The Old Pine

My version of Qing Gaozong's Old Pine:

The Old Pine
Ink on Shuen Rice Paper.
The little brown sliver on the left of the image is part of the wood block holding the paper down.

Painting the twisting nature of the pine was interesting, it was a simple lesson in remembering not to cross certain lines. I tried to take extra care with the needles - trying to keep larger needle strokes near the center of the bunches and smaller needle strokes on the outside.

I started the painting with very light ink and then added darker inks in layers. The final layer was black ink with a wet brush for the tree's edges. The bark texture is a mix of black ink - dry brush and light grey ink - wet brush.

Writer's Workshop - 06-03-09

Here's an interesting writing idea from Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop: write your own obituary. Sounds fun so I'll give it a whirl.

Ink's Obituary
With solemn words, we regret to inform the public of the passing of Ink at 183 years of age. He was in the National Aquarium in Baltimore where he was shot by an old friend who was angered by his 'The Rolling Stones suck' comment, subsequentlly falling into the mako shark tank and while being devoured the building was hit by a meteor. Twice.

Ink led an interesting full of wonder and mischief. As everyone is aware of he made some startling discoveries in the areas of Science, Technology, and Art. His anti-aging pill helped to eliminate the ravages of old age while simultaneously increasing the 'mad scientist' gene in all who imbibed it. His invention of flying cars that runs on weasel-power (a renewable energy resource) helped to lead the way to cleaner and weaselier future.

At one point in his life he began experimenting with the gravitational constant of mass and found how to create black holes around grains of sand. Unfortunately, this technology was banned when an experiment conducted by many people affected by his anti-aging pill went awry and half of France was obliterated... the bad half. (sorry France!) Oddly enough, at that time croissant sandwich stock went through the roof making many people rich.

His love of painting shone by many thousands of paintings that he painted. With paint. He also contributed to quite a few charities such as Defenders of Wildlife, St. Jude's Childrens Hospital, NRDC, Mad Scientists of America, Weasel Weekly, and Fringe Science for Fun and Profit. He also helped to found the financial magazine, Croissanting: Investing Wisely in Pastry Futures.

He is survived by many pissed-off weasels.