Author: Adam Silberberg

moka pot

Ink wash, dip pen on 5×8 inch watercolor paper

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Ink wash on 5×8 inch watercolor paper

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See my comment about the following:

Muqi Fashang, Six Persimmons, Ink wash, 13th century

 

Ink wash on 5×8 inch watercolor paper

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I’m suggesting that the one above and the next one down could be better composed to activate the page. They both feel a little cramped to me. Note the difference in the two revised versions I’ve included. I think it also isolates the objects more in space and makes it a bit more…forlorn?

There’s also something to be said for breaking out of the standard 9×12, 12×16, 16×20 world and  working in a proportion that’s as decisive and unique as the images you’re making.

Suggested composition

 

Ink wash on 5×8 inch watercolor paper

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Suggested composition

 

I ran across the following portrait of Richard Diebenkorn, by his friend David Park, and thought of your work. Just a few strokes, shapes, and values, but mostly about activating the white of the page.

Also an interesting hybrid of your two main approaches–insouciant brushwork with an activated ground, but still “tied off” to the sides of the rectangle.