Customer Reviews
The next best thing to a brush painting instructor! 
2008-08-17
Calligraphy and brush painting are not easy to learn WITH an instructor; learning from a book is daunting at best. Yolanda Mayhall's book is as close to having an instructor as any I have found - and I have tried many books. Her style is informative without being pedantic, guiding gently without drifting into boredom.
If you take nothing else away from reading her book, you will realize that art is not "taught", it must be appreciated, understood, to be learned. Like a foreign language, sumi-e demands inspection and appreciation before you can begin to replicate it! Even those who can read printed Japanese will have difficulty understanding how the strokes are created. Those impoverished by a lifetime of penmanship will find the basics of "brushmanship" as foreign as Japanese language!
Never fear! This book will lead you gently through the process. From preparing ink to holding the brush to creating those first tentative strokes, this teacher is at your side. She will guide you through the strokes of the "four gentlemen" at the core of brush art. Bamboo leaves will give way to the orchids, birds, mountains and waterfalls all illustrated s0 beautifully in her book.
Remember that brushwork requires practice. I have used many a fat Sunday newspaper as an inexpensive substitute for rice paper (a point worth remembering to all the "grasshoppers" out there). Practice makes perfect. Yolanda will inspire you to practice and lead you through the levels until you could paint bamboo in your sleep! I have yet to find a live teacher who can inspire me to improve my brushstrokes like Yolanda can in her book.
Sumi-E Book 2007-01-16
If you are new to Japanese brush art work and want to learn the technique, this is the book to start with!
Not a beginners book 2007-01-05
If you're a beginning Sumi-e painter you might want to wait on purchasing this book until you're more comfortable with the basics of brush loading and color gradiation.
This book tends to avoid going into detail about the intricacies of brush loading and the importance of your paper quality and it's absorbency.
If you are a beginner looking for a solid book that explains in alot more detail the four gentlemen and the importance of your brushes quality and methods for loading the brush, buy "Japanese Ink Painting: Beginner's Guide to Sumi-E" (Paperback) by Susan Frame. It's a marvelous book with alot of great examples and step by step instruction as well as some history and excercises you can do to become more comfortable with your brushes.
Easy-to-read beginners guide with lots of examples 2006-07-02
Personally I am also interested in using colour in my sumi-e works, this guide only has black and white. But the images are just beautiful. Hope I reach that level soon!
Sumi-E--A good place to start 2006-06-28
After exactly two lessons in watercolor and an appetite to learn more precise brush strokes I purchased Sumi-E. I immediately was able to make headway using the carefully written examples shown in this lovely book even without purchasing the precise Japanese brushes. I highly recommend it.
The Sumi-E Book 2005-09-26
Sumi-e, translated from Japanese as "ink picture," is an ideal vehicle for teaching art to any beginner. This introduction to Sumi-e is organized simply and clearly around its four basic brush strokes. 120 illustrations.
Practical book for beginning sumi-e painters 2003-01-03
This is a very practical book for the beginning student of Chinese or Japanese brush painting. Clear, simple and precise illustrations show how to execute the traditional"four gentlemen"- bamboo, orchid, chrysanthemum, and plum. Students will learn such important concepts as how to achieve depth by double dipping the brush into a darker tone of ink, how to achieve movement by varying the pressure on the brush and how to achieve texture by varying the amount of moisture in the brush. The bonuses of this book are the examples of other forms one can make using related strokes. For example, after mastering the bamboo leaves one can easily paint a bird, lizard, or butterfly. After mastering the orchid leaves one can use the same strokes to paint fish, underwater grasses, and water lilies. Once students gain confidence they can naturally go on to master tiger lilies, rocks, mountains, and pine trees, all beautifully illustrated in this book.
...
"as clear as a mountain brook " 2000-08-13
In all honesty, Sumi-E is best learned from a teacher in a live workshop. The combination of exacting brushstrokes, meditative attitude & free, almost unconscious, expression is difficult to take out of a book alone. Sumi-E has an intimate connection to Zen practices. But that said, in the absence of a teacher, Yolanda Mayhall's book is the best I've seen. Her purpose here is to get you started on the right path - & in Sumi-E, the right path means everything.
The "Four Gentleman" brushstrokes & their basic variations are the substance of The Sumi-E Book. Bamboo, Wild Orchid, Chrysanthemum & Plum Branch represent "all the forms in the universe." One could endlessly write haiku on those four natural forms, so why not paintings, too?
This book is as clear as a mountain brook & as gentle as a breeze. Successfully achieving a bamboo branch & leaf (& you will succeed) is enough to draw you onward down that right path. Even children can grasp the basics of these strokes using inexpensive brushes & watercolors, & they will wonder at the simplicity of it.
Just as poets return again & again to haiku in order to sharpen their observation skills & sense of economy, all artists will reap large benefits from the spare, mono-chromatic beauty of Sumi-E that will enrich your other mediums & quiet your mind as well.
Highly recommended.
Bob Rixon
Sumi-e Sense for Beginners 1999-11-28
I highly recommend Yolanda Mayhall's book for those who want to ease into bamboo ink painting for pleasure. I had heard that learning how to paint the "four gentlemen" (bamboo, chrysanthemum, plum blossom, and orchid) would give me the strokes I need to do any painting. As a beginner, I didn't fully realize the meaning of this until I discovered Mayhall's book. She has specific, simple instructions on doing the basic strokes. Then she has "Related Strokes" sections in her book. There she shows how these simple strokes can be used to paint a variety of subjects from dragons to squirrels to people. My brush is freer and my range of subjects wider sense discovering her book.
A book that is a work of art in itself. 1999-11-13
I highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to start doing Japanese Sumi-e Painting. I had to learn all by myself, and I must say that this book in particular has made my journey a little more easier. I found the Authores-Painter very professional in the way that she always tries,with her step by step method, to make it easy for the beginner to get along. It is so well explained, that you just can't go wrong. On the other hand, I also think that this beautiful book is in itself a Work Of Art, due to that the paintings you find inside are unique, very personal, and not a patterned copy. I heartily thank the friend who gave it to me, and have always wished it had a second part.
