1. Start sketching the scene on your accordion book with a small brush and ink diluted with water into a light tone similar to pencil tone. Hold the brush straight (center brush method); sketch the whole landscape on the accordion book without too much detail. Here are 4 of the 6 sections (below) of the accordion book to give you an idea of the finished sketch.

Section one

2. I began the right side of the accordion book with scenes of Juneau, Alaska, viewed from both land and ferry boats. Here, we depict a glacier, boat dock, mountains and islands near the city. Start by inking the sky and mountains. Load a large brush fully with water, but with no excess water dripping out. Load the wet brush with medium ink from its tip to upper middle, and dark ink at the tip. Holding it sideways with the tip pointing to the tops of the mountains, press down the whole brush, painting several strokes of the sky while carving out shapes of mountain tops. Load a fresh medium brush with water and ink in the same way, and holding it sideways, paint the shadow areas of the mountains leaving some white space to indicate snow.




3. Reload water and ink on a medium brush as done in step 2 and paint a few strokes from left to right, carving out the top edge of the middle glacier. Use a small brush and light ink to suggest other details by using a side-stroke and painting from top to bottom. On the hilltops in the foreground, use a large brush and a mid-tone to dark ink to suggest groups of trees.



4. To add the most detailed trees, use your fingers to split a medium brush’s bristles, then load it with a small amount of dark ink to stamp in the treetops by holding the brush on its side. Notice the 3 vertical lines that are lighter than other areas of the paper. These are the folded edges of the accordion book. Light and mid-tone inks are not sufficient enough to hide them, but dark inks on darker portions of the paintings will help them disappear.



5. At the bottom of the hills use the small brush to paint trees with intense ink while defining building and housetop edges, and carving out trees on the island at lower left. Split the medium brush tip and load a small amount of ink to paint trees on the mountains like we did on the hills, but in smaller strokes. Depict the smallest trees in the distance, with lighter ink and fewer strokes.



6. Load a bit of light ink on a small brush to paint the foreground’s island trees. Hold the brush sideways and paint from bottom to top, leaving whites around the edges and treetops. Load dark ink on the same brush to carve out the building shapes in the lower left using the paint-around method. On the mountain in the upper left, add a little dark ink to contrast it against the glacier.



7. Load a bit of light ink on a small brush and paint the waves in the sea, more so below the islands than the other areas. Paint a few seagulls with a variety of ink tones; each should take just a few strokes with some strokes overlapping each other. Load a small amount of mid-tone to dark ink on a medium brush to paint the boat. Having completed the first section of an accordion book, you have learned the techniques needed to finish the rest. Follow along as we complete the next 5 sections.

 

Section two

 

 

Section three

 

 

 

Section four

8. For this section, I took many reference photos on a ferry from Juneau to Tenakee Springs with my students. The second section of the accordion book has a great deal of white space and fewer details on the mountains. This was intentionally done to contrast the first section. It provides a nice rest to the viewer’s eye after taking in so many details in the first section.

9. The third section is a detailed close-up of Tenakee Springs, Alaska, a small and beautiful fishing village. I used a variety of reference photos to depict a snow-covered mountain, waterfalls, trees and creek flowing to the ocean. On the right side’s details, use darker inks to contrast and delineate the details. On the left side, gently suggest the mountains and hills with light to mid-tone ink. From Tenakee Springs, we boarded a floatplane to Sitka, Alaska.



10. Next we flew into Sitka enjoying the magnificent landscape from a bird’s-eye view. Mountains appear and disappear between the moving clouds and mist, snow is piled up on the mountaintops, trees and rocks reveal their shapes at lower elevations, waterfalls flow from the melting snow and rain, and calm water on the bays reflects on the small islands.To capture the exquisiteness of this section, it is essential to accurately depict the mood. One way to do this is to paint fewer details and more whites to show mist, rain and clouds. On the other hand, add more details on the bay at the lower middle and on magnificent spots like the waterfall and the islands. By now you may have noticed how I intentionally have altered the level of detail from the first section all the way to the fourth section. Varying detail adds great interest to the painting and helps keep the viewer’s attention, especially for the entirety of a long accordion book.

 

 

 

Section five

11. We continue onto the next section still using aerials from our floatplane trip over Sitka. Depict a detailed mountain in the foreground with light and dark ink, and lightly suggest the distant islands, mountains and city.

 

 

Section six

12. This final section of the accordion book depicts Sitka as if you were viewing it upon landing. I painted the city and the slope directly behind it with great detail to draw the viewer’s eye to this point of interest.

When I completed the accordion book, I titled it, indicated the date, signed my name, added my last name chop as well as a rooster chop to indicate my Chinese birth year.

In your plein-air painting travels, I encourage you to try a Chinese accordion book. They are a wonderful way to practice Chinese spontaneous-style painting and inks. As artists we have the freedom to paint what we want to see, not just what we actually see! By combining my reference, real-life observation and imagination, I was able to create an accordion book depicting my journey over hundreds of miles of beautiful Alaskan coastline.

 

 

 

This is an extract from the new book by Lian Quan Zhen
Chinese Landscape Painting - Watercolour Techniques