Sumi-e is the Asian art of ink and brush landscape painting. Sumi-e is a style of art that is said to express the essence of objects through the use of pure black Sumi-e ink against white rice paper. It's an art form that can take a lifetime to master. With practice and patience, you can paint in the Sumi-e style and slowly start to craft a complex black and white landscape.
Make the ink for your painting. Sprinkle several drops of water on the ink stone. Press the tip of your stick against the wet stone and move it in gentle circles across the surface of the stone. Moving the stick over the stone is considered a meditative process where you been to contemplate the composition of your landscape. As you move the stick, it releases some of the soot from the stone into the water and creates your ink. You will need about a quarter-size amount of ink for your small landscape. Dip the tip of the brush into the ink.
Draw bamboo onto the right corner of your rice paper. Bamboo is considered the first of the four strokes called the Four Gentlemen that you must master to learn Sumi-e. Set the tip of the brush at the bottom of your piece of rice paper and pull the brush up and lift to the midpoint of your paper. Repeat this movement next to the line you just painted until you have a clump of bamboo. Dip your brush into the ink and use the tip to dot small leaves at intermittent intervals along your stalks of bamboo.
Draw wild orchids in scattered locations on the lower half of your rice paper. The wild orchid is considered the second stroke of the Four Gentleman. Dip your brush into the ink and set it on the paper where you'd like your first orchid drawn. Use the same movement you used to draw the bamboo, pull the brush up and lift, but turn the brush as you move to create a petal. Repeat this movement to create all three petals of your orchid. Repeat this step to create several orchids across your paper.
Go several inches above your top orchid and draw your horizon. Dip your brush into the ink and pull it horizontally along your paper, adding a few bumps to create a natural-looking line. You now have a basic Sumi-e landscape painting with bamboo in the foreground of a hill of wild orchids.
