Oh Glenn, I am basically thinking the same thing. I admire Goseki Koshima’s work whose ink and wash landscapes go very much in the direction you point, I guess.
hard to find examples on the web, but here’s a few:
The watercolor experiment I mentioned above (the one I ruined) was based on a Lone Wolf and Cub scene with added environment by me to try a few Nita Engle techniques.
I repaired the ripped paper surface parts in Gimp and added twigs and black shapes on the figures in Painter.
Ich liebe das! Sehr nett und frisch- mehr, bitte! 
I could see it as a CD cover. Keep experimenting, I’m enjoying seeing your results…
Hi Mu, the watercolour experiment looks great. The textured colour creates an interesting contrast with the black figures. I picked up this book secondhand a while ago, which seems to use the same watercolour technique you’ve described. I was thinking of trying it out myself but so far have only bought some masking fluid to use. Nita Engle’s paintings look incredible.
Hi clippy,
more to follow.
Aviva,
that looks like a nice book! I like the “six laws” chapter.
Rebecca,
yea, the moment I ruined it was especially shocking, but what the hell. I’ll keep going and eventually post more watercolours in here.
Inspired by Nita Engles texturing techniques as well as by her playful approach in general I decided to apply this to ink.
I wanted to just play with the ink and see what kinds of textures I could make the ink form.
I tried
and so on, both wet and dry.
I was so amazed at how many many different textures you can produce with black ink and one brush! **** alchemy!
Where the patterns inspired me to draw something with the textures as a starting point I did. Maybe I can learn to control the variuos texture techniques so much that I can start with a drawing and add the chaos afterwards!
We shall see.
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Wow I’m always so impressed by your creative ways of trying out new stuff.
Pretty nice to see this analog version of “Alchemy” happening 
And I should do this properly:
Congratulations to you and the Mrs with the birth of your son Mio!
Wishing you and yours the very best.
thanks a lot Johan! We’re all fine and the little one is as cute as a… newborn…
I tried to put to use some of the texture techniques as well as the blowing technique by Lian Quan Zhen (for the tree in the foreground. You can see it in action on youtube, I posted the link in Aviva’s thread).
I am basically still looking for a way to really place figures into a working environment. Figures, environment, figures, environment, until one day I can tell a character driven story with believable backgrounds.
I am not sure wether I should rely on ink for the backgrounds, too, add watercolor into the media mix or whatever.
black and white ink, from ref.
bit of structural work for a change. Slowly digging my way through a copy of Hogarth’s book about heads.
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Wow, Mu, really impressed with that last b/w drawing and the jaw! Great stuff, keep going.
I don’t know who you are, but get off Rebecca’s account! I’ll let her know there’s something wrong!
Or is that really you Rebecca? I am somehow missing the hidden whipping, the subtle kicks in the butt…
They say we grow soft when we get older…hihi…
thank you.
Lol, I am growing soft in many ways Mu 
but mainly, I think you’re doing a good job, I’m allowed to say so, no?
Oh, you are.
But with drawing/painting my first reaction on being complimented for stuff is disbelief.
*sigh.
Actually, growing softer is a good thing, btw. That’s the main objective in my taichi training, too.
In that post you were basically all ying… 
Nice to know you are still watching this. If you someday find me eagerly digging a hole into the wrong part of the beach here, please feel free to mark my treasure map with a new fat red X anytime!
:love:
Looks interesting. Maybe I would be careful with putting strokes on faces, as they are easily can be percepted as injury or like that. Otherwise I like your graphical approach.
Hey mister3d
thanks for the comment. I guess you’re right. In this case I started with the ambiguous strokes and the faces came afterwards and as the chaotic process does not make for consistent lighting the shades turn into injuries or just spots.
Maybe I can harness the chaos in my next attempts.
Hi there Mu
Glad to pop back to your exciting corner on this forum :wavey:
Been looking through your last pages of silhouette inkings and life drawings, it’s great to see the experimentation and variation you show
And… congratulations on your new arrival How exciting 
cheers and take care
a.
Hello everybody!
still there and also here and there taking a peek at your threads.
Stressful time again and again, preparing my going full time solo artist and all - I’m terrified and delighted by that decision, so I’ll occasionally pop in here to release a bit of stress…
I got oil brushes as a birthday present and figured I should give oil another try (which was the way the present was meant).
From a ref which does not resemble this painting at all anymore. Also the left eye. Argh. Moreover, I wanted to do a verdacchio and try glazing, but even though I thinned that stuff down like hell it would still just sit on top! So, I left it at the few strokes on the cheek and nose. Don’t know what went wrong there. Any ideas anyone? Maybe it was my mixing the alizarin crimson with titanium white (=op.)?
But how am I going to make use of a lighter red for glazes if I can’t mix with white?
anyway:
(the rainbow streaks are from the foil I used to protect my scanner… )
Wow… fulltime artist! Sounds like a dream to me
Anyway, great to hear you are taking the plonge Mu!
I am missing a bit of the far cheeckbone on the portrait. that being said, the flesh underneath it, looks a bit too thick, so chop that piece off and paste it on the cheekbone
I like the look in the eyes though… kinda dreamy and mysterious…
Great to hear from you Mu
All the best!
Hi Johan,
yeah, you’re right about the issues. It was a child’s portrait! Just to show you how far I have landed off the mark…
About my artist’s leap: It’s also a nightmare, anxiety-wise…
cya
Mu
Hey Mu, Congrats for new baby! Took the plunge into living the solo artist life. Will be watching your development.
As for the painting, just let it dry before mixing & applying layers. If you wanted an underlayer area to shine transparently thru top layer, ya may just have to paint underlayer with a white mix, let dry and then paint your glaze. That’s what I love about oils, they are quite forgiving and workable to quite a depth.
The best to you in your endeavor!
Hello Esmeralda!
For this I wanted to try and follow Mark Behms workflow he showed here, for example.
I wanted to give oils a try in order to be able to go from dark to light mostly without glazes, but I’ll check any technique out and see what happens.
Another one before I go back to pen and ink sometime soon.
Loosely based on a Rembrandt ref, still mostly checking out the handling of oil colours. Used titanium white, ivory black, alizarin crimson and burnt umber for this.
