How to Begin Sumi-e ink painting

Check out this video for a primer on Sumi-e painting. This video show you how to prepare your ink, table and brush to begin painting.

These are the supplies you will need: Brush(fude);bamboo body and weasel hair. Sumi bar;made from palm ash. Scratching table(Suzuri), and rice paper.

1. Scratch sumi bar with water. Until the good sumi until you can smell the sumi fragrance.

2. Make a brush: Grey ink first, black ink second. Control gradation with water

3. Draw the five color rainbow.

4. Draw a line with a laying brush. You can get a gradation naturally

After you can draw a sumi rainbow, red leaves, grape, and bamboo are the next step. You can apply the same technique of sumi rainbow drawing to those motifs.