One of the exercises in my last high school art class was using ink, a brush, and some water to paint live figures.
What we did was have someone in the class pose and hold it for 5 minutes. Then we did it again, for 5 minutes. Then someone else posed and held it for 4 minutes. Someone new took another pose for 4 minutes. Then two people did 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, and finally 30 seconds. (So each of the people posing also got the opportunity to experience the reduced time frame and we all got to practice.)
The really interesting thing is that you learned very quickly how to control your brush and the thickness/darkness of the line. As the time became shorter and shorter, you focused on the reduction of strokes. One of my pieces from that, now lost, was just 3 or 4 strokes, but did an excellent job of evoking a person taking a step (the 30 second pose chosen by the poser).
Just a thought for an exercise that might help you with achieving simplicity of line.
> Then I went to the library and spent the rest of the time getting Chinese painting books, and found that one book had disappeared from the shelves. Sigh. The librarian was pretty upset about it, too, and had a couple of other folks searching for it, but she put my name on it for a hold when/if they found it, but they had no luck.
If they can't find their copy, they can probably get it through Interlibrary Loan. Should be as simple as filling out a form with what you're requesting. You can even check www.worldcat.org to see if there's a copy in another library in your area.
Sadly, it looks like the closest copy is in Casper, WY. I think that amazon also has a copy for only $30, and I could just donate the copy to the library afterwards, too.
You can certainly do it that way if you like. :) I will say, interlibrary loan is not geographically limited, generally. I haven't used it often, but I've gotten books through ILL from several states away before.
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What we did was have someone in the class pose and hold it for 5 minutes. Then we did it again, for 5 minutes. Then someone else posed and held it for 4 minutes. Someone new took another pose for 4 minutes. Then two people did 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute, and finally 30 seconds. (So each of the people posing also got the opportunity to experience the reduced time frame and we all got to practice.)
The really interesting thing is that you learned very quickly how to control your brush and the thickness/darkness of the line. As the time became shorter and shorter, you focused on the reduction of strokes. One of my pieces from that, now lost, was just 3 or 4 strokes, but did an excellent job of evoking a person taking a step (the 30 second pose chosen by the poser).
Just a thought for an exercise that might help you with achieving simplicity of line.
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Great thought! Thank you!
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If they can't find their copy, they can probably get it through Interlibrary Loan. Should be as simple as filling out a form with what you're requesting. You can even check www.worldcat.org to see if there's a copy in another library in your area.
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Might be a good way to do it, I think.
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