by Painting in ink is not about making things perfect, rather, letting your brush do the talking. A good course in ink painting will soon teach you that it is not just about creating a picture, but about unleashing something brash and wild and very personal. You won’t be confined to rules. Rather, you will immerse yourself in the world in which the ink flows in an unpredictable way and your brush may express more than spoken words. It is the art in which the freedom is in the centre, and each brushstroke creates new possibilities. Learn what students really achieve, discover the truth behind results.
The simplicity of an ink painting course is its beauty. You begin with the simplities–a brush, a piece of paper and some ink. You do not require an elaborate collection of materials, but simply the desire to experiment. The initial couple of cases may be a bit painful as you get used to the brush and to manipulation of the ink. But you will be moving along with it soon enough. You will begin to think of the paper as a playground in which all the errors, all the blots, are an integral part of the composition. It is about trying out pressure, speed and direction. It is not to control the ink but to allow it to be a surprise.
An ink course of painting is one of the most thrilling courses which teach you to think in a different way concerning art. You will not be thinking of duplicating a scene or copying specific patterns. You will learn instead to study the world around you and ask yourself, How can I get the essence of this in one stroke? It is all about igniting the imagination. You can find out how to express all these feelings in a few flowing lines, whether it is the manner in which a tree is leaning or the sunlight striking the water. Ink painting is when you need to have faith in your instinct and leave the brush to do the work.
It may get a bit messy in the process, and that is the idea. Beauty in the flaws is much. Ink splats and drips, and what do you think? And that is when it becomes interesting. A teacher will teach you how an apparently accidental spot may become something beautiful. You will understand that the problem with ink painting is to accept the messiness. The brush may jump the track, that is when you make it your own. Every painting is a tale of your own. And there is something deeply liberating in being out of the struggle of making a perfect work.
You will be surprised at how you have developed as an artist by the time the course will be finished. The lessons will not only have taught you how to use a brush, but they will have made you look at the world differently. You will begin to see all those little things, how light and shadow interact, how texture can turn around a scene, how basic lines can be used to express emotion. Ink painting is not something to be learned or taught, it is how to see, feel and express things which lie deeper than the surface. And the best part? That new creativity can be carried anywhere. The experience does not come to an end with the course but is the start.