Mixed Media – Page 9 – The Consulting Artist

The Chinese Art of Listening

I’m in the middle of preparing some illustrations for a client, one of which needs to represent good service. I got stuck for ideas, so I asked Twitter for some visual cues to help describe what good service looks like. Among the replies, Meg Peppin suggested that because good service comes from paying attention, I should explore the Chinese symbols for listening. My curiosity aroused, off I went – and here is my attempt at representing what I found.

Ears are represented in the top left, eyes in the top right. In the bottom right we have the heart, separated from eyes by a line representing focus, and in the bottom left we have the mind. Together they stand for wholehearted listening, paying full attention. I struggled making this with acrylic paint and a stuff brush so I had another go with a bottle of black ink.

The shapes flowed better this time though I was still using the same stiff brush. Lastly, I returned to some acrylic paint and had a go at abstracting the characters representing focus and heart. This time I made a thick mix of paint and tried to create some depth in the shapes I painted. You may be able to see this effect better in the close up picture.

Nature’s Last Stand

A continuation of my experiment with a very narrow palette of colours.

My friend Tim Baker posted this photo on Facebook recently:

Alongside it he wrote: I pass by this tree many times during the week. I finally snapped a pic. About 40 feet to it’s left the sprawl of residential development is looming. To me it represents nature’s last stand. It’s all but given up; it refuses to fall. So sad to see so much of our beautiful land disappearing.

His photograph got me thinking – and I sketched a response to it which you can see here, mounted and unmounted:

I drew this using a black Staedtler fineliner and some Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. Three shades of grey, and a blue. I sneaked in a tiny hint of yellow ink too – just to give the picture a point of contrast. The mounted sketch is on its way to Tim, I’m grateful to him for the inspiration.

Landscaping

I found myself in London with a little spare time last Friday. I had with me an Aquash brush, some watercolour pans, two or three water colour pencils and a small mount. I sketched this landscape in about half an hour. It’s night time in the picture, the hills in the distance are supposed to have lots of trees on them, and I was trying to create an effect of moonlight, both through a lightly cloudy sky and on the water. Given I didn’t have much time and only basic materials – I think the end product is OK. I gave the picture away as a birthday card later that evening.