Sumi Ink: Creating Marks and Textures

Learn how Jessica Matier, a mixed media artist, creates her emotional abstract paintings using Sumi ink, acrylic, and pastel. You will uncover the many ways you can use Sumi ink to create a variety of marks and textures that will transform into your own abstract paintings. This class is great for graphic designers, illustrators, hobbyists, or any creative person interested in painting.

What to Expect...

We will explore the materiality Sumi ink along with acyrlic and pastels.

In this class you will leave with 4 original paintings. I am an abstract artist so I will be sticking to what I know, but feel free to use this class to build representational paintings or any image that is relevant to your practice.

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Supply List for Video 2

• hot or cold-pressed watercolor paper*
• yupo paper*
• hake brushes*
• watercolor brushes
• Sumi ink
• dish for Sumi ink
• water for rinsing brushes
• mark makers, any household items
• paper towels
• regular towel*

*If you want to hang your paintings together I would advise you to use the same size. Yupo generally comes in 9x12 inches.

*I strongly recommend you buy a hake brush. If you want to purchase only one I recommend buying a medium size with a short handle in order to achieve those “special” brush strokes.

*You can buy white hand towels from Ikea for 50 cents.

Optional items

• acrylic paint (I like Golden.)
• palette knife
• acrylic brushes
• a palette or palette paper
• soft pastels (I use Sennelier.)

*I know I mentioned that the Hake brush is not 100% necessary...but it actually is.  You'll miss too many opportunities to create beautiful marks without it!

NOTE: In video 3 you will see that I opt to use the back of an old painting to create my mark library. Feel free to save some used paper and do the same! Just make sure the type of paper you use is similar to the one you will use to create your paintings in videos 5 and 6.

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Video 3

Creating your mark and texture library.

In this video, we will create a "library" of marks and textures that will serve as a visual reference later on. I recommend hanging this in your workspace while you create your paintings in the next video.

You will need a hake brush, a medium watercolor brush, Sumi ink, paper, a water vessel, and any other tools you wish to use to create marks.

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Video 4

Creating your first and second painting on watercolor paper.

Please allow solid 1-2 hours to complete this video.  Be gentle with yourself and please don't give up on your painting and start over.  There have been many paintings I've made that I hated. I still shared them and was surprised by the response.  Don't let your self-criticism rob the world of your work.

Please share your paintings (regardless of how ugly you think they are) in the project gallery, on Instagram (Don't forget to tag me and add #SumiInk101 to your post.), or email them to me at [email protected].

These are ROUGH drafts. No one is expecting perfection!

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Video 5

Painting on yupo paper.

The two paintings you'll create in this video will be on yupo paper.  Please allow plenty of time for them to dry. To get the most out of this lesson it is best to begin painting a large black shape and create most of the image by wiping the ink away using a paper or regular towel. Yupo is also great to disply the fluidity of water based materials.  Do not be timid with your marks on yupo.

Please share your paintings (regardless of how ugly you think they are) in the project gallery, on Instagram (Don't forget to tag me and add #SumiInk101 to your post.), or email them to me at [email protected].

These are ROUGH drafts. No one is expecting perfection!

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Video 6

Adding color to your black and white paintings.

As I've mentioned in the previous videos this lesson is completely optional. However, I do recommend taking a look to see all of the wonderful possibilities that adding color has to offer.  You can choose to add color to half of your paintings, experiment with one, or none at all!

There is a considerable amount of footage that has been sped up. Please take your time to pause the video if you need to follow along with me while you paint.

*I apologize for the shakiness during parts of the video. I tend to press down hard and my work table is on wheels.*

Please share your paintings (regardless of how ugly you think they are) in the project gallery, on Instagram (Don't forget to tag me and add #SumiInkWithJessica to your post.), or email them to me at [email protected].

Please support your #SumiInk101 community and leave feedback for two other students. If you run into any trouble throughout the class please email me at [email protected]. Thanks for joining me in my first Skillshare class and good luck!

• What To Expect
• Supplies You'll Need
• Creating Your Mark and Texture Library
• Putting Your Marks and Texture Together - Creating Your First (and Second) Painting
• Painting on Yupo Paper
• Adding Color
• End Notes