Single But Not Simple

 Last night, when everyone else had fallen asleep, I got up from bed to paint a riverbank picture based on a rapid sketch I did from life using a ballpoint pen. This time, I chose to paint in the Chinese ink and wash style using sumi ink on a piece of rice paper. I thought this would be easier than watercolour since it only uses one colour—black.

However, I soon realized this was a misconception. The brush was hard to control, especially the water level. If the brush contained too much water, the lines would become too thick. If the brush contained too little water, the lines would not be solid. Furthermore, if the background was painted first, the rice paper would become too wet to be used for drawing the foreground objects.

When a painting contains only one colour, the ratio of ink to water in the brush determines the light and shadow, as well as the depiction of objects in different colours. Therefore, it is much more challenging to represent a complex world this way.

A long time ago, I thought the recorder was a musical instrument that was easier than the bamboo flute simply because it lacks the degree of adjustment offered by embouchure. However, losing that degree of adjustment means you have to achieve effects through a limited number of ways to adjust, which is also challenging from another perspective.