May - Week 4

Written 04/06/2025

Final piece!

Lady Lighting Blossoms At Night

Goauche and ink painting of a woman in a park in the night with her phone as the only light source. The woman has a slight glow around her. The blossoms are bright pink.

The theme

Ooof, what is the theme? Get this out asap? I suppose the beauty of blossom and how colour can come through the night :)

Thoughts on the process

I have.. complex feelings about this process. I felt kind of lost this month (not helped by having other things going on, it felt like I didn't have time but really I just didn't make the time). And I struggle with really getting myself stuck into something new, weird for an artist to say but it's like the friction of learning sometimes feels like too much and it's hard to push through it. But once I DID push through it I actually enjoyed it, even if the results weren't necessarily what I was hoping for. Ugh, I just wish there was one single comprehensive resource for ukiyo-e (at first I was confused on whether it was simply an artstyle or the full woodblock process)

The final piece itself only took me a day, it was only half an A4 piece of paper in size so pretty small but it was also a degree of wanting to get it done. I do think that may have compromised it's quality as I could have made new gate carvings to be neater and done more layers of painting to get a smoother colour. But that said I don't dislike it and it shows... basic competence? (A bit backhanded but I mean in the sense that even if it's not my best' it is still 'good')

You can see the progression of the piecehere

Comparison with inspiration

Goauche and ink painting of a woman in a park in the night with her phone as the only light source. The woman has a slight glow around her. The blossoms are bright pink.
A night time scene of a young woman in a garden of cherry blossoms, holding a paintbrush and paper

As you can see, besides the obvious fact that mine is flatter, there is a lot less shading in mine and perhaps a less focused light source (I really struggle with light sources!). I think the big thing I regret is having the blossom fill the whole of the top of the paper rather than just half or so. I do think the pink really shines compared to the rest of the dark background in a similiar-ish way the red pops in Katsushika Ōi's.

I think you can see the influence, with the similiar composition (though mine is 'modernised' with a mobile phone) and setting. I am happy that I was able to convey that it's nighttime with only a small amount of sky visible. Though I do feel like I should have been braver and used more black, my fear had been that the black would overwhelm so I tended to use brown to darken the colours and I didn't add as many shadows as I should have so I think mine looks a little 'muddy' unfortunately. (This is something that if I had given myself more time likely would have been solved through layering).

I think the woodblock printing aspect was done decently well, given my lack of experience but I think I forgot that this specific painting is very soft in its lines and is more about the shading so it may not have been necessary (yay for hindsight and not panic researching, ugh possible ADHD you annoying thing!)