Chinese brush painting and Japanese sumi-e painting are black-and-white painting techniques dating back thousands of years. Japanese and Middle Eastern artists were developing watercolor techniques long before the medium became popular in Europe. While originally employing black ink and water, Oriental black-and-white painting methods are easily adapted to the Western tradition of watercolor painting. Instead of bamboo brushes, black ink and rice paper, contemporary painters substitute watercolor brushes, paint and paper.
Soak a sheet of heavy watercolor paper in water for about 15 minutes. Tape it to a drawing board with butcher's tape to stretch it and prevent later buckling. Use 140-pound paper or heavier. Choose a smooth hot-pressed paper for intricate detail work and fine shading. Select toothy cold-pressed or rough paper for looser, more stylized or abstract pictures.
Use a watercolor pan palette to mix up puddles of ivory black, mars black or lamp black paint. Mix up three pools of paint. Make the first one dark by adding only a a few dabs of water to the paint. Create a middle-tone value by adding a brushful or two of water to the paint. Thin out the third puddle with more water to create the lightest value of paint.
Sketch out a composition on the paper using a small,pointed brush and the lightest value paint. Make a highly detailed drawing, or just rough in a general design. Work from dark to light in the picture. Block in the basic forms and shapes of the picture with washes of the lightest value paint using a large, round or flat brush.
Brush in washes by transfering a puddle of paint to the paper. Maneuver and spread the puddle of paint across the paper. Lay in graded washes to suggest depth. Add more black to the wash as you paint, so it grades from a light to a dark tone. Define the elements of your picture with the middle-tone paint. Use a soft-bristle brush for fluid strokes. Use the darkest paint to suggest shadows.
Work to achieve a balanced harmony of black and white tones in the painting. Think and paint in terms of value and tone instead of color. Dip one side of the brush in the dilute paint, another side in the middle-tone and another in the darkest paint. Create a single brush stroke containing different tones of black paint. Use contrasting values to indicate the effects of light and shadow. Juxtapose areas of pure black and snowy white to increase the contrast.
