Art Tools in the Far East
October 8th 2008 07:06
ART TOOLS
IN THE FAR EAST
I was looking for good examples of surimono to share with you when I found this Hokusai print showing the tools used by Hokusai and other artists.
A Hokusai Print
It is an excellent still life and shows all the essentials except rolls of paper.
The rectangular object in the foregorund and center is an inkstone with an inkstick lenaing on it. Painters in the Far East bought their ink with the pigment molded in a lozenge often with elegant calligraphy or images impressed on the top. The blue and white procelain jar in the bottom corner would probably be the water jar. Water was placed on the inkstoen and the inkstick dissolved into ink by rubbing the inkstick on the wet surfact with the ink accumulated at a well at one end.
At the back is the all importnat brush holder shoiwng a variety of brush sizes.
Some text books wrongly give the impression that many artists only used one brush for a entire painting included any added calligraphy but like Western artists although they did not use pencils both amatuer and professional painters had a variety of brushes ranging from large ones used for gluing paper and mounts or for background washes down to small slender pointed almost stiff brushes for calligraphy.
We think of Hokusai as primarily a designer but we should remember he drew also even if it was with a brush and not a pencil and that he is also known as a painter in Japanese with a style fusing elements of the styles of the Kano Nanga and Rimpa schools.
A final piece fo educational trivia.
Manga origianlly referred to sketches.
Hokusai was famous for his prints and paintings and book illustrations but one thing he was famous particularly for iwithn his life time was his publication of "how to" example books of his MANGA sketches for the benefit of younger artists!
Hokusai's work shows how drawing is design!
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