts for pouring. I think (but cannot be sure) it's just packaging.
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Mega Zenjirou Yoshi
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Post by Mega Zenjirou Yoshi on Sept 29, 2014 19:24:16 GMT -5
Is there any difference between the Yasutomo ink in the round bottles and the Yasutomo ink in the rectangular bottles? The only visible difference is that the rectangular bottles have spouts for pouring. I think (but cannot be sure) it's just packaging. Ran this by a friend who owns an art supply store and is a professional calligrapher... "Yes, but I can't say exactly what. Western calligraphers swear by the green bottle stuff, but it is very corrosive to steel pens. Might be glossiness, water-proffness, etc." i thought i remembered something about about one being more water proof when dry, and the other thinning into washes better... But it's been 14 years since I worked at that store, and she'd know better than I.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2014 7:20:31 GMT -5
The Choju Giga scrolls are drawn in the hakubyo style, which uses only black lines. The first two scrolls are attributed to the monk Toba Soujou who lived from 1053 to 1140 CE. These two emaki show mundane and fantastic animals imitating human beings.
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Saionji Shonagon
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Post by Saionji Shonagon on Sept 30, 2014 15:18:01 GMT -5
The Choju Giga scrolls are drawn in the hakubyo style, which uses only black lines. The first two scrolls are attributed to the monk Toba Soujou who lived from 1053 to 1140 CE. These two emaki show mundane and fantastic animals imitating human beings. I think this one has to be my favorite emaki ever.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 6:02:49 GMT -5
I took a little license with this excerpt from the Choju Giga. In the original, the figures are facing left, and the expression on their faces is one of dismay. Hideo Okudaira points out that since these scrolls are read from right to left, a reader progressing through the scroll from by unrolling with the left hand the would see this reaction shot first and the chase scene I copied yesterday after. I thought that placing these figures after the text and having a pleasant reaction to the words on the scroll would be more appropriate.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2014 6:22:37 GMT -5
I think this one has to be my favorite emaki ever. It's certainly higher on my list than most of Yamai no Soshi ("Diseases Scroll") and Gaki Zoshi ("Hungry Ghosts Scroll"). It's more entertaining, and the artwork is more dynamic and evocative of more pleasant feelings. Most people view it as one of humanity's first efforts in what we think of as "comics" today. I can't avoid placing "36 Immortal Poets" higher, though. It's like "Poet Trading Cards, collect them all!" and I just love that.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2014 6:37:09 GMT -5
While the 12th Century Yamai no Soshi (Diseases Scroll) mostly depicts people suffering from afflictions like insomnia and obesity, in the background of one scene was this image of a calm servant faithfully carrying her mistress’ burden.
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