An attempt at a Chinese Water Colour look

[Wavelength]

Excellent images... all of them

[marlunn]

Christina, I like them, for me #2 is the one that gets close to the mark. I think its a conceptual look rather than a direct comparison around the 'Chinese' 'Japanese' watercolour style. (I think a painting artist would describe it as a 'school' or 'movement' ?), but also like those styles its a relaxed and 'go with the flow' thing rather than a 'forced or deliberate' style so I would say carry on and relax let it flow and see what you get. The subject matter is good.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Donna, Mike and Sherwood for your comments.

Mike - I'm typically to caught up in photographing the beautiful but indeed it is a tree with character and that is what captured my eye. It's a forlorn tree, full of stories to tell, and reaching out to the world with all those scraggly branches. I will visit here again and photograph it in different light, happy light.

Donna - Thank you for sharing why you like image #3. This was a first creative post processing try for me, and I have a lot to learn about water colours. The next time I try it it will be with suitable birds.

Sherwood - I appreciate that you noticed the moody feel. Thank you.

PS I replaced the 2nd image adding more contrast and saturation as suggested, and the 5th image with a more creatively processed version which eliminated a couple of the otters.

Thank you to all!

[Brownbear]

Thank you Nandakumar. Your encouragement is always appreciated.

Excellent images... all of them

[Brownbear]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I just got it into my head that I could copy the look of a few images I liked, with little knowledge of the subject matter. A better approach is to develop my own style and just know that I do like the look of Chinese watercolours. When I happen upon a suitable image, I'll just go with the flow and my own still developing vision and see where I end up.

Christina, I like them, for me #2 is the one that gets close to the mark. I think its a conceptual look rather than a direct comparison around the 'Chinese' 'Japanese' watercolour style. (I think a painting artist would describe it as a 'school' or 'movement' ?), but also like those styles its a relaxed and 'go with the flow' thing rather than a 'forced or deliberate' style so I would say carry on and relax let it flow and see what you get. The subject matter is good.

[joebranko]

I love #1. Don't know much about Chinese art, but I love #1. Its Stunning!!

[Brownbear]

Thank you Joe. Seems like the forlorn tree with character is the favourite.

I love #1. Don't know much about Chinese art, but I love #1. Its Stunning!!

[mknittle]

Thank you Joe. Seems like the forlorn tree with character is the favourite.

It has a beautiful simplicity about it.

[JBW]

It seems to me that your shots are made out of one piece of cloth. From what I know of C.W.C. they often look like the artist has used only part of the canvass?

[Brownbear]

Hi Brian,

Thank you for taking the time to share and advise. Do you mean that the CWC that you've seen contain more white space? If yes, I've seen that too but I've also seen pics of the image filling the canvas. Next week I'm going to pick up a couple of books that have been reserved for me, so I hope to learn more. I've also found a brush in photoshop that has a nice water colour effect but it does eliminate a lot of detail.

If the above is not what you mean, please explain as I need to learn more about this subject.

Thank you.

It seems to me that your shots are made out of one piece of cloth. From what I know of C.W.C. they often look like the artist has used only part of the canvass?

[JBW]

Hi Brian,

Thank you for taking the time to share and advise. Do you mean that the CWC that you've seen contain more white space? If yes, I've seen that too but I've also seen pics of the image filling the canvas. Next week I'm going to pick up a couple of books that have been reserved for me, so I hope to learn more. I've also found a brush in photoshop that has a nice water colour effect but it does eliminate a lot of detail.

If the above is not what you mean, please explain as I need to learn more about this subject.

Thank you.

You and I are on the same page. Though I see it not as 'more white space' so much as there are often areas where there are no details. Fascinating challenge to try to do it with photography.

[Brownbear]

Brian... Thank you for clarifying. Truly appreciated, and yes, the no detail/less detail seems to be a common theme.

Mark... Thank you for your kind comment. I forgot to reply earlier.

Here are is another more artistic try, as suggested by Chauncey using one of my Swan images. I found the artistic brushes in Photoshop and realized that this is something that is way over my head that will take me a long time to learn.

Version #1



Version #2 (Painted with a grainy brush and placed on a textured paper)



I do like the overall dreamy look but it is something that is going to take me a long time to learn to do well. My apologies in advance to any real painters viewing this image. These are simply learning attempts to share for the sake of learning.

Thank you to all. Sorry, but there will be no more artistic attempt of this kind from me for a while. I didn't realize how hard this was to do well.

[JBW]

You have already improved dramatically over your first attempts.

[IzzieK]

Christina, I am with Jack's comment and John (Shadowman)...the first one is closer to the what you wanted to achieve. #2 needs a bit more space to isolate the main subject in such a way that one can look at it further not as near as you had preferred to photograph it. The Japanese culture is an improvement from the old imperial China's culture i many ways, maybe you should depict just one culture and not the other. Just a thought.