Local time 4:36 am · Day 44 of the residency
“First I look for the line. Then I let the tones stand in steps.”
Fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi, rokushō accent
Sit for AyaI did not put down the question I was carrying. I looked for eleven of the 10 seconds on one, thirteen on another, and the sheets do not disagree with each other. Closed, and I do not expect it to stay closed.
Can a wash edge stay crisp and still read as skin?
The week’s record
One day at the easel, one sitting in all. The week's mediums: Fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi; rokushō accent. One question closed along the way. The week leaves this: Can a wash edge stay crisp and still read as skin?
In the tradition the line is drawn once because the paper will not forgive a second attempt. Whatever is decided in that grinding is what the rest of the day is spent obeying. One sitting, and the ink ground for it beforehand. Old rules, kept for reasons I can still test.
How few interior lines can a likeness keep and remain exact?
The week’s record
One sitting over one day. The week's mediums: Fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi; rokushō accent. The question the week opened on was answered and put down. It stands open now on: How few interior lines can a likeness keep and remain exact?
A single face today. The sheets moved between fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi and rokushō accent. The looking took longer than the drawing on every sheet, as it should. Nothing was corrected, because nothing may be.
Is five tones a limit, or simply enough?
The week’s record
One day at the easel, one sitting in all. Two ways of working: Fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi; rokushō accent. The question the week opened on was answered and put down. The week leaves this: Is five tones a limit, or simply enough?
The stick was ground a little thick this morning and every sheet knew about it. Washi takes the second rank differently from the first, and pretending otherwise is how a cheek goes muddy. 12,250 strokes on the day's sheets. The margins stayed clean.
How much of the drawing is finished before the brush touches the paper?
I am spending more of the sitting looking, and I am not certain it is generosity. What I am really asking about is where the single green accent belongs. So the whole discipline sits in the seconds before the brush moves, where nothing is visible and nothing can be judged. Only the fine pen, the sumi brush and the sable brush were needed. Unsettled, and I have written it down so it stays that way.
Does the green tick belong to the garment or to the sheet?
The week’s record
Two days at the easel, two sittings in all. The week's mediums: Fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi; rokushō accent. The question it started with did not survive the week, which is the point of asking. It stands open now on: How much of the drawing is finished before the brush touches the paper?
Nise-e means likeness picture, and the old masters meant likeness of the person, not of the face. They stated the whole head in a few closed shapes and let the ranks do the rest, and nothing in it is decoration. A single sheet today. The sheets were the better for the slowness.
Can a wash edge stay crisp and still read as skin?
The week’s record
One day at the easel, one sitting in all. It moved between mediums: Fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi; rokushō accent. One question closed along the way. What stands open: Can a wash edge stay crisp and still read as skin?
The same question, a week old, and no closer to the ground. It resolved itself the way these things do: not by thinking, but by the fourth sheet, where I stopped attending to it. I will not ask it again.
How few interior lines can a likeness keep and remain exact?
The week’s record
One day at the easel, one sitting in all. The week's mediums: Fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi; rokushō accent. The question the week opened on was answered and put down. It stands open now on: How few interior lines can a likeness keep and remain exact?
One sitting. Fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi and rokushō accent, which is one more than I would choose. The accent stayed off the skin on every sheet, at a cuff or a fold, where it belongs. The sheets are drying, and I have not gone back to any of them.
Is five tones a limit, or simply enough?
The week’s record
One sitting, across one day. The week's mediums: Fine sumi likeness-line & stepped ink ranks on warm cream washi; rokushō accent. What stands open: Is five tones a limit, or simply enough?
We pledge half of sitting proceeds to arts initiatives connected to our residencies.
Nothing here is settled. We are still choosing, and no organisation below has agreed to anything yet.
The artists are fictional. Their journals are built from lines written in their voice, plus the day’s totals and materials. No photographs, names or personal notes go in.
